After filling my 24 foot truck up with stuff last year I ended up at the I-80 Pilot gas station for a fuel stop. Being my first time at a 18 wheeler truck stop, I was unfamiliar with the pay before you pump procedures. The problem was I looked like I knew. I had found a cowboy hat that only true bullrideing type cowboys wear. I was covered in the Tuesday dust storm. I had a crusty bandanna hanging from my neck(this year-TANK GOGGLES/SCARVES!). I looked every inch the redneck. So nobody dared insult me by telling me how to fill out the diesel buying forms. In fact they didnt even show me where they were.
So I asked.
POP!! the bubble of facade exploded.
There is a tone of voice that rednecks have. It is patterned after the tone
of voice needed to boss a 1000 pound animal around. There is a drawl you
have to have. It doesnt have to be there it just has to be there. I didnt have
either of those things.
After intimately knowing rejection and disdain in the diesel line I decided I needed a cup of coffee. Maybe I could (enjoy) go through that whole unmasking process in the slurpee line?. I poured 2 cups 'O' brew, from a line of 12 coffee pots. You could literally read your diesel request form through it!. But I drank it. I needed to stay awake driving over that hill on the way home. It was horrid I dont need to tell you. But the funny thing is that it was maybe the strongest coffee I have ever drank.
[Editor's note: True to his word, Hernan showed up the next year, dressed in goggles and scarf.]
Courtesy of hernan. Copyright © hernan 1997. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Posted to The Civilized Explorer Burning Man Web site with permission.
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