They come in their big Buicks, Mercurys, their Continentals, and their Cadillacs. They come in their 4 door convertibles that they waited 40 years to attain. They come in their dress clothes that they wear faithfully to church every Sunday. They exit their vehicles, spit on the ground, and inch their way into the Western Sizzlin’ for their weekly “Sunday Dinner”. That’s Mid-American for lunch. It’s 11:00 A.M. and these are my observations on a Sunday morning as I sit in the car across the parking lot. By 11:30 the parking lot is at least half full. I can visualize the crowd inside slapping each other on the back saying “Good to see you again.” It’s time for me to go and find another place to eat. After all, it’s noon in Oklahoma!

Have you taken a road trip lately? It is almost impossible to get anywhere because of the trucks. We recently made a trip across the country – over 3,700 miles – and I couldn’t believe the number of trucks. It’s a Sunday morning and we are driving east somewhere in New Mexico. In a 5 minute period, there were 79 trucks traveling west. A few minutes later, 21 trucks in 1 minute. That is an average of 92 trucks every 5 minutes. That is 1,104 trucke per hour. That’s 13,248 trucks in a 12 hour period, and that counts only the ones traveling west! If trucks only traveled 12 hours a day, and we know they don’t, that would equal 397,440 trucks a year. Yes, that is only in one direction. If the average length is 60 feet, that is enough trucks to extend 4,516 miles if they were parked bumper to bumper. 

Does that give you something to think about when it comes to security? Who knows what’s in all of those trucks. Besides that, it doesn’t make me feel secure when I have to share the road with them.