Thanksgiving at the Doubletree Hotel
by
Phil Madsen
(Written November 27, 2009, for publication on SuccessfulExpediters.com.)
This year (2009), Thanksgiving came on Thursday, November 26. We did not know how we would celebrate it until that afternoon.
As is our custom, we stayed in service and out on the road over the long weekend. With our relatives scattered in several states and Christmas being the time they all make the effort to gather, it makes sense to us to keep working in hopes of snagging a lucrative run.
That's exactly how it played out this year. As I write this the morning after Thanksgiving, we have freight on the truck that we will deliver near Denver in two hours. It is good-paying freight that we picked up in Pennsylvania on Tuesday afternoon.
The run schedule surprised us a little. As expediters, we are accustomed to hauling freight straight through from the pickup to the delivery. This 1,800 mile run would normally mean 36 hours of planned driving time, with us probably arriving a few hours ahead of that. We assume a 50 mph average speed when planning our trips but generally arrive sooner because our preferred freeway speed is 60 mph.
With a Friday morning delivery time, we could have picked up the freight on Wednesday and easily made the delivery. The Tuesday pickup put us 30 hours ahead of the load when we left the dock. For an expediter, 30 hours to spare on a run is an eternity.
The drive from Pennsylvania to Colorado was difficult at first. It rained on and off. The days and daylight driving hours are short this time of year. Business-day traffic must be dealt with in the dark. I-76 out of Pennsylvania is never a fun road. Traffic was heavy well into Ohio.
Happy to duck out of the traffic and having the time to spare, we stopped to enjoy an uninterrupted night's sleep at a rest area in Ohio. We were so far ahead of the load that we did not even have to set our alarms to wake in the morning. That is quite a change for team drivers like us that normally drive and sleep in shifts to keep the truck rolling.
While we were on the open road most of Wednesday, the freeway was filled with holiday traffic. The whole day was one of keeping a wary eye on the four-wheelers. It seemed like every exit and on ramp was busy. With four-wheelers making frequent lane changes, cutting us off, slowing unaware as they were distracted by their cell phone calls and text messages, we were unable to settle into a nice cruise.
We hit Saint Louis during its evening rush hour. Far beyond where you would expect to see rush hour traffic build, there was a river of lights flowing both directions — tail lights streaming west, headlights streaming east. It was slow-and-go for an hour or more after the city was behind us.
Having made it through that, I was ready to sleep and suggested that we stop. Diane was wide awake and eager to drive. That was fine with me. I went to bed and she drove to Oak Grove, Missouri where we got fuel and a truck wash. Wanting to put Kansas City behind us, she drove through and put a couple more rest areas behind before picking one to stop at for the night.
I got up before the sun on Thursday. Diane stayed in bed. After freshening up, getting dressed, doing a pre-trip inspection, warming up the truck and updating my log book, I left the rest area and merged onto the flat Kansas freeway. There was just a hint of first light on the eastern horizon behind me. There were no headlights or tail lights in sight.
Our GPS unit is set to speak in a female voice. We call her Gertrude. When I switched her on, Gertrude said in her computerized voice, "Continue four hundred eleven miles on I seventy."
Yes!
The holiday traffic was gone. I had the road to myself and I got to cruise 411 miles under clear skies before having to think about the next stop or turn. With my windshield clean, arm rests positioned just right and the seat warmer on, I was one happy driver.
My regular readers know how much we enjoy driving our truck. You might think we would get tired of it after the hundreds of thousands of miles we have driven. The opposite is true. The more we drive, the better we like it. With several hours of joyous driving ahead and this being Thanksgiving Day, I was in a grateful mood. After finishing the piece in my mind, I wrote about the things I am grateful for in my blog after Diane took the wheel.
She took us through the rest of Kansas and into Colorado. When we exited I-70 for fuel at a truck stop in Limon, I moved from the sleeper into the passenger seat to dig out the fuel cards. A moment after Diane stopped at the fuel island, a smiling, white, adult male, dressed in work clothes, approached the truck on the driver's side.
My guard went up. We were under load. While the security protocols were not as high on this run as they are on some, certain habits develop over time. I looked ahead and behind to see if other vehicles had boxed us in at the fuel island. We were clear. I looked around to see if other people also seemed interested in the truck. None were. The stranger's hands were empty and in plain view. His body posture was relaxed. On this glorious Thanksgiving Day, I rehearsed in my mind the polite declines I would use if he begged for money, sought a ride, tried to sell us something, asked what we were hauling, or asked about our route.
Diane rolled the window part way down. The stranger said, "You're not Phil and Diane, are you?" A bit surprised by the question, Diane said we were. "I read your blog," he said. "I really enjoy it." With that, he departed as quickly as he arrived. When he went to the big rig at the fuel pump next to ours, we knew he was a truck driver who wanted nothing more than to say hi.
I grabbed one of our camera's and went to say thank you and get a photo of him. He was OK with that but was also in a hurry to leave. Having just posted a blog entry about how grateful I am for my blog readers, I felt bad about being so suspicious of him.
When a mean looking pit bull stuck his head out of the big rig's sleeper window and started barking at me, I knew the driver would understand. Pit bulls are highly effective truck security systems. Like us, this driver and his wife, who was in the passenger seat, know that you can't be too careful out here.
Actually, this driver approached the truck exactly as a polite person should. He did not knock on the door but waited to be seen. When Diane opened the window, he did not climb up on the step, he conversed from the ground. He did not begin with a long story or meaningless remarks, he immediately let us know why he was there. It would have been nice to visit more with this man but he had other things to do.
Having time for showers, we stayed at the truck stop to take them. With those complete and no other stops planned, our Denver arrival time became more predictable. Diane had previously searched the web for Thanksgiving dinner possibilities. With our schedule now known, Diane called the DoubleTree Hotel in Aurora, Colorado, a Denver suburb, and made reservations.
With I-70 turning north toward Denver, the bright sun set to our left as we drove. The sky was clear except for a few sunset-colored cloud wisps and some brightly lit con trails above the mountains peaks that rose from the prairie horizon as we drove.
We saw our first snow of the season this day. Tiny patches of snow from a previous storm that closed the freeway remained in shadowed spots on the ground. But for those, it was grass as far as the eye could see. With today's clear sky and 60 degree temperature, getting stranded on a snow-closed freeway was an unpleasant image that I shooed out of mind. There were more pleasant things to think about, like dinner.
Arriving at the hotel at 5:30 p.m. local time, we parked in the back lot and dressed for dinner. Entering the building from behind, we found ourselves in the lobby for the conference and banquet rooms. Understandably, no one was there this holiday evening. The lobby was elegant and peaceful. I paused for a moment to take it in.
In this high-end hotel, a great deal of attention and expense has been given to interior design. The colors, textures, furniture and lighting came together well. The sculptures on the floor and artwork on the walls were beautiful. It felt good to be in this space.
As we found our way to the main lobby and then the restaurant, I noticed a woman in a housekeeping uniform polishing the wood baseboard in the hall. Looking around a bit more, I saw that the place was immaculate.
This is my kind of hotel. When we were seated at our table, I told Diane we need to get rich. I want to be able to stay at places like this for a week or so without having to worry about the cost.
We did not have to wait long to be seated. In fact, when we got to the restaurant, we wondered if it was even open. There was no one there, not a soul. It was a beautiful place and the tables were nicely set, but there was not a person in sight.
The bartender from the nearly empty hotel bar spotted us and came out to greet and seat us. A moment later, our waitress arrived. She said the restaurant was open and ready to serve us, and that we had been expected. They had been busier earlier in the day but it quieted down in the evening.
Other than telling her want we wanted to drink (no alcohol since we were in service and under load), we did not have to order. Our reservation was for the hotel's advertised Thanksgiving dinner — a traditional holiday meal, served family style.
A few moments later, our waitress and a helper came with a feast — and I have to tell you — it was delicious. I savored every bite of the bread, turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sautéed, green beans, and pumpkin pie for desert.
There is bread, turkey, ham, potatoes, gravy, beans and pie; and there is turkey, ham, potatoes, gravy, beans and pie that is fresh, succulent, flavor-filled and prepared to perfection. The latter is what we enjoyed this Thanksgiving. It was wonderful; so much so that I ran out of room when I raved about it on the comment card that came with the check (just $20 a plate, plus tax and tip).
While the menu was straightforward, it was a meal to remember. We had time to dine and enjoy the experience. The surroundings were elegant. The service was just right. The waitress returned several times to see if there was anything we needed, but not too often to be a pest.
At one of her stops, I almost blurted out, "We just took showers at a truck stop!" I thought it better to kept the comment to myself. She would not have understood. I shared the comment with Diane and we chuckled at the irony.
After dinner, we returned to the truck to find a place to sleep. With bellies full, a cross-country drive behind us and a 5:00 a.m. delivery ahead, we decided to spend the night right where we were, in the hotel parking lot. On Friday, at 3:45 a.m. local time, we rose to fire up the truck and head out to deliver the freight.