Encounter With A Cashier

Just had an argument with a cashier at a truckstop in the Richmond, Virginia area. I-95 south is a parking lot. So a lady was asking if there was a way around that to get to I-85. I started to tell the lady how I was going to get around it when the cashier butted in and said my way made no sense. She said the lady should go west to a certain road, turn left and go to a certain road, then turn left and go back to the highway. I told her the only problem with that was that everyone else would be doing the same thing.

My solution was to go north on I-95 to the next exit, go five miles west to a convenient little road called I-295 (the Richmond bypass) back to I-95 and go five miles north to I-85.

Have I mentioned there's no backup on northbound I-95?

The cashier dismissed this. “Look, I live here,” she said.

I shrugged and left. Just for shits and giggles, and being familiar with the area myself, I went west on that road as per the cashier's directions, figuring I could always cut back at the next stoplight and hit I-95 north. I took that first left and gasp! there were taillights as far as you could see. Apparently everyone else had the same idea as the cashier. Hmmm. Shame no one thought of that.

Well, I got back on I-95 north and did what I said I was. Sure, it was a little out of the way, but when I got to I-85 there was a pretty collection of headlights on southbound I-95 stretching all the way back to Richmond. I waved in their general direction, knowing that somewhere in that mess sat the lady who chose to listen to the cashier.

If there is a moral to this story, it's this; don't argue with a truck driver over directions. They make their living by finding their way. And if a truck driver doesn't know how to help you, he will most often say so.