_ on a long drive through iowa, we set ourselves a little challenge...
_ ... get coffee at every gas station we pass, and to photograph the dispensaries.
_ some were good, some were bad, and we noticed some odd shifts in common practice. here, a tapestry has been hung up, to accentuate, perhaps, the juan valdez wallpaper.
_ this station was set up the way we like it, with a wide selection of creamers displayed in separate boxes.
_ some stations were small, some were large. this one had two sets of pumps, for cars and for trucks, and no real parking for those seeking just sunflower seeds flavored with dill pickle.
_ we noticed that decaf was something to always sneer at, like the light beer or ultra-light cigarettes of years ago.
_ reading material in all gas-stations follows the trucker's interest curve: girls, bikes, guns, etc.
_ this picture was stolen, as the stockist-girl took less of a shine to us than at the other stations. perhaps it was our earnest proclamation that this was the 'finest coffee station we've seen all day!' And we meant it. Unfortunately she asked us not to take pictures, and when we snapped this she told us to 'leave the building'. Totally worth it though.
_ finally, after all our waiting, we found the holy grail of gas stations. the self-proclaimed LARGEST TRUCK STOP IN THE WORLD, Iowa 80, 20 miles past iowa city.
_ marty leeks here told us it was a dream come true.
_ but he was wrong. this was weak sauce. for the largest truck stop in america, this was such an efficient coffee station it bordered on the un-american.
_ no excess in sight. no hazelnut creamer, no french vanilla, no irish cream, only land of lakes.
_ disappointed, we took our styrofoam cups and took a walk through the museum/store of the world's largest truck stop. they keep that sign mighty clean, he was still there thirty minutes later.
_ they have everything a trucker would want at the store (as far as we could tell). here was the king of all trucks, named babe, we assume, for paul bunyan's massive ox.
_ clay steps into our gallery of favored people by referring to us as 'f'babadahs', which we only translated when he pointed at our cameras. he was on his way to drop off a delivery of paper towels, and then anticipated a day off before his dispatcher called him back.
_ an item from the store. after visiting the in-house dentist and the chiropractor, buy a massive set of horns.