TRUCKSTOP - By Rich Tatarka

    NOTICE!: The following Article was produced without the aid of any Artificial Intelligence Programming. The Article was also produced Organically without the use of harmful pesticides, and as usual, no cats were harmed during the production of said Article.

     Imagine if you will it’s Christmas Eve, the children are sound asleep, and you’re out in the garage working on the pile of “Some Assembly Required” gifts that you should have assembled days ago. Everybody knows the drill: rip open the box and start building, using the picture on the box for reference. You get almost done but something just doesn’t look quite right. Over on the bench sits the directions temporarily being used as a coaster for your third beer. You grab them and browse thru looking for the section in English. Depending on the nationality of the maker of what you are assembling, there could be several different languages to pick from. Imagine if you will again, the only directions are in Western Punjabi. Even the pictures in the directions are in Punjabi, and another beer or two isn’t gonna help you understand that language before daylight. Imagine if you will again still that everything is in a language that you do not understand, say Western Punjabi. Looking out in the driveway, you don’t recognize the writing on the log truck hood and where it used to say Kenworth, now it says “ ਕੇਨਵਰਥ”…  You have evidently transmorgrofied to a real strange land. Nothing is familiar, even the traffic signs are unrecognizable.  Now imagine if you will again still some more that you have approximately 80,000 pounds of truck and trailer loaded with goodies that you have to somehow take a few thousand miles away, keeping in mind that you have no idea what any sign, signal, or any other source of information says. Transmorgrofy again and you’re back in your garage still putting toys together.  Glance down at Interstate 90 out your garage door and let it sink in that several of the truckers going by are herding 80,000 pounds of truck, trailer and goodies down the road, and they have very little understanding of our traffic laws and have no concept of the English language. How you ask, are they allowed to operate? Well, there is this rule in the big green book of trucking regulations, (391.11(2) to be exact…) It clearly states that a driver must “read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language…” That has been a rule since not long after the invention of the wheel. But in 2016, President Barry decided that the rule was too mean on the “under-languaged” types, and was put on hold, sorta. Twas still there, just not enforced. (Did you know that communications between Air Traffic Control and Aircraft is done in English everywhere in the World? It’s a safety thing… Keeps everybody on the same page, so to speak…) So why would someone unleash a bunch of drivers on our highways without the ability to comprehend the English language? Seems kinda important to me that one ought to know what all those different signs are telling a guy, like the ones on Homestake Pass telling you to take it easy instead of going full speed and making all that darned brake smoke. (I’ve seen that a few times…) And it would be way cool if the fellow drivers in front of you at the Truckstop fuel desk understood the English language. Then maybe the drivers behind him could get out of there quicker and as an added bonus, one wouldn’t have to deal with the nice lady at the fuel desk who’s head is ready to explode from trying to do English paperwork with someone who doesn’t “use that particular coloring book”…

(I could easily rant here about also having to wait in line at the fuel desk whilst the Tourista’s and their children purchase their snax and taking their time about it, meanwhile me and my fellow drivers are on the DOT Clock and really need to be elsewhere… Gone are the truckstops that actually catered to the drivers, I guess…)

     Anyway, moving on, long long time Log Hauler Myron Taylor finally retired this spring. He even bought a boat. There’s this bunch of Log Haulers down here that one should have coffee with at least once a week, but everybody is spread out all over 4 or 5 counties. That, and the fact that there aren’t many coffee drinking places left, means you hear from these guys by way of the Cell Phone on a somewhat regular basis. I got a call from Myron a while ago and he was as mad as an old wet hen. Whereas his jobs back then included trips up to the Flathead, he was constantly encountering good ol’ touristas. But who doesn’t, right? What really bothered him, and he had good reason to be bothered was the Touristas with the bike rack on the back of their car, 3 or 4 bicycles completely obliterating the view of their turn signal/brake lights. Otta be a law I’d say. Wait, there is one…. Meanwhile one of us gets pulled in for an inspection and happen to have a taillight not working issue, we get put out of service, points against our safety rating, and higher insurance premiums.

     Anyway, moving on again, I wish we could have addressed the bill from the 2021 Legislative Session regarding motorcycles during the 2025 legislative session… The bill that allows motorcycles to ride up between cars on 4 lane roads. Montana is one of only 3 states that allow it, and personally think that allowing motorcyclists to do so is a real dumb idea… Here in the Peoples Republic of Bozeman you see a fair number of bicycle riders doing the filter up to the stop light thing. Kinda freaks you out when you’re at a red light and suddenly you’re surrounded by the radical “Man Bunz on Bikez” Biker Gang. Scary…….

     ਖੈਰ, ਮੈਨੂੰ ਇਸ ਦੇ ਨਾਲ ਹੀ ਹੁਣ ਸਮਾਪਤ ਕਰਨਾ ਪਵੇਗਾ ਕਿਉਂਕਿ ਇਸ ਸਮੇਂ ਕੈਨਿਯਨ ਫੈਰੀ ਵਿਖੇ ਟਰਾਊਟ ਦਾ ਚੱਕ ਸ਼ਾਨਦਾਰ ਹੈ, ਅਤੇ ਮੈਂ ਇਸਨੂੰ ਖੁੰਝਾਉਣਾ ਨਹੀਂ ਚਾਹੁੰਦਾ... Right?

Until next time,

That Is All.

Rich Tee