Apologies in advance for all this irrelevant trucking info. Skip it if it doesn't apply to you. (Except... jump to the bottom! The last paragraph applies to you!)
Ok, there is this thing in trucking called a "relay" which I adore. Trade trailers with some random dude or gal, in some random exotic locale? Yes please! Oh I get paid to do something that literally takes 5 minutes, in some custom location, usually near by museums and quirky diners?? Wow, fun!! Sign me up!!
Relays at 1 am are not as glorious. A relay- 2 drivers trading trailers; requires literally hundreds of feet of back and forth space. And 2 available parking spots, for a 53' trailer apiece.
So that means a truck stop.
Peruse any site that reviews truck stops and the parking conditions at 1 am, and you'll find there is no such place, with literally hundreds of feet of back and forth space, and 2 parking spots.
God I am terrified of 1 am relays. Literally terrified. Like so scared, it affects my job terrified. There are so nowheres like I just described.
Wow, but this place, this Sawyer, MI TA is Yelp worthy, because at 1 am on a Friday night (the worst possible night. Day cab drivers dump their equipment and go home for the weekend, stranding people like actual OTR drivers with absolutely no place to park & sleep.)
This TA had so much parking, I thought I was hallucinating!!!
Dude, I'm NOT kidding, and I go in for my 2 year medical card and DOT physical and drug test on Monday, so if I'm lyin', I'm dyin'. (And losing my CDL. )
Man this place deserves to be on Yelp- But wait! There's more!
Its blizzard season, and my relay partner is a grizzled, mega experienced driver who almost never shuts down, for any reason.
Dude, he shut down at a rest area 80 mi away, then cautiously ventured to this place, both of us heading there knowing it was going to be overfull, because blizzards tend to do that.
Believe it or not, semi drivers don't want to murder entire families because of icy roads- and still there was so much parking, I am going to slap myself when I am done writing this review, and if it turns out I exaggerated even a single word, I will totally edit it!
Car drivers! Start buying gas here! They provide such a valuable service to the driving public as a whole, by providing this quality and quantity of safe, easy parking spots, keeping 100' long death sleds off the roads when conditions are really terrifying! And even just providing an awesome place to do a mundane relay! Buy some beef jerky and a souvenir hat or whatever too, support this business, please! read more