Rest Stop Trauma
You may not like the next picture. I sure didn't. I kept saying "Omigod". This is only about one-third the length of the truck. Must be thousands of chickens stuffed in these cages.
This was taken at a rest area in Minnesota. We've seen lots of truckloads of varous foodstuffs in our travels...cows, pigs, lettuce, oranges, corn, potatoes, onions, oranges...on and on. But this was a first. The chickens are actually stacked on top of each other within the cage. The truck driver was going around the side of the truck, reaching in collecting eggs. As I watched, one hen dropped an egg outisde the cage wire and it plopped to the ground. Ugh!
I came home to check that my eggs are from cage free chickens.
At another rest area we met Wilbur, a big, sloppy male Basset Hound. He's a trucker dog, traveling with his master in a semi. He knows no other life the guy said. Funny....the trucker dude looked pretty menacing. Missing teeth, huge, muscled, swarthy, gold earring. All he needed was an eye patch. But with a Basset Hound in tow (or should I say being towed by) he was non-threatening. We enjoyed a brief visit with both of them. They walked back to his truck and Wilbur put his front paws on the step then got picked up and boosted in.
It was a good driving day after we got out of the rainy remains of hurrican Gustav. Yes, even in Minnesota. But it was a long drive for us, 340 miles, so I did a couple of stints at the wheel.
We pulled in here at the Sioux Falls KOA about 4:30. Boy was I disappointed! I should have read the description more carefully! It is very freeway close and the site they assigned us was right next to the freeway fence. If we hadn't already paid for the night we would have been gone. But...we were able to relocate and the freeway noise is not too bad, especially with the windows closed. The ambiance is zero. We'll cross this one off our list.
But once we close the curtains at night we are in our own cozy world and it doesn't matter too much what is outside the door....we can always move on tomorrow :)