Slight Detour – March/April 2024
If you’re on the road long enough, eventually everything starts to look the same. Well, the same can be said for tales from the road.
This edition of Slight Detour features a group of familiar stories with their own unique twists.
A rocky road
We’ve covered a lot of overturned semis in this column. It’s something that happens on a regular basis, and the contents these trucks spill onto North American highways is wide-ranging. We’ve seen spills of milk, beer, sauerkraut, human waste and even beehives.
Out of all of those spills, this one is by far the most disappointing – and delicious.
We head to Emlenton, Pa., a small town in the western part of the state with a population just north of 600.
It was just after midnight when the Emlenton Fire Department received a call about an overturned tractor-trailer on westbound Interstate 80. When responders arrived on the scene, they discovered the truck had spilled its load – about 39,000 pounds of ice cream – onto the interstate.
Now, I have no idea what kind of ice cream this was, nor do I know the brand. But I’ve never met a scoop I didn’t like. This is just an outright travesty. No tub of ice cream, not even the blandest of vanilla or that terrible one with the walnuts in it, deserves to meet this fate.
No injuries were reported from the crash. It did, however, take crews about three hours to clear the roadway. I assume bowls and spoons were involved.
A long journey home
Another common story that pops up in this column is truckers being reunited with their lost pets. With drivers spending so much time with their furry friends, it’s easy to see why these stories hit close to home.
When you lose something, you typically expect to find it somewhere near where it went missing. But for pets, that radius is expanded to include wherever curiosity – and courage – will take them. One driver recently found that radius can grow pretty large.
Chad McIntyre, a long-haul trucker from Decatur, Ill., is used to having his cat, Tyler, riding shotgun. The 15-pound-feline recently was accompanying him on a cross-country trip when the two became separated at a truck stop in Fernley, Nev.
McIntyre said that after getting something to eat, he returned to his truck to find Tyler missing. He searched the truck stop to no avail and called his wife to share the bad news.
Five days later, someone found Tyler at another truck stop – only now, he was more than 670 miles from where his owner last saw him.
Noticing the cat was friendly, Tyler’s rescuer assumed he wasn’t a stray and took him to a local animal shelter. There, he was scanned and found to have been microchipped – making connecting him with his owners a simple matter of a phone call.
“When she called to tell us he was in Rock Springs, I was like, ‘Wait, what? Where’s that?’ I couldn’t believe it when she said, ‘Wyoming,’” McIntyre’s wife, Brandi, told the Cowboy State Daily.
That’s right. This 15-pound furball managed to make his way to Wyoming. After making the long trek home to Illinois, his journey totaled over 1,800 miles. Tyler’s owners said he’s “grounded from going on the truck for a while.”
Exactly how that happened will remain a mystery, but the mind can certainly wander contemplating a tubby tabby hitchhiking across two states.
Tyler was reportedly traveling cross-country for over a month. Maybe he just needed a break from being in the truck and wanted to stretch his legs. I may be body-shaming a cat here, but it sounds like he could stand to add some steps to his daily counter.
While chuckling to myself about this portly little kitty taking a Forrest Gump-esque run with a scenic view as the backdrop, I stumbled upon the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention – which I assure you is a very real thing.
On top of providing tools and resources for maintaining a healthy weight for your pet, its website also contains a handy Pet-to-Human Weight Equivalency Chart, because … well, why the heck not?
Now comes the humbling part. According to the chart, my height and weight is equal to that of a 14-pound cat. I guess what I’m saying, Tyler, is that you and I are not that different. Perhaps I owe you an apology.
More lucky truckers
We’ve also talked about truck drivers being a seemingly lucky bunch (that’s right) with a number of lottery winners among their ranks. In fact, one hit it big just days after retiring.
For our most recent example of “luck from the truck,” lightning struck twice in the same place – North Carolina.
William Roberts of Morrisville, N.C., got his big win from a $50 ticket he purchased along with his Sunday morning coffee. Roberts said he had won big on the same ticket before, collecting a $500 prize, but his most recent win put that one to shame.
While sitting in his car, he discovered his ticket was a $1 million winner. Roberts opted for the lump sum payout of $600,000, which after Uncle Sam and the state got their shares came to $429,014.
Roberts told lottery officials he planned to use the winnings to expand his business by buying more trucks.
Meanwhile, less than 50 miles away in Benson, N.C., trucker Michael Morgan was busy stumbling upon his own pile of cash.
Morgan had given his wife a $10 Multiplier Mania ticket to scratch before dinner, but after she uncovered the $1 million prize, food became an afterthought.
“I lost my appetite right then,” he told the North Carolina Lottery. “I couldn’t eat.”
He, too, opted for the lump sum payout, which came out to $429,003 after taxes. Morgan said he planned to use the money to buy his own 18-wheeler.
According to lottery officials, there are six $1 million prizes in the Multiplier Mania game, with four still left to be claimed. If you’re passing through the Tarheel State, you might want to try your luck.
On a separate note, it’s nice to know the Morgans have a strong marriage. Some people – my wife possibly included – would have politely excused themselves upon scratching a winning ticket, never to be heard from again. LL