Last night, at that truck stop, I thought about the life of a trucker, and what they might go through in life. The large truck stops all have showers and laundries, restaurant /cafe's open 24 hours, (though some are clearly more well maintained than others, thank you Mr. beetle, very much), and big lounge areas. This one in particular had a huge lounge with immense semi-comfortable couches and a giant screen TV blaring out the World Wrestling Federation Monday Night show...
At the bottom of this television was a hand written sign read "PLEASE DON'T TOUCH THE TV".
Of the lounge area in a laundry room was a videophone kiosk. For the low price of $399, a trucker, or anyone, I suppose, can buy a device with a camera that connects to the family TV and a touch-tone phone...
The trucker goes to one of these video kiosks, picks up the handset, punches in a code, and shortly, they're talking with and looking at their family eagerly awaiting a physical contact with this roaming person, male or female.
I heard on the radio last night that a couple got married and to save family and friends the expense of needing to fly thousands of miles for the wedding, sent them, instead, to Kinko's copy centers around the country and the happy couple were married via video teleconference in front of their loved ones!
I'm sure these help, though I bet life on the road can often be lonely when it's what you do all year long, year after year....