There is a small bar across the street from the TA truck stop in Knoxville.TN called the Prince Deli. It's a pretty decent place. There is usually some local band or other playing there and all in all it's a pretty happening spot for both trucker and locals.
I've been stopping in the place for years and knew the owner, Sam, pretty well. He was a Palestinian, a hell of a nice guy, and very opinionated about the whole Palestine/Israel situation. I used to bring it up just to get him fired up.
He died of a heart attack in the parking lot of his business about 5 years ago.
His widow, Donna, now runs the place. She's a very nice woman but I have always felt she's in a tad over her head. We talked for a bit tonight and that opinion hasn't subsided any.
While I was hanging out there and enjoying a few beers people came and went while there was a pretty decent biker party going on. Live band, lots of awesome bikes, and people .It was a good time. Bikers tend to be some of my favorite people.
Of course there were also truckers there. I wound up playing darts with a couple of them and we had a pretty good time. Well, at least I had a good time as I smoked them at both cricket and 301. Have I ever mentioned that I used to throw in dart tournaments? And win very regularly?
I wish I could write about the fights and assorted lurid activities that went on at this biker party but there simply wasn't any. It was a good time and we acted like fools for the most part, but nobody got too out of line and we all had some good laughs.
I wound up dancing with this one very nice looking blonde who was attached to this very big dude walking on crutches. Turns out he dumped his sled thanks to some moron making a right turn in front of him. He was cool with her dancing and we all wound up drinking together and shooting the bull.
The dancing left me limping back to my truck as my bum hip didn't enjoy it as much as I did, but it was worth it. It was a helluva good time.
There' nothing like a good party to make the whole week worthwhile.