Steele Away Home (Part 2)

"Oh the boll weevil is a little black bug come from Mexico they say. Come all the way from Texas just a lookin' for a place to stay. Just a lookin' for a home. Just a lookin' for a home."

Are all of the stories I tell true?  They are 100% true.  Are all of my stories completely accurate?  None of my stories are completely accurate. They are only as accurate as my memory and I do not have a perfect memory.

Last Monday my wife and I stopped at a travel center at exit 174 on I-59 at Steele, Alabama. We never travel this direction without chuckling about what happened to us one night many years ago.  The story is not all that remarkable, but for us it is memorable.  It was just one of those moments that a couple shares that becomes a part of the rich fabric of their lives. I guess you had to be there.

Although this story is a significant one to my wife and to me, we are both very fuzzy on the details. Our collective memory of the events of our lives is usually pretty good.  In this case the only thing we know for sure is that late one night at exit 174 off I-59 at Steele, Alabama we ate breakfast at a  truck stop.

Here are some of the things we don't remember.  We don't remember exactly when this happened.  It happened some time between 1979 and 1981 because we moved to Georgia in 1979 and there was no baby on board.  We don't remember why we were on    I-59 that late at night.  For years we have said, "We were traveling back to Louisville, Kentucky from Enterprise, Alabama after Christmas."   On Monday it occurred to me that we wouldn't have been on I-59 north on a trip to Louisville, but on     I-65 north.  That means that instead of Louisville, we were  on our way to Rossville, Georgia from Enterprise more than likely after Christmas.

This is what we do remember for sure.  It was late at night and we were still two hours from home. Our tank and our stomachs were running on fumes. We found a truck stop open at exit 174 and thankfully their restaurant was still open too. We used our Visa to fill up the tank and then eagerly went inside to eat. Before we ordered we learned that the diner didn't take our credit card.  We took a quick inventory of our financial situation and came up with about five dollars between us. We seldom traveled with much money because we didn't have any, but we usually had a little more than that. Looking over the menu  we found a breakfast for $4.95 that included eggs, bacon, toast and coffee. We shared the breakfast. The food was manna from Heaven, But what happened was much more than the good, greasy food. We were two hungry and homesick souls who had just left home on our way to where we lived. There's a big difference between where you live and home. For that little while, we hung our hearts in Steele, Alabama and it was as good a home as any. We must have scraped up some change to pay the tax and leave a small tip.  I hope we did anyway. We got back in our car and headed north toward Georgia. That happened about thirty seven years ago.

Last Monday I wish we had driven across the interstate to the truck stop, but the modern travel center seemed like the quicker and better option. And we weren't hungry.  Between us we had four major credit cards and about $45.00.  I learned online that Steele's Country Cooking is still in full swing. You can  get a meat and three with a drink for $8.25. The homemade desserts will cost you another $2.00.

Every time we go that direction we talk about stopping at exit 174 to eat at the diner. But we never do.  Although our memories aren't perfect, the experience was perfect and we have always just left it at that.