It's Not Easy Being Green

The Varleys have a farm truck. No laughing, please. We decided a truck would be a good idea, both for hauling constructions materials to the new house from Sierra Vista and/or Tucson, as well as hauling things from our Salt Lake house to the dump and/or Deseret Industries (Utah's version of Goodwill and St. Vincent dePaul). Steve got on the internet and started researching used trucks, and by far the best deal are trucks that used to belong to the National Forest Service. They are in amazing good shape, the government has performed all the regular maintenance, and they are much, much cheaper than equivalent trucks that are not painted Forest Service green. This one is a 2003 Silverado with 72,000 miles, crew cab, and new tires. Runs great and drives like a dream. We'll add a camper shell and a hitch, and Steve can haul the trailer down loaded with stuff for the new house, and not have to put so much wear and tear on the Royal Palms. Now all we have to do is sell one of our cars. Steve thinks we should sell my Subaru Outback and I think we should sell his Honda CRV. Maybe we'll do what we did the last time we needed to sell something and couldn't decide--put both on the market and see which one sells first. I'm not going to give up my heated seats without a fight, though.

The other picture is a not-so-good shot of Omar's Highway Chef Restaurant at the Triple T Truck Stop at Mile Marker 268 on I-10 at the south end of Tucson. We stopped there by chance to get gas, were starving and decided to try the restaurant. There was a big sign as we walked in proclaiming it to be The Food Network's #2 Choice of "Best 18-Wheeler Food Stops." Omar himself was sitting at the cash register as we walked in. The tables were manned (womanned?) by waitresses who looked like they'd been there all their lives; not one of them was younger than 50, and few looked under 60. Some were motherly, some were hard-boiled, and some were funny and wise-cracking. All were friendly and effiicient, and kept Steve's coffee cup filled. No need to refill my Diet Coke--it came in a 32 oz. glass! Ice water and tall plastic glasses on each table to help yourself. The food was great. And reasonably priced. Steve had a Spanish Omelet (breakfast is served 24 hours) and I had a patty melt on a wonderful marbled rye and onion rings. Our waitress told me the onion rings were the frozen kind, not homemade, but were very good. She was right. We're putting Omar's on our list of roadfood stops, for sure.