Hangin in Big D

Not a whole lot going on today.  I arrived early this morning at the Dallas yard and dropped the load that I had after going through the safely lane and clearing my truck mechanically.  After that I just went to sleep.  That was around 5am and I slept until about 1pm.  Just in time to listen to the football games.  Unfortuneately, my Bears lost today :(  
On my way here from California, I stopped in Tucumcari, NM at the Flying J and took my 10 hour break.  When I woke up I went in and had breakfast at the newly remodeled Denny's that they have there.  Breakfast was very good but the service was not.  This is not the first time since the Pilot/Flying J merger and the change over to Denny's in the Flying J that I have noticed a deficiency in the service provided by Denny's specifically toward truck drivers.  I have stopped at several of these new Denny's restaurants and for some reason they seem to be catering more to the locals that were coming in rather than to the drivers.  I have been tempted to say something to the management on several occasions asking them if they realize that they are now operating in a truck stop, but have not at this point.  The first time, I was passed over to be seated 2 times in favor of local friends of the hostess which had clearly come in after I was there and just recently in Tucumcari,  I was seated at the counter with other truck drivers and myself and 2 other drivers sat there for 15 minutes before someone came over to take care of us.  As I was leaving, apparently another driver and his wife were not happy with the service they had received and were speaking to the person at the cash register about it and the response that I heard from the cashier was that they don't consider themselves to be a part of Pilot except that they pay them lease money.
I have always liked Denny's and their food but if this continues, I will vote with my feet and I think that others will do the same thing.  If it continues to happen then Pilot bailing out Flying J would have been for nothing because they will end up in the same situation they were in before.  You would think that management would make sure that this area of the truck stop is the better part of their services they offer since this area is where the majority of the profit in these businesses comes from.  Personally, I hope they do fix the problem because I for one do not want to have to eat at the fast food places that both the Pilot and Loves Travel Plaza's (can't really call them truck stops) offer to the drivers.
I have been assigned my next load and will be picking up tomorrow morning and heading for Ohio for a Wednesday delivery.  I was hoping for something I could run today but all they had was a Tulsa for late tomorrow.

Happy Trails

Mike