They a say a fool and her money are soon parted!

Oh how I wish the above were not true!

Our latest truck trip provided us both with a updated lesson in humility, the power of glamour, and the confirmation that coyote is alive and well living at a rest area on the border of Ohio and Indiana!

This was just a typical day on one of the busiest interstates in America, I70. I70 is a corridor to the major cities on the eastern seaboard and the traffic is constant and relentless, like rush hour on speed. Now this particular day we passed two accidents involving truck meets car, with the truck ending up in the weeds on it's side in one case and on its back in another. Larry and I both counted our blessings as we usually do when we see these things.

I suspect we both also harboured a wee bit of smugness, that somehow we were above a bad day. Well what every the case was that day we were about to meet our match!

One of the true joys of driving in the USA is it's attention to rest areas. It is almost like the individual states compete with each other to see who can build the best one. I wish Canadian provinces would catch the bug!

The Scene: I70 west bound last rest area before leaving Ohio for Indiana.
Time: 4:00pm local time

We were making a typical pit stop. Larry was first to head for the facilities while I waited in the truck. We were loaded heading for home, which means a driver must stick with the load at all times. As Larry was doing the driving I was perched in the passenger seat working on some hand quilting. A fellow acting all excited spotted me and approached the truck, I lowered the window to hear what he had to say. His excitement was of the happy kind and in that moment I had no a clue as to what he might be on about.

My recollection of the conversation is sketchy, part of the script I suspect, and his accent, a drawl from the south I think, was so thick and his speech was so fast that I can say now that the spell was cast effortlessly. What I do remember is him wanting me to come with him to see his friend who had just won a lot of money. He asked me if I heard other truckers talking about it on the CB. I answered that we don't run with the CB on, which is true. He also asked me where we were headed, and I proudly answered BC, Canada, just above Seattle. (one quickly learns to give a context that folks in the US can relate too) His enthusiasm was such that I found myself following him out of the truck. My mind did note that I would not go anywhere where I could not maintain a sight line to the load! As it turned out we only went to the back of our van, where seemingly out of nowhere there materialized about 6 men who I took for granted where fellow truck drivers. The first fellow was maintaining a steady stream of excited conversation with me, while the rest of the men formed a semi circle around a guy who was carry a very large fist full of money. He squatted on the pavement and laid out three playing cards face up. Two black cards and one red card. The other men then engaged in a game with him in which they tried to guess which card was the red one when they were inverted. I'm sure there is a name for this trick... "the shell game"....

The first guy who was keeping up the steady babble at me handed me a bunch of 20 dollar bills like I had just won at this game. I was really more interested in checking out the guy with the money, who looked like winning a lottery was was a good thing for him. He looked very ruff, had a gash on his arm that sported a dozen black stitches, was very thin and scruffy looking. Why would he want to give his money away to poor truck drivers. This thought was part of the conversation the first guy was trying to put across to me.

Then Larry showed up. Immediately all the energy switched to him. I could see that this was just as overwhelming to him as it was to me. But my radar had not yet detected anything amiss. So when he looked to me to see if he should play along I indicated why not. If this guy wanted to give away money I was game.

Boy in hindsight the last comment I just made came back to haunt me big time!

I saw Larry get out his money, turned out to be $120.00 US. There was some joshing of the other men to make room for Larry to get close enough to play the game. Somewhere there the fist full of money I had been given was gone. Another truck trailer beside ours began to move in reverse as if to back over our group. Larry said afterward that this was just when He was trying to engage in the game, having handed over his money. As everyone scrambled to avoid the backing up truck Larry lost sight of the moving cards and picked the wrong one. Bingo! In a matter of seconds everyone vanished, leaving Larry and I standing there.

He cursed and ran to follow swearing that he had just been robbed! By the time we made it to the front of our truck, the group had scattered and vanished into the trees surrounding the rest area building.

Time elapsed? Maybe five minutes, starting with my meeting the man.

Wow, I was blown away at just how slick the whole event was performed. Meanwhile Larry was still cursing, we had just given away $120.00 US!

I was also struck immediately with just easily my greed had been roused. For me I thought I deserved to be scammed! Those guys obviously needed that money more than I did. Though amongst a group that large it really was not that much profit for a suberb preformance!