My EX-wife and I were moving from NAS Pensacola to Camp Lejeune, probably 1984ish. Way before cell phones. I’m driving the U-Haul truck with everything we owned in it with my truck in tow on a carrier, all paid for through the generosity of the Marine Corps, with the dogs in the no a/c cab with me. She’s driving the Buick following.
When we stopped somewhere to get gas, I said let’s go another hour or so, when I see a decent sized exit with a McDonalds ahead, I’ll turn on my emergency flashers. You pull off and pick us up some lunch, I’ll pull over after the exit on the side of the highway, let the dogs do their business, and then you can bring me something to eat and drink, and we’ll go until we need gas again. (I’ll admit, I was nervous about getting trapped in some parking lot or drive through with the truck, trailer, etc).
Hour or so later, I saw what I was looking for, put the flashers on, she pulled off, I pulled off after the exit. Put the dogs on leashes and they did their business, back in the cab they went. I’m pretty proud of my planning skills at this point. I’m leaning against the back of my truck having a smoke, watching the on ramp a few hundred yards behind me. Here comes the blue Buick, quickly gets to highway speed and flies by me going about 75. I’m standing there in disbelief. WTF?!?!?!
I stand there in disbelief until she’s damned near out of sight, cuss, stomp out the smoke, get back in the U-Haul, fire it up and take off in “hot pursuit”. Not only did it take forever to get it up to about 50, I immediately remembered that it had a limit of about 58 mph. I did not see the back end of the Buick for over an hour! 🤬 By this time, we’d thankfully hit some traffic and I was able to actually pass her, got in front of her, signaled at the next decent exit to get gas. I pulled into a gas station with no overhang, jumped out of the cab, and began the WTF discussion. Her response, “Oh, I thought you meant you wanted me to bring you your lunch the next time we stopped to get gas.” My question of “why the fugg do you think I was sitting there on the side of the highway?!?!” was met with the same blank stare as if I’d asked her for the atomic weight of plutonium!
She went back to the Buick after handing me that cold-ass sack of McDonalds and the watery Coke. I filled the truck up and pointed it towards North Carolina. Pretty cold in the hotel room that night as well!
