Thanksgiving On The Fly For Many, Flying J Truck Stop Is Their Home Away From Home

It’s Thanksgiving Day and John Hnatishin is nowhere near home.

He pulls his rig into the truck stop and lines it up amid the dozens of other tractor trailers taking a break from the road.

Then the 34-year-old truck driver heads for a pay phone to call his mom.

“It’s OK to cry,” he tells her. “I miss you just as much as you miss me.

“This is my first Thanksgiving I haven’t been at home,” he explains later, as he sat at the truck stop cafe counter among a handful of other truck drivers. “My mom was taking it pretty hard. But I have to do what’s best for my family.”

While most folks spent the holiday nestled amid family, friends and the aromas of home cooking, a steady stream of truckers and travelers make their way into the Flying J Travel Plaza.

It is an all-purpose stopping place. Just off Interstate 90 in Post Falls, it offers gas and the usual convenience store goodies, along with a cafe, showers and parking for the big rigs.

On Thanksgiving, it transforms into a sort of temporary home for the workers on the road.

Most businesses are closed and many truckers have to wait to drop off or pick up their loads. Far from home, they need a place to rest, grab a bite of turkey and gab with waitresses and other drivers for a bit of Thanksgiving company. In a lounge, truckers kick back and watch football.

Other’s head to the cafe where - for $6.99 - they dig into an all-you-can-eat Thanksgiving meal. With a telephone in each booth, truckers call their families while waiting to be served.

“We try to make it feel like home for them,” Randy Youngdell, general manager.

Flying J employees spent seven days getting ready for the Thanksgiving holiday. It took four days just to slice and cook 400 pounds of turkey.

Despite the hard work, Chris Grimm, fuel desk manager, says she likes working on the holiday.

“I get to spend it with all these people,” she says pointing to her co-workers. “This is my family.”

Jim Barrowman has spent his last five Thanksgivings in truck stops. The 37-year-old truck driver from Seattle can’t remember where he was each time, although he remembers being stranded by a Montana snowstorm.

“I do miss Thanksgiving but there is a tradeoff,” he says. As a truck driver who lives in his rig, he says he makes good money and doesn’t have to pay for things like an apartment. His spends $18 to rent a post office box. “I don’t worry about it too much. I know where I can get a decent meal for a decent price.”

Charlene Keller hugged her 6-year-old granddaughter goodbye at the Flying J. It’s not easy being a truckin’ grandmother - especially during the holidays, she says.

“You want to be a traditional grandmother and have the house and cookies and rocking chair but you’ve got to live and work,” she says.

Dennis Jones, a driver from San Diego, is more than happy to be on the road for the holiday. He has become a kind of Thanksgiving Scrooge.

“All the cooking and the people coming over, what a headache,” he says.

As the son of a farmer, he’s used to working through the holidays. “We still had to milk the cows.”

Besides, “I don’t like turkey,” Jones says while ordering a Spanish omelet smothered in guacamole and sour cream. “It’s too dry.”

Hnatishin and his driving partner Smokin’ Joe Moyer, 45, were in the midst of carrying a load of clothes, computers and other goods to Seattle when they stopped at the Flying J.

The two had hoped to make it to Seattle in time for Thanksgiving with Moyer’s family, but were running behind.

“This is a hard time for us,” Moyer admits, dabbing his eyes with a napkin.

He sees his wife and son only once every week or two. Last Thanksgiving, they danced and played music after having dinner together. “I miss them terribly,” he says. “The main thing I try to do is not think about it.”

Hnatishin hasn’t seen his wife and two children in Pennsylvania for five weeks. But working on Thanksgiving means he’ll make $500 more than he usually would for his family. “My main goal is for them to have a lot of opportunities,” he says.

And the two have learned to make themselves at home in places like the Flying J.

“It’s like home away from home,” Hnatishin says.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo