I Am A Tourist Attraction

I'm sitting around the truckstop in Cali waiting for dispatch to find me a load. It'll be tomorrow now. It's a really nice day here. The sun is shining and there is a breeze blowing. Although the breeze is slightly chilly the air is still reasonably warm and the sun feels especially good.

I was sitting at one of the picnic tables near the building and knitting when a tour bus pulled into the truckstop. A passel of tourists piled out of the bus. Most of them were elderly but there were a few younger ones as well. From what I could hear of their speech they were from Northern Europe.

I can usually recognize various languages even though I can't speak them, but I am not entirely certain where these folks hail from. Their language is one I've not heard spoken before, but it sounded almost like a cross between Russian and Greek. Definitely one of the Slavic languages to be sure.

They all disappeared into the truckstop and I didn't give them another thought until they all eventually came back out again and started running all over the truck parking lot snapping pictures of various big rigs. I saw one lady walk close to my rig a take a pic or two. I just kind of chuckled to myself as I know the trucks in Europe aren't even close to the size of the rigs we have here. I'm sure it was really something for them to see and get close to those big trucks although I was a tad concerned that they might get run over or upset some trucker who didn't want his picture taken.

I resumed my knitting after watching them for a minute or two and then one of the elderly guys with a huge moustache approached me and said something or other in his language while pointing at my knitting and making motions as if to take a picture. He was obviously asking my permission to snap a pic of me knitting.

I smiled and nodded my assent. He motioned to a lady who stepped up a meter or so away from me and snapped a couple of quick pics. She said thank you in English with a very heavy accent and it sounded something like "sanks yoo". I just gave her a smile and told her she was welcome.

I started to resume my knitting when a few more came over and snapped pics of me knitting. I guess giving my consent to one was enough for them all to have a go at it. I really didn't mind too much.

The old guy with the huge moustache came over to me and pointed to my knitting and made a motion around his chest. I understood he was asking if I was making a sweater. I nodded and said "yes, a sweater" although I know he didn't understand a word of it. He understood my meaning though and said something to the lady that I assume was their word for sweater.

Either that or he told her I was making a really large hat LOL

A couple of the folks, both men and women, gave me the thumbs up for my knitting. No matter where you go everyone seems to understand the thumbs up thing. I just smiled at them, thanked them, and went back to my knitting. I was starting to feel a bit like an animal in a zoo and was kind of glad when they finally got the cattle call to return to the bus.

I guess they'll be able to tell the folks back home how American truckers sit around and knit when not working LOL