Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting the great folks out at Premier Truck Group out in Amarillo, TX. We had a great time displaying my Freightliner New Cascadia, complete with my “Bull Wagon” trailer in tow. Making the trek back home I decided to stop at about the halfway point between Amarillo and home here in Southern California, laying me over for the night in Eastern Arizona. Parking right around sundown, I decided to head in for a shower before dinner to help wind down from the day on the road. While getting ready for my shower, I am grateful this time for my fumbling hands dropping my shampoo bottle, as when I reached down to pick it back up I was alerted to a problem the truck stop was not aware of.
Usually the doors on truck stop showers have louvered vents on the door, to better allow air ventilation and prevent some of the fogging that can occur in such a small space. These louvers are usually pointed down to allow no prying eyes to look in on whoever is inside showering. As I bent down to pick up my dropped shampoo, I saw that these particular louvers had been tampered with, to allow separation enough for whoever was outside to peer in and invade the privacy of the showering customer. Even though no one was peeking in at me at that moment, I felt it should be brought to the management’s attention that they needed to close this shower stall until action was taken to fix the louvers and restore privacy for their patrons.
I am typically one that keeps a close eye on my surroundings, which has helped keep me out of trouble more than just a few times. The fact that I would not have noticed this if not for that dropped bottle of shampoo had me a little uneasy. How many people had showered there and not noticed the altered vent louvers, or even worse, how many people may have been victims of a one-way peek-a-boo game they didn’t know about? Thank goodness the chain is well cared for and the management took it very seriously. Immediately the stall was closed and they worked quickly to correct the problem so that this would no longer be happening in their showers. Always check these louvers and bend down to eye level with them, since even at first glance they can look all right while viewing from above while standing.
