One of the first people I met at the truckstop is a guy we call Cowboy Larry. Physically, Larry was most distinctively noticeable by how much he looked like... well, a cowboy. Not just the hat, though he had one and wore it well, but his stoic demeanor, persistent squint, and unique Texas drawl (when he's sober and it doesn't come out squeaky). If I ever needed to cast a cowboy for a part in a movie, he would be perfect.

Over the course of my time at the Truckstop while working for UFC, I saw Larry's life fall apart, piece by piece. Larry was, to say the least, an alcoholic. One of the most alcoholic people that I've ever known. The first thing that he lost was his job. He showed up to work tanked one too many times. Not long after that, his wife left him for Joe Bob, another regular of the Truckstop (since the Truckstop is a social circle, couples breaking up and coupling with others from the 'stop is not unusual). Without a job or a wife with a job, he was evicted from his trailer park and the trailer was repossessed. By the time I lost my own job with UFC, he was living in his van.

At one point, he was so strapped up for cash that he staged an accident. There is a particular parking spot at the Truckstop that has always been a problem area. It amazes me that the proprietors don't mark it off, but for whatever reason they never did. For two weeks he parked his van there hoping that a semi would back in to it. He needed a couple hundred dollars to make a trip to Arizona to see his daughter. Sure enough, eventually a flat-bed 18-wheeler backed into it, hammering the door and shattering the window. Despite the fact that it was 40 degrees out and that's where he had to sleep, he couldn't have been more excited.

"Hot damn! I'm gooooin' ta Arizona!"

That was only a couple weeks before I lost my job, so I never found out how the trip went.

Since I started going back there I have been seeing him more often. Or at least I had been, he hasn't been around lately (which seems to be a pattern lately, which I'll get to on a later post). I rarely drink alcohol at the Truckstop. Kinda a shame, since certain people offer to buy me beer regularly. It used to be because I was on lunch break but these days it's cause I'm usually headed somewhere afterwards. Instead, I just gulp on Mountain Dew.

The last time I saw Larry, he and Hiram were discussing addiction. Cigarettes, alcohol, and cocaine. With the stench of the alcohol that has ruined his life on his breath, he pointed to my Mountain Dew and said, "that [caffiene and sugar] stuff will fuck you up."