Love's is Everywhere

After almost running off the exit because I was so sleepy, I pulled into a Love's Convenience Store, Gas, and Truck Stop.  Love's.  WTF?  Where did this come from?  I sure as hell don't love Love's like I love Quik Trip.  That's a store to love.


Realized I needed oil and went inside.  Weird.  There was a wall dividing two halves of the store.  One side was supposedly for serious trucker types and all you civilians just stay the hell out, y'hear?  I thought it looked like a parts store, so I wandered in and looked for motor oil, which it did not have.


It did have a clerk or cashier, not sure what the title to that guy is.  He looked kind of lonely.  Said this section was for truckers and the motor oil was up front.


Went up front and found the oil and went over to the line.  It was that scene you dread.  The guy in the front of the line was hunched over, scratching off tickets, and the clerk was hunched over some machine, processing the ream of scratch-offs the inconsiderate douche was scratching off.  Cock blocked!  I watched for about a minute, not really getting mad, just noting that it was an unacceptable situation, when I remembered the lonely clerk in the back.  I went back and asked if a civilian like myself could give him money for something from the front of the store.  Yep.  Perfectly permissible.  He warns me to hold on to the receipt in case the clerk in the front mistakes what I'm doing walking out with my purchase.


2 minutes later, I'm out the door, and scratch-off douche and dim-witted clerk are statues, in the same positions as before.  While I am confident that I'm doing nothing wrong, and the clerk is several notches below the minimally alert level, I am thinking that it's good that I have a receipt.'


Hey, I've got nothing to hide, I boldly pop the hood not 25 feet from the clerk and pour the oil into my engine.  Right out in the open.  No attempt to conceal my seemingly criminal actions.


I close the hood of the car and a police car rushes into the lot with lights flashing (no siren, though - perhaps he was in "silent but deadly" mode).  Whoa.  That was fast.  Cop flies past and blocks a couple of cars at the far end of the lot in with that patented "diagonal park" move.


Not sure if it's a case of mistaken identity or a strange coincidence, but not really wanting to stick around, I casually get back in the car and drive off.


Why is a cop zipping in to confront a couple of cars in a gas station parking lot?  Will there be gunfire?  The route back onto the highway takes me in a wide spiral around the scene.  The cop is between the cars, talking to someone through the window.  Doesn't look like gunfire will be featured.  Doesn't look like mistaken identity, he seems to have business with these guys.


Why does a cop zero in on two non-moving vehicles?  Why does a cop "stop" someone in a gas station parking lot.  I'm not sure I've seen something like this before.  I imagined that there was a child custody struggle, a domestic violence incident, or an aggressive campaign for the policeman's ball, but I'll have to live with the fact that I will probably never know.