Truck Rest Area At Dawn

The quiet of the dawning rest area is a short pause between the normal hurricane of huge engines coming and going along their route. A few dozen drives sleep inside their cozy cabs, trying to squeeze in a few more minutes of sleep before grabbing the wheel and hauling off once again to faraway destinations and familiar places as a whole continent begins to feel like home. A rest area, travel plaza, rest stop, or service area is a public facility, located next to a large thoroughfare such as a highway, expressway, or freeway at which drivers and passengers can rest, eat, or refuel without exiting on to secondary roads. Facilities may include park-like areas, fuel stations, restrooms, and restaurants. Many rest areas have the reputations of being unsafe with regard to crime, especially at night, since they are situated in remote areas. California's policy is to maintain existing public rest areas, but no longer build new ones due to the cost and difficulty of keeping them safe although many California rest stops now feature Highway Patrol quarters. Prior to the creation of the Interstate Highway System, many states east of the Rocky Mountains had already started building and operating their own long-distance intercity toll roads, or turnpikes. To help recover construction costs, most turnpike operators leased concession space at rest areas to private businesses. In addition, on "closed" or "ticket system" toll roads, such as the New Jersey Turnpike or the New York State Thruway, the use of this sort of service area allows drivers to stop for food and fuel without passing through additional tollbooths and thereby incurring a higher toll. This sound uses the following file from Freesound: http://www.freesound.org/people/miastodzwiekow/sounds/127198/