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Joe’s Journal: Day 50 – Encounter at the Truck Stop



We’d spent the day trying to wrangle a trucker or tow into an on-camera interview with me. The way we reckoned it, if we wanted to talk to people who had some issues with fast food and a sedentary lifestyle, then the truck drivers were the Holy Grail. What we hadn’t anticipated was that Borat’s reputation would precede us. We were conducting our interview right around the time the movie Borat came out. Why is this relevant? Because Borat’s creator and star Sacha Baron Cohen had made it very tough for us to convince potential interviewees that we were sincere.

By the late afternoon, we were cold, tired and frustrated. I was ready to write off the day as a rare dud. It was about to rain anyway, so I suggested we pack t in and head back to the hotel, but our cameraman Daniel, convinced me to just wait it out a little longer and at least try and get one or two interviews in before we called it a day.

I took one more long look around the truck stop and spotted some one sitting in the cab of his truck, which was parked not far from where we stood. I couldn’t make out much, except that the guy was wearing a black cap. “He’ll do.” I thought. I walked over to the truck and tried to get his attention, but like everyone else that day, he was hiding from me. On cue, he ducked down. I banged on his door and rattled off some friendly Aussie banter, as I was by now bored of waiting and had nothing to lose. To my surprise, my confrontational technique appeared to work, as moments later the trucker opened the door and stepped out, lowering himself to the ground. I had a good feeling about this.