Boudin, Customer Service, and Stopping at Mapco In Pleasant View, Tennessee

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I drive for seven weeks at a time, and since my company’s policy is one day off for every week on the road, I take an entire week off after my seven weeks of driving.

The weirdest part of driving is that I spend my first two weeks of driving living on Boudin.

I know what you’re thinking.

What the hell is Boudin?

Boudin is a sausage-like thing that, as far as I can tell, is only popular in the state of Louisiana. Louisiana has billboards all along their highways bragging about how great one brand or another of Boudin is.

After having to drive through the state numerous times, I decided to give it a try.

I stopped at a Petro in Shreveport and got two Boudin.

Jesus.

according to http::/cajunboudontral.com, “Boudin is a combination of cooked rice, pork, onions, green peppers, and seasonings. The mixture is pulverized (to some degree) in a meat grinder before being stuffed into a sausage casing. It is then steamed--or otherwise heated--for on-the-spot snacking. Ahh, but these are truly just the basics. Folks around here are passionate about their boudin, and each recipe is a variation on the foundational ingredients.”

I live in Albertville, Alabama. Alabama is, relatively speaking, a place far removed from Boudin territory, but, for some strange reason, I can buy Boudin in the Guntersville Wal Mart when I go home.

So...

When I go home, I pick up a ton of Boudin, chuck it in the freezer, and take it on the road.

So, what the hell does this have to do with a rinky dink truckstop in Tennessee?

Well...

The Mapco in Pleasant View, Tennessee has a Krispy Krunchy Chicken franchise there.

I went in at ten PM and ordered a breast, a thigh, and two Boudin Bits.

I talked to a woman named Suzy. Suzy was a really nice person. I remarked that one doesn’t find Boudin this Far East.

Suzy said it was a southern thing and that she really didn’t understand the Boudin thing.

Considering that it was ten PM, I assumed that they were about to close down. Closing down a store means that one can consider getting the dregs of the day’s food.

The food was not super great. One of my pieces of chicken was kind of dry. Another piece of chicken was surprisingly fresh. Their variation of Boudin balls was fairly terrible, but I was ok with it all.

Suzy was really pleasant to talk to. Buying Boudin outside of the Louisiana state linesshould be a federal crime.

I was ok with the Non-Louisiana version of Boudin because, fuck, I was in Tennessee.

If I was to open a business, I would use the Suzy model as my standard employee.

Suzy made a potentially cruddy experience better than it should have been.