How Donuts and Cheering Made This Trucker Fall in Love With Maine
Let's just call a spade a spade right now and admit it, because we're all guilty of it -- we hate getting stuck behind massive trucks while on the roads. Maybe hate is too strong of a word, but regardless, there's a strong dislike and loathing for being stuck behind tractor-trailers, box trucks -- any massive truck either on a residential road or a highway.
Which makes this story even more incredible, because not only does it involve getting stuck behind a massive truck, but it actually involves a massive truck getting stuck and causing a huge traffic delay -- and the trucker getting rewarded for it.
Maine Traffic
According to Bangor Daily News, a couple of weeks ago, a trucker named Mike Saxton was hauling a magnetic resonance imaging building -- AN ENTIRE MRI BUILDING -- to Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor, Maine. While navigating the Penobscot Narrows Bridge, Mike ended up getting stuck after he bottomed out while making the turn, causing traffic to get delayed and rerouted for hours.
Road rage and New England probably tend to go hand-in-hand, so you can imagine what the outcome of being parked on US 1 because of Mike's stuck truck was -- except that you really can't, because the fallout from the situation is a surprise to most New Englanders, regardless of the known friendliness of Mainers.
Spirit of Maine
According to BDN, instead of being met with anger, frustration, and the ole bird-chucking you'd expect, Mike and his stuck truck were instead met with offers of donuts, lobster, and just straight-up friendliness and kindness.
Even when he got stuck in Northeast Harbor the following day due to a flat tire, he was again met with the same kindness, with Mainers offering to take him to breakfast the following morning before he set off on his next trek to Indiana.
Name another place in the country where a trucker would accidentally cause a massive backup on a major road or highway, and be cheered on by fellow drivers and actually offered delicious treats and free meals? There's a solid chance not even "Southern Hospitality" would reach that level of kindness.
Just another of many reasons proving why Maine and Northern New England in general is the best part of the country to live in. Mike even said that he plans on coming back to Maine at some point, just in something a lot smaller than a semi.