Most truckies who travel away from home have breaks in their truck, while some stay in motels. Those who take their four-legged friends with them on the road can be limited as to where they can stay, but Spy has come across a motel that welcomes pets too.
Only a small percentage of our drivers get to stay in a motel overnight and in most cases pets are not welcome. So Spy got a surprise when he saw pet dogs being allowed into some rooms at a motel patronised by truckies.
I was chasing stories in December and stayed at the Ocean View Motel which is beside the Bruce Highway on the southern outskirts of Bowen.
From my strategic seat outside a room overlooking the incoming tide across the road, I spotted several other guests who had a pet dog going into their room.
Up in the sky, it was a full moon, so no wonder I was a tad confused, but an explanation was soon forthcoming.
Colin Young is an 80-year-old former farm machinery dealer from Gayndah who has run the Ocean View for the past 14 years and he told Spy the place is pet-friendly.
Certain rooms have dividers which allow pets to stay in a space and people elsewhere in the room.
“We get a lot of drivers here and also have a truck entrance and a nine-acre property for ample parking and about 40% of patrons have pets,” he said.
Young said guests included truckers from many regions of Australia including a regular from country Victoria when he is up north.
“Trucks have the space to turn around at the back and there is also a rest area across the Bruce Highway,” Young said.
Later that day a Mack Superliner cattle truck with a Cat 15 550hp motor pulled up and parked outside the motel and the owner-operator (who didn’t have a pet) stayed the night.
I snapped some pics of his unit with the ocean in the background and it was a magnificent sight.