By Julia Oakes, Samantha Hess and Callista DeGraw
Saturday, Nov. 9 was a cloudless, windy, 40-degree morning at Pilot #57 off I-40 in Mebane. With locals and travelers stopping in from all over, the chances of encountering a unique story at this rest stop are far from slim.
The Hero
Steven Cosner can often be found at Pilot pouring cream and sugar into his Dunkin Donuts iced coffee. Cosner is from Danville, Virginia, but works as a foreman at the Triangle Grading and Paving Co. in Pittsboro, North Carolina, an almost two-hour drive from his house.
“Four hours a day, I’m driving,” Cosner says. “I come to this stop often because I hit this road, go north, then jump over to 119 and go home. From here on it’s pretty much just country roads.”
On this Saturday, Cosner was driving home from a job he was working in nearby Burlington. With a wife and four kids at home, it can be difficult being away so much, but he makes double the amount of money at his job in Pittsboro than he would in Danville. “North Carolina’s growing a lot faster. We don’t have the same kinds of opportunities in the country,” he says.
Cosner has been building since he was a child. He began with LEGOs and Lincoln Logs when he was in kindergarten and says he never stopped. He even got the opportunity to build one of the storage units in the area around the Pilot truck stop, and did the grading for the area as well. In eighth grade, Cosner says, he took a profession predictor test, and he was expected to become a farmer.
“I do run equipment, I’m almost there. I just gotta grow stuff,” he says. “I live on a 200-acre farm now with only five neighbors. There’s about two miles in between each one of us.” With a long, hectic commute, farm life is relaxing for Cosner, and he makes money from people who rent his land.
With all of the talk of LEGOS and farming, Cosner modestly buried the lead about a moment that nearly cost him his life.
In 2013 he went through an ordeal when trying to save children from a house fire in Gibsonville, a small town just down the interstate from the Pilot. Although he was praised for his heroic efforts, the two children died in the fire.
Cosner also suffered significant burns from running through the flames.
“I was in the hospital for about six days, and I still have scars from the burns I suffered,” he says. “My buddy and I saw the smoke on our way to work.”
Cosner, a father of four, was quoted in a news story at the time as saying he had no choice but to attempt to save the children.
“I just had to do something.”
The Immigrant
While the coffee station is Cosner’s reason for stopping at this Pilot, others come for different perks. One man who wanted to be identified only by his first name, Dede, explained that he stops at Pilot and Flying J truck stops for their rewards program.
“All the Flying J and Pilots have an account for fuel, so every time you put fuel in, you get a free shower. It’s 12 cents less than fueling somewhere else, so most of the time I stop here.”
While he is originally from Haiti, Dede and his family have lived in Miramar, Florida since 2000. He moved to the United States for “a lot of reasons, mostly politics.” He still visits relatives who remain in Haiti.
Dede works as a truck driver delivering household goods and furniture all over the country. On this Saturday, he was on his way to Tennessee, but was in Connecticut just three days prior. When asked if his route includes cross-country or just the East Coast, he says that while he’s traveled all over, his main locations are Florida, Chicago, Boston and New Hampshire.
Dede can’t decide which place he’s driven to is his favorite so far. “I’ve been to so many of them. I’ve been to Vegas, California, Washington State—everywhere has a different vibe.” He maintains that he prefers Florida because “I don’t like the cold.”
He explained that his stops at Pilot and Flying J are typically on the longer side, due to a Department of Transportation rule. “Normally, after 11 hours of driving, you have to stop for 10 hours. That’s the requirement.” Dede says the company is able to keep track through an “E-log,” which marks how long a driver has been on the road and how many consecutive hours they stop for. Should a driver fail to stop for the required amount of time, the company is in jeopardy of being shut down.
Dede had just walked into Pilot to fill up his coffee and hadn’t made it very far into his 10-hour rest period. At some point he may get his free shower.
The Miracle Boy
Some people come to Pilot #57 for the doughnuts and the view. Sitting at a table in two adjacent seats facing the window, were 5-year-old Milo and his grandpa, who wished to remain nameless. The pair munched on miniature Hostess doughnuts as they watched trucks fill up at the gas pumps outside.
Every morning from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., the duo gets together for what they call “Grandpa time,” the man said. This morning, they decided to set up camp at the Pilot Travel Center in Mebane.
“Part of the tradition is to come here once a month or so, and we get doughnuts and watch the trucks. He loves the trucks,” Grandpa said.
Milo and Grandpa, who are locals, try out different spots to spend every morning. But no matter where they go, the time they spend together is cherished, especially by Grandpa.
Milo, who was playing shy, didn’t say much. Nonetheless, his smirks, giggles and playful game of “hiding behind the chair” made it clear that he was no wallflower.
“You’d think he’s quiet. He’s really very loquacious,” Grandpa said, beaming at his grandson.
Named after the disease he was diagnosed with in utero, Myelomeningocele, a form of spina bifida in which the backbone and spinal canal do not close prior to birth, Milo was expected to never be able to walk. “It was the worst kind,” Grandpa said.
But for this vivacious little boy, who couldn’t seem to avoid squirming about in his chair, a life-restricting disease seems as though it could not possibly be a part of his story.
“He was miraculously cured in the womb. Doctors can’t even explain it,” Grandpa said.
Milo, a charismatic little boy who loves to pick up sticks and toss rocks, is truly a walking miracle, Grandpa said. And Grandpa refuses to let a day go by in which he doesn’t recognize that blessing.
Nothing gives Grandpa more joy than being able to share Milo’s story with others, even those he has just met briefly at a truck stop.
“You saw a miracle today when you stopped in.”
Rest Stop Stories 