Settling into a Bojangles restaurant in rural Virginia for chicken, biscuits and “fixins”, it’s clear we are in the home of the American pick-up truck.
Super-sized machines in the drive-through lane rumble past the windows like cattle funnelled into a feedlot.
Loaded with tools and hardware, many tow trailers as their drivers seek a cheap and easy lunch.
It’s not a scene you will see in Australia.
Few takeaway shops at home are designed to handle full-sized pick-up trucks towing heavy equipment – but you could take a school bus through some of the takeaway shops we encountered.
And few of our blue-collar workers can afford to spend $100,000-plus on luxury American pick-up trucks that seem more of a status symbol than a tool of the trade.