Spud Hut Truck¶
The Spud Hut Truck is a Georgia Regional Distribution Center delivery truck that crashes off the freeway after its driver is attacked in the cold open of Appalachia 07. Its sacks marked "Potatoes" turn out to hold dirt and, in one case, an octopus.
| Type | Item (vehicle and cargo) |
| Aliases | truck dirt cargo |
| Owner | Spud Hut (marked S-H-G-R-D-C and S-H-A) |
| Location | Freeway Crash Site |
| Attacker | Thing That Attacked the Spud Hut Truck |
| First appearance | Appalachia 07 |
Description¶
The truck carries the banner "S-H-G-R-D-C", which people say as "Shugrid" and which stands for the Spud Hut Georgia Regional Distribution Center, with a big "S-H-A" (Spud Hut America) logo beneath it. Huell points out that "SHA" matches the SHA Tracking Device. In the cold open, a photo of a blonde-haired woman with golden-retriever curls is taped to the dashboard, with a mustard stain on it, and the driver keeps a Glock under his seat. (Appalachia 07)
Properties¶
- The back of the truck has spilled open, and the bags marked "Potatoes" contain dirt. Zack asks McManley to analyze it; McManley says he can tell the team how much clay it contains, and "some stuff. Don't expect a fucking map." One bag holds a whole octopus floating in liquid. (Appalachia 07)
- In Appalachia 08, Kurt tells a Spud Hut investigator that the truck held "not one potato", only dirt, and the investigator guesses "Gold mining?". He tells Jan Martense the same thing, and Jan promises to check every outgoing truck against its manifest. (Appalachia 08)
History¶
The cold open¶
At sunset, an overweight driver in a gray jumpsuit drives down the freeway listening to "Radar Love" and picking at a congealing hamburger. He hears a clang and a ripping noise behind him, turns on his blinker and turns the radio down. Glass breaks behind him and something growls in the cab. He grabs for the Glock under his seat and misses, there is a blur of motion and he screams. The truck swerves through a barricade and an embankment, and stops among the trees with the song still playing quietly. (Appalachia 07)
The crash site¶
The team arrives to find the sheriff, emergency workers and queued Spud Hut trucks on the freeway. The cab is on its side and soaked in blood: no body, no face, no direction to the spatter, and far too much blood for the driver to be alive. Dashboard instruments are broken, and there are eight gunshots through the cabin. The back window broke before the crash and the windshield broke outward after it. The vinyl roof is ripped as if by fingers. Kurt reasons that something crawled through the rear window, mauled the driver and left through the front with what was left of him. The sheriff admits it is odd that there are so few pieces, and Kurt calls the scene "weirdly meticulous for what a mess it was". (Appalachia 07)
The sheriff slits one of the bags and the dirt spills out. The team realizes that they have avoided Spud Hut Corporate "like the plague" for three months, and the sheriff proposes visiting first thing in the morning. (Appalachia 07)
Aftermath¶
In Appalachia 08, the team drives to the Spud Hut plant and notices that no Spud Hut trucks are on the road, though they had been omnipresent before. Jan calls the driver's death a "tragic accident" and says the company is tracing the driver's path that day. (Appalachia 08)
Unresolved¶
The driver's body is never found, the episodes never report McManley's result for the dirt, and the woman in the dashboard photo is never identified.