It's a sort of maxim I've held in my mind for years doing the work of journalism as it relates to events. Show up early and get the lay of the land, and you might well find something you don't expect to. Yesterday, as owner-ops and drivers set up and shined up on the grounds of the Iowa 80 Truck Stop in Walcott, Iowa, for the Super Truck Beauty Contest, the opposite applies, too.
I hung around long enough to be surprised. I wasn't the only one.
Rain had been spitting on owner-operator Aaron Walters' efforts to keep it and other elements off of his 2019 Peterbilt 389, pictured above, for the time I spent out on the competition lot during set-up yesterday. With a minor shower dissipating near sundown, he was so focused on the power unit, in fact, that he didn't see the big-sky rainbow appear to the east of the lot until I showed the picture of it I got above his truck.
The Walcott show is notable not only for its Super Truck contest, of course. Fleets take the opportunity to show off their own equipment and opportunities therein for drivers, and owner-operators looking to lease on.