Round-up: MATS haps, and a cattle hauler on his long career

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Find owner-operator Jeff Clark’s blog on the Team Run Smart website via this link.Find owner-operator Jeff Clark’s blog on the Team Run Smart website via this link.

Walk-and-talk Thursday at MATS
If all goes well, I’ll join the folks of the Trucking Solutions Group again this year for their annual MATS “walk-and-talk,” taking place next Thursday, March 27. Owner-operator Jeff Clark put together this nice piece on changes to the some of the logistics of the walk from past years. As it began: 

About 4 years ago I was contacted by the Trucking Solutions Group. They had the idea of putting a drivers’ walk together at the Mid-America Trucking Show. They asked if I knew anything about organizing an event like this. Seemed like a silly question because no one had ever done anything like this before. I did not know them as well back then so I held back on the sarcasm. Besides that, I thought that it was a great idea. So, I said, “Sure.” I know lots of stuff. Read Clark’s piece in full via this link. 

If you know Jeff, you know that sarcasm — jokes aside, the event’s been going ever since. You’ll recall my past participation at both MATS (Anne Ferro showed up last year) and the Great American Trucking Show in recent times.

This year it will take off from the Papa John’s truck-parking lot, and rather than circumventing the Louisville convention center, Clark writes. “We will gather between the showers that TA/ Petro are providing in the lot (and really what a great thing for them to supply) and the OOIDA stage. We are going to walk to Churchhill Downs, the Lambeau Field of horse racing, and back.” Yes, Clark’s from Wisconsin… 

Find more about the Thursday early evening walk here (this is no fee to participate). 

Other MATS haps
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association rounds up some of the goings-on in the Papa John’s parking lot in this piece on the website of its Land Line magazine. Take a look if you haven’t seen it already. 

As I made note of previously, Tony Justice is slated to perform Saturday evening on the stage there, and trucking singer Brad James, author of that great “Dock of the Bay” parody on detention you may have seen, will be there during the show too. If you missed it, here it is again, can’t resist!: 

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Laurin Dreher, photo by Canadian Cattleman. Click this link to read about Dreher’s career in the CC magazine.Laurin Dreher, photo by Canadian Cattleman. Click this link to read about Dreher’s career in the CC magazine.

Bull hauler Laurin Dreher profiled in Canadian Cattleman
An interesting profile came this week from the pen and/or keys of  CC writer Debbie Furber, who profiled Saskatchewan cattle hauler Laurin Dreher, who recently retired after some millions of safe miles. Dreher recalls trucking cattle with pride. Take a look at the story here. 

You’ll have to get to the end for perhaps the best moment of the piece: 

“The most beautiful sight in all my years on the road was travelling through the mountains near Twin Falls, Idaho, one December 31 under a full moon,” he recalls. “It was so bright reflecting off the mountains on both sides of the road that I turned off the lights for a few miles.” His grandson, who was 10 at the time and along for the ride, still remembers the trip, which was a much better experience than Dreher’s when he was the same age.

Sound familiar to any of you?

Read Furber’s story here.