Starting off the day right: TSG’s GATS Health Walk

The Trucking Solutions Group of owner-operators conducted its annual GATS Health Awareness Walk this morning, Aug. 23, with a sizable group of participants. Sponsoring organizations in addition to TA Petro and the StayFit program included Swiftwick compression socks designed to maintain blood flow in the lower extremities. Health Walk participants could claim a free pair of the socks at the Swiftwick booth at the Great American Trucking Show.
In the on-site truck parking lot, walkers gathered to ice up neck towels provided.
After a group picture by Henry Albert’s Freightliner Team Run Smart van trailer, currently being pulled by a Ryder rental rig as Albert’s well-known 10-plus mpg Cascadia Evolution is being employed at a test track, the walk began.
Operator Jeff Clark (left) led the way toward Daley Plaza and the site of the John F. Kennedy assassination, the turnaround point for this year’s walk.

Arriving at Daley Plaza …
…participants were schooled with an impromptu, brief session by local Ron Washington on the particulars of the JFK assassination.

Certainly not all fun and games, as it were, the walk was begun as a means toward pushing back against the 61 average top lifespan for haulers, though the Trucking Solutions Group never misses an opportunity for good-natured mischief. The event ended with a series of ALS Ice Bucket Challenges at the entry to the Dallas Convention Center, part of Baylor Trucking’s effort. Their second-generation head, Bob Baylor, was diagnosed with ALS within the last year, and his daughter, Cari, and various members of the team will be set up there for anyone who wishes to take a challenge and donate. Operators Clark and Linda Caffee (as seen above) actually started the walk with a little early-morning cool-down. More photos below.