Tag: truckstops: Page 2

Channel 19

‘Something new every day’: Meeting Phil and Diane Madsen

Phil and Diane Madsen haul expedited in this 2006 Volvo with 132-inch ARI sleeper and 16-foot box. Over the past several years, I’ve called on the pair several different times for perspective on all manner of topics, from truck maintenance/warranty issues to unique hauls to examples of the many owner-operators out there taking to the […]

April 14, 2011

Channel 19

Happiness; UK producers seek ‘World’s Toughest Trucker’

Happiness There’s no other way to describe this picture, eh? It’s Virginia Kirk, general manager of the TA C-store and fuel islands in Nashville, Tenn., during the location’s grand reopening last week. It’s “awesome” to be back up and running, she told me Friday after being closed for nine months. Kirk’s addition of the “Welcome to […]

March 8, 2011

Business

Diesel prices surge last week

Advances of 8 to 9 cents a gallon were common during the week of Feb. 28.

March 7, 2011

Channel 19

Truckstops = Coffeehouses with copious rig parking?

A new index tracking sales of goods and services at highway truckstops, the McLane-NATSO quarterly index, recently tracked an interesting rise in the sale of hot beverages like coffees, cappucinos and teas at truckstops. That category of sales jumped 34 percent in 2010 compared to the previous year, suggesting to me at least a little […]

March 2, 2011

Channel 19

‘American Trucker’ rebroadcasts; my interview with the host

If you missed the debut episodes of the “American Trucker” series last Thursday on the Speed Channel, it’s being rebroadcast tonight at 8 and 11 p.m. ET, and 8 a.m. tomorrow. The next new episodes follow on Thursday, with “Bandit and the Snowman” and “Robb and the Bear,” the latter likely to include sneak-peek material […]

March 1, 2011

Channel 19

Notable independent Colorado truck stop closes shop; chance encounters on the road

The Rocky Mountain Travel Center just north of Pueblo, Colo., on I-25 exit 110 closed up shop yesterday, reported Carlos Mora of the Pueblo Chieftain newspaper. According to Mora’s report, the owner cites a confluence of factors for the demise of the near-half-century-old family business that was the truck stop and travel plaza. Chief among […]

February 25, 2011

Channel 19

Nashville downtown TA back open after flooding

Since Feb. 3, haulers traversing the north side of Nashville’s downtown mini-loop coming from I-40 or I-24 West may have noticed a special postcard (pictured) delivered to them in the form of a billboard just ahead of the I-24/I-40 split. For nine months, the old TA billboard there displayed the message you see below, which […]

February 15, 2011

Channel 19

Snow, snow, more snow; making the most of it

A Pilot Flying J stop on I-70 in Warrenton, Mo., is the subject of reporting on National Public Radio today, and I’d bet you can guess the subject matter. Hear audio of the story, which will be available at about 7 p.m. ET this evening. Suffice to say that truckstop employees Terri Brackney and Greg […]

February 2, 2011

Channel 19

Willie’s Place to be Willie’s no more

Perhaps you’ve heard the news. On Jan. 31, the Willie’s Place truckstop in Carl’s Corner, Texas, will reportedly see it’s last day under current ownership. The stop filed for bankruptcy last year, and since then efforts to refinance a large loan with a New Jersey bank have failed, resulting in the impending transfer of ownership to […]

January 27, 2011

Channel 19

Truck stop operators Sapp Bros. pen autobiography

Sapp Bros. Travel Centers’ Bill and Lee Sapp have penned their collective autobiography, out now from Addicus. The book follows from their youth among seven Sapp children in southeastern Nebraska to the near-present, with the Sapp Bros. name a veritable legend among longtime haulers, particularly in the Upper Midwest. In the year 1971, Bill and Lee, […]

December 17, 2010

Channel 19

Tony ‘the truck stop tiger’ — calls from the driver community to uncage him

Nearly two years have passed since I first wrote about efforts by animal-rights activists (post from January 2009 originally on old Channel 19 blog home on Blogger.com) to require Gross Tete, La., Tiger Truck Stop owner Michael Sandlin to relocate the caged Bengal-Siberian tiger on the site of stop. It’s been there as an attraction to […]

December 6, 2010

Channel 19

Novelist takes literary achievement to the truckstop

Beyond the spotlight of trucking industry news in July this year a novelist was hard at work promoting a book, her first, in which one of four main characters is a long-hauler turned local delivery driver struggling to maintain a connection to his son. What’s more is where the writer was promoting the novel. Making three […]

October 20, 2010