Speakout

Country ribs for the road

Having recently retired after being a food service manager for 40 years, I discovered some cost-saving menus for my husband, a long-haul trucker.

For a recipe I call Route 66 Country Ribs, get a 6- to 8-quart slow cooker that you can plug into your truck, 2 to 3 pounds of country ribs, a slice of onion, salt, pepper, hickory-smoked salt, barbecue spice and barbecue sauce. Cover the cooker with the lid and put on low heat. Place the cooker on the floor on a metal sheet pan to prevent it from tipping over. Drive 4 to 5 hours. Then enjoy the ribs with a deli cup of coleslaw and a roll. Or later have pulled pork on a roll with chips and a pickle.

I have helped my husband’s friends make a few in-cab dinners that they’ve enjoyed when they’re waiting to get loaded or unloaded for six to eight hours. The meals give a better value alternative to being stuck eating at restaurants.

KATHY MELLENDORF | Harrison, Mich.

Division on cross-border trucking

On Overdrive’s Facebook page

“I say instead of letting one state dictate to the rest of us how we should run our lives and businesses, we should just drop their stuff at the border and they can pick it up there.”

— Michael Fortney

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Grand Rapids, Mich.

“They are human also. They have families to feed. Maybe if we stand by our fellow truckers, Mexican and Canadian, we may be able to work together … I am willing to give them the chance. Which is the same that I would ask for if roles were reversed.”

— Sam Tate

SHARE WITH OVERDRIVE

E-mail your letter to the editor to Lucinda Coulter at [email protected] or mail it to Overdrive, P.O. Box 3187, Tuscaloosa, AL 35403.

What do you think of the ban on truckers using a handheld phone while driving?

“You should use a headset. That includes car drivers. I see them swerving and going on and off the road because they’re using their phone.”

DWIGHT ROBINSON

Clinton, N.C.

Owner-operator leased to Meadowland

“You need both hands to drive, either both for the steering wheel or one for the wheel and one for the shifter. They need to extend it to four-wheelers — especially four-wheelers.”

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EDWARD HANN

Aiken, S.C.

Superior Carriers company driver

“It’s good. It will prevent accidents.”

JOSE LUGO

Birmingham, Ala.

Penn Tank Lines company driver

“You shouldn’t be using your phone handheld anyway. You should use a headset. If everybody used a headset, it’d be a lot safer. Using a handheld isn’t safe at all.”

MICHAEL ROY

Burleson, Tenn.

WTI lease-purchase operator

“We need our phones on the road. So they shouldn’t be banned entirely. As long as we’re allowed to use a headset, then it’s good.”

DAVID MORALES

Laredo, Texas

Owner-operator leased to

R&A Carriers

“Glad to hear they only want to ban holding the phone. You spend a lot of time focusing on holding the phone just right to hear the best and you’re not paying attention to the road.”

RICK RICHARDS

Sacramento, Calif.

J.B. Hunt company driver