Posts Tagged ‘Jan-2009’

January 1st, 2009

She’s the Boss

Country music is Gretchen Wilson's business, and business is good

By Chris Neal

With the breakout success of her rowdy 2004 hit “Redneck Woman” and quintuple-platinum debut album, Here for the Party, small-town girl Gretchen Wilson had to learn how to be a country star. She didn’t realize at the time that she’d also have to learn how to be the head of a small business. “It’s been an adjustment,” admits the Pocahontas, Ill., native, who keeps 27 band and crew members on salary year-round. “Going from being a little girl…

READ THE STORY

January 1st, 2009

Sunny Disposition

The Marianna TA aims to put a smile on drivers' faces

We can say it now. The Marianna, Fla. TA looked a little out of date. “It just needed a facelift,” says Country Pride Manager Randy Mooney. “The fixtures were about 20 years old. And there were a few other things that needed to be updated.” And now? “People come in to a very bright and appealing place,” he says with a wide smile. The friendly spot off I-10 in the Florida panhandle looks like a whole new travel center following a major overhaul.The entire dinin…

READ THE STORY

January 1st, 2009

The Future is Now

By Tom O'Brien, President and CEO

Does anyone else remember when the year 2009 seemed like a ridiculously long way into the future? By then, according to the movies, we’d be traveling on hoverboards, vacationing on space stations throughout the galaxy and commuting in flying cars. Well here it is and nobody I know has a flying car. But there have been and will be plenty of changes in transportation, and trucks are leading the way as emissions standards keep getting tighter. TA has always been ready to deal with whatever tru…

READ THE STORY