Posts Tagged ‘Nov-2009’

Audiences for International’s film Drive and Deliver remember Steve Donaldson buying two stuffed toys, giving them to the children who’d admired them while their mom shopped at a truckstop grocery, and knew that for many drivers that was a common gesture. Each day, some trucker goes out of his or her way for another human being. Individual acts like giving a spot in line to a fellow driver in a rush, to commitments like writing to and visiting with schoolchildren through Trucker Bu…

In late June, the Shell Rotella SuperRigs event rolled into Oak Grove, Mo., a hamlet just east of Kansas City, and pitched its gigantic blue and white tent at a sprawling truckstop along I-70. The event, now in its 27th year, drew truckers from across the nation and Canada who were intent on (1) winning one or more of the numerous truck-beauty trophies or (2) being chosen for a page in the 2010 SuperRigs calendar. Despite the $10,000 top prize, it’s likely that all serious participants w…

Way back when, Dave Parsons was driving a semi, pulling logs across the Pacific Northwest for a small trucking company. He remembers well the white-knuckle dangers of running narrow, rustic mountain roads, always trying to beat the clock. He also remembers that once he jumped out from behind the wheel, he still faced certain perils. Inspecting the loads of logs could easily turn ugly. “I had gloves and a hard hat and a [reflective] vest and steel-toed shoes, but this is stuff I provided …

Sitting on his porch, Gerry Dussault hears the staccato roar of over-tuned diesel engines in the distance. Behind him the quiet village of Notre Dame du Nord in Quebec, Canada, home to about 1,200 people, is host to nearly 60,000 visitors. Concrete barriers cut off some streets. Nearly every lawn and parking lot is crammed with tents, trailers and motor homes, and the village is crowded with singles, couples and families.A couple of blocks away, the bathrooms, shower rooms and cafeteria of the…