Gurl! Hold my ear-RANGS!

It was Friday night in Louisville, clear, calm and 56 degrees and sure was no kind of night to head back to the hotel and sit around my room watching my electronic stuff recharge. I heard that Papa John’s parking lot was jumpin’ and jivin’, so I was easily lured to the action.
As it turned out, it was true. The place was a sea of trucks and trailers. So many, there was no more parking.  Like totally spilling over.

Someone said there were maybe a thousand trucks there and they had to open a section of another parking area for more. I was doubtful, just a little, until I arrived there Friday night.
A big jet flew over, lumbering overhead in the direction of the nearly Louisville Airport. I wondered what these rows and rows of parked rigs must look like from the air.

Jan McCarter rockin' it.

On the OOIDA stage, our own "Land Line Now" Host and Minster of History (both serious and totally nutty) Mark Reddig was hosting the events of the evening. Here are a few of my observations.

Jan McCarter’s cover of “Stripes” was a knockout.
“I don’t look good in orange and I hate stripes." Really fun song about a gal who isn’t afraid of going to prison for killing her unfaithful boyfriend, but admits she simply wasn’t up to doing prison fashion. Gurl! Hold my ear-RANGS!

Brad James, a singing trucker whose Dock of the Bay YouTube video has made his name familiar, has a new fan. Me. 

Loved the trucker poetry, too, by the way.

The fundraiser that JBC group did to benefit OOIDA’s scholarship fund and Truckers for Troops was a  -- get ready for it -- drag race. It needs no description. 

Marcia Campbell, Bill Rode, Don Schmidt and Mark Reddig

It was a complete doozy. After it was over, OOIDA Life Member Don Schmidt presented two checks for $1,350 each to OOIDA’s Bill Rode of Eagle, Idaho. Bill is the Association’s Treasurer and heads up the scholarship committee.

"This is for the OOIDA Mary Johnston Scholarship Fund, this is for OUR kids,” Don said as he gave Bill the donation. Now mind you it was dark, but I swear I saw a gleam in Bill Rode's eye when he accepted the donation to the scholarship fund. You have to know that nothing makes Wild Bill happier than building that scholarship fund. 

At one of the food tents, Redneck
and Angel Face were ready
to serve it up.

Sharing the stage for the presentation was America’s Trucking Sweetheart, Marcia Campbell. Marcia looked a bit different than the photos I had seen of her. Her new short hairdo was the result of her decision to cut her hair off and donate it – something she did a couple of weeks ago.

Marcia came from Nashville, where she does her WSM All Nighter radio show. The woman is a legend. Her Trucker Talent Spotlight has been a venue to plenty of trucking talent.
On Friday night, it featured music and poetry and even a bit of spontaneous clogging from Marcia (she does this every Saturday night at the Grand Ole Opry).

The food tents were lit up with those patio lights, and the smoke and smell of grilled brats, chicken and burgers? Oh my.