East Coast Truckin' Nationals

This past Saturday I did something the likes of which I have never done before.

I spent the afternoon at the East Coast Truckin' Nationals in Petersburg, Virginia.

My decision to visit a truck show came out of a semester-long class project on Semi-truckers rather than a tourist urge, but I still think it deserves a moment of recognition on this blog for a few reasons. First, because as a grad student with limited time, a trip to P-burg maxed out the hours I have to dedicate to the pursuit of tourism. Second, because as a girl who grew up in the North Shore Suburbs of Chicago where trucks and truck shows are not of huge interest to most people, this was truly a Living Richmond opportunity for me.

My fellow group member and I got to the truck show around 1 PM, and immediately felt like we had joined a new world. As we got out of the car at the the Virginia Motorsports Park, we were quickly greeted by loud music with even louder bass. For $18, we got to spend the entire afternoon truly immersing ourselves in trucker culture. As we were reminded by one truck driver and owner, this event isn't the complete trucker experience. He pointed out that these shows are the kind of thing that those who truly love their trucks do for fun. By going to the truck show, we didn't get to see a lot of company drivers (they don't own their own trucks, so they don't have a truck to enter for the judging) and we were in an environment where truck drivers were completely relaxed. While I recognize that a day at the truck show is a limited perspective, I think that when I combine it with my team's online research and our visits to the Ashland truck stop, we're starting to get a well-rounded understanding of the world of the American semi-truck driver.

In Petersburg, I spoke with truckers, got to see the truck that won the Mid-America Build Off (The Beast! Almost 1/2 a million dollars in modifications!), saw a modified school bus do wheelies at close to 120 miles per hour, and saw a truck with jet engines attached to it do 3/4 of a mile down a track at over 140 mph while trailing flames and smoke. Some highlights of the trip included:

1. Meeting an owner-operator who was so friendly that we spent over two hours with him and his crew, interviewing them on camera
2. Being accepted enough by his crew that we watched the modified truck showing with them
3. Standing in line to have Kate's Peterbilt hat autographed by a member of the Chrome Shop Mafia
4. Seeing the amazing number of little kids who know so much about trucks that it would take me months of research to catch up
5. Shattering some of my stereotypes about truckers

Props to Kate for finding this show. Truly the most interesting and loud-fun weekend I've had in a long time.