Loves-Truck-Stop-Love-Bob Davis Podcast 1091

Loves Truck Stop Love

Firstly it’s time for some Loves Truck Stop Love. I’ve spent a lot of time in these places. Details in Loves-Truck-Stop-Love-Bob Davis Podcast 1091.

Tom Love Passes Away

Secondly the guy who built the Love’s Truck and Travel Stop chain Love’s passes away recently at 85.

Live Podcast

Therefore it’s time for a podcast live from the Love’s.

National Highway System

Above all this subject gets me going on the history of first the National Highway System and it’s successor the Interstates.

Trucking

In addition while I am not an expert on the history of trucking I’ll spend some time on this subject.

Independent Businesses

As well as discussing the whole subject of how the truck stops starting as independent refueling stations grew with the Interstates and the US from the 1960’s.

Logistics

Certainly it’s fair to say that over the road trucking coast to coast…

And the container system with railroads…

Has contributed greatly to America’s logistics systems.

Truck Stops

Of course the Truck Stops of all kinds have been a big part of that.

Nationwide

As a result Truck Stops like Love’s are nationwide.

Most importantly the truck stops also cater to travelers and nomads.

More Comfortable

That is to say fuel, great food, products we need and showers make life on the road a lot more comfortable and enjoyable than it was back in the day.

When The Interstates Were New

Likewise I am old enough to remember when the Interstates were still in construction.

Family Road Trips

Taking family road trips that often detoured onto two lane highways through the South and central US.

Passion For Travel

Moreover these trips fueled my passion for the travel experience.

Mom And Pop

Including the mom and pop truck stops of old.

Lamenting Change

Finally you often hear people lament the changes in this country.

Good Changes

But some of those changes have produced results that we will remember fondly someday when they too pass into the mists of time.

Truckers Travelers and Nomads

In short for Truckers, Nomads and Travelers Truck Stops are a necessity.

So here’s to Tom and Judy Love…

Built From A Small Business

And what they built from a small business back in the day.

Sponsored By 36 LYN The Independently Owned And Operated Refueling Station

Loves-Truck-Stop-Love-Bob Davis Podcast 1091

Podcast 377

Summer 2015 Road Trip Part 1. A midnight ride to Iowa, with the first leg ending at Walcott Iowa’s ‘Iowa 80 Truck Stop’ where we encountered the first blush of Internet Upload problems. While I usually don’t write these podcast notes in the first person I have to break format to suggest that a real problem with traveling and ‘untethering’ is spotty Wireless Internet Service, particularly at Truck Stops. Iowa 80 gets points for allowing free access to their WIFI, but when you start uploading huge audio files, it becomes impossible to file. Starbucks used to require people to sign in with AT&T Wireless Service (blah blah blah) but figured it out. It’s free, and its fast downloading and uploading. Unfortunately, in the desert that is Central Illinois and Eastern Iowa, there aren’t many Starbucks. So, Kudos to the Sapp Brothers Truck Stop near Peru, Illinois. I was able to get this package uploaded and posted by around noon central Wednesday. Anyway. Lots of energy and enthusiasm for this trip out east, to the Atlantic Coast, with stops in Illinois, via Kentucky, Tennessee, Southwestern Virginia, onto Richmond, and Washington DC. Bored with the Bruce Jenner changeling story, as the moon rose over the fecund fields of Iowa last night, I began to wonder whether ‘The People of Iowa’ really deserve all the attention their getting in the media, because they hold the ‘first in the nation Caucus’, in 2016. What has become a cliche of American politics; The Diner photo op, the chat with the farmer by the barn, the waving fields of amber, is abundant in Iowa. What happens when an honest, real population becomes aware they’re on the Truman Show, as politicians and Media caravan all over this state? Lots of federal largesse evident in Iowa from Wind Farms to Bio Diesel. Is this good? Is Iowa, with its farms and burgeoning small cities, aspirational? 100 years ago most Americans lived in rural, small towns and cities. Does Iowa represent a desire to get back to that kind of bucolic existence or is it just that they have the first major political contest in what is becoming an insane circus called the Presidential Election of 2016? Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul

Podcast 357

Wyoming Breakout. Back home from Road Trip II, 2015. The story of the ‘breakout from Wyoming’, going up and down a big mountain in the middle of the spring snow storm, and outrunning the weather heading east. The objective? Don’t stop until warmer weather and or sunshine, whichever occurs first. In this case, it happened to be Sidney, Nebraska. Then, a day’s drive in the pouring rain through the Cornhusker State, onto Iowa for the final leg home from Des Moines to the Twin Cities. The Mobile Podcast Command Unit 8 performed brilliantly under varying conditions. Email from a listener introduced to us through a knock on the window of Unit 8 at midnight, behind a Casino. Plus some thoughts about the 2016 political cycle in the superb setting of the famous Nepenthe, located in the mountains of Big Sur, California, as we wait for a table, through the magic of audio podcasts. One of the things that kept coming up throughout the trip is this question of whether anyone who isn’t a political operative, or junkie, is paying attention to the cattle call of republican candidates, and the farce of democrat presidential candidates in the current time frame. Farmers let their fields lay fallow, so the soil isn’t fatigued. Creatives know sometimes you need to take a break in order to avoid burn out, writer’s block, and to get to the good stuff, creatively speaking. The media knows nothing of this, and continues to sift, and report and sift, and grind until there’s nothing left. What’s important right now isn’t personalities, the outrage of the day, or some expose. People need time to take a break from all the politics so they can actually do some internal thinking about the things that matter most to them. What are the overarching themes? Has any party developed an overall narrative that motivates real people to work and vote for the candidates? Does the candidate him or herself even matter? We’re not hearing those themes. We’re hearing what this one said about that one and how this one is getting more contributions, and the other one looks good or bad. The most divisive institution in American politics is not Congress, it’s the media. Can people tune it out? Sitting in the beautiful sunshine of Big Sur, staring out at the Pacific makes one think it is possible. Sponsored by Baklund R&D. (Image from California Travels)