“Mile Marker”

Back from the brink by Bobbi McGee                                                                                            Standing in the hot July sun on Main Street in Miami, Oklahoma I could hear the excitement in his voice as Pat Ford showed me picture after picture of his 1976 Peterbilt 359 which he resurrected from the dead. Back during the bicentennial of ’76 this standard white Peterbilt day cab rolled off the assembly line as one of the first produced in its class but would not be discovered by Pat, in the weeds of a California field, until ye...

The story of Paul & Denise; Walking through the parking lot with the smell of diesel in the blustery air, looking over the remaining row of trucks, many with chicken lights still ablaze, gave me a pang of sadness because Mid America Trucking Show 2023 was at an end. It had been an exciting weekend of big rigs, great music, and making new friends. It was at that moment I knew I had to return next year because I still wanted to hear one more artist I had missed. It was then I picked up on a song faintly in the air, walking toward the sound, I took a few last pictures as I began to recognize the melody. Smiling to myself I wondered who was playing my kind of music, which is to say “songwriters” music. There is something to be said about authenticity and the ability to tell a story set to music. A trucker standing by this Great Dane stainless trailer with soft light streaming down toward us made eye contact with me as I asked, “Are you listening to Long Haul Paul?” He shook his head, “...

They say life can change in an instant ;  this is unfortunately something The Ashley Family can attest to.  Six-year-old, Karson Ashley,  had been struggling with sickness and tests in March of 2025 confirmed  a rare  f orm of  “fusion”  leukemia,  referred to as Mixed-Phenotype Acute Leukemia or MPAL .  Karson is the son of Eastview, Kentucky’s Cody Ashley, who is an over the roa d  truck driver for Michael Cain Trucking  out of Big  C lifty, Kentucky  and mother, Danni Proctor.  Mike  Cain is the Great Grandpa of Karson who comes from a long line of grain & feed haulers.  When your Dad dy d rives a big purple Peterbilt, a kid like Karson can’t help but light up at the   sight of all that chrome and s teel.  “Karson calls it “his truck,” said  Billy Ashley, lovingly  r eferred  to as “ PawPaw ”  by Karson.   As he spoke with me  this past Saturday in Son or a, Ken...