Find the OOIDA tour trailer in Shreveport, La.

Marty Ellis and the Spirit of the American Trucker tour trailer are scheduled through Tuesday to be at the Shreveport Petro, I-20 at the Bert Kouns Industrial Loop, Exit 8 from the interstate highway.

The Shreveport Petro has parking for 218 tractor-trailers. There is an Iron Skillet diner there.

Shreveport is about 20 miles from the Texas state line and about 40 miles from the Arkansas border. Dallas is about 190 miles west.

Named for Capt. Shreve

Shreveport is named for Henry Miller Shreve, a steamboat captain who had designed his own steamboat shortly after Robert Fulton crafted the first, according to a PBS account in its “Who Made America” series. Shreve also challenged Fulton’s monopoly on the Mississippi River steamboat trade. In addition, he devised a steamboat with a jaw-like device that could pull snags from a river channel. He cleared snags from the Mississippi and Ohio rivers as well as the Red River, which flows through modern-day Shreveport.

Move over, why not?

Ellis regularly has a conversation on Fridays on Land Line Now about what he is hearing from drivers and what he’s seen on the road. He talked about a common courtesy of moving over a lane when passing a vehicle stopped on the shoulder of a highway. More states are making it the law not just for emergency vehicles but for anyone.

If you can’t move over, how much slower than the posted speed limit should you be? Now, me, I would rather err on the side of slower than faster, because I know how it is when the cars or trucks go by right next to you when you’re alongside the road and you’re broke down. And it’s not a very good feeling,” Ellis said on Friday’s program.

He added that he doesn’t see any reason on the interstate highway system to not have a uniform regulation about how much to slow down, if you can’t move over, perhaps 20 mph slower.

He and Land Line Now host Mark Reddig discussed left-lane laws.

“If the cities were smart, through the cities, if they made the left lane for through-traffic, including trucks, their whole traffic flow would go a whole lot better,” Ellis suggested.

Listen to the conversation here.

Stop by when you see The Spirit

If you see the OOIDA tour trailer, stop by and say hello. Ellis looks forward to visiting about the Association’s activities and current issues. There are copies of Land Line Magazine to pick up there. You can join or renew your membership with the OOIDA 50th anniversary promotion of two years for $50. That’s a $40 savings. You can also use the promotion as many times as you like.

After Shreveport, Ellis is set to stop Feb. 2-4 in Tallulah, La.

Here is the schedule for The Spirit. LL