The Spirit swings through Texas in February

Jon Osburn, skipper of OOIDA’s tour trailer, gets to spend some quality time in Texas in February.

The Spirit of the American Trucker trailer will be in Texas for about a month, with stops planned near the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso and Laredo and also in San Antonio, Beaumont, Hillsboro and Terrell.

Osburn will be piloting The Spirit through Texas in time to spend National Chili Day on Feb. 25 there.

Cooks in no other region in the U.S. make chili like they do in Texas.

Early scheduling had The Spirit parked in Beaumont for National Chili Day, and odds are good the Black Bear Diner there would have a decent bowl of chili, he said, as long as coronavirus restrictions allow it to open.

“Last year Beaumont was a ghost town,” Osburn said. “I really hope it’s not for 2021.”

Texas and Mexico share more than 1,250 miles of common border. About 2.3 million northbound trucks entered the U.S. through the Port of Laredo in 2018, according to the Texas comptroller. There were about 811,000 trucks crossing at El Paso.

Since The Spirit last rolled through Texas, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement went into effect. OOIDA supported the deal, which established a federal review process to restrict unsafe motor carriers from operating beyond border commercial zones. There also are other assurances that Mexican carriers comply with U.S. regulations.

Osburn expects to hear from commercial drivers at his Texas stops how the USMCA is working and also hear what other issues need to be raised.

Cross-border freight in late 2020 was surging closer to pre-pandemic levels, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and of course trucks carry the lion’s share of that freight. Osburn said it will be nice to get back to normal, knock on wood. LL