OOIDA tour trailer stops in Amarillo, Texas

Amarillo, Texas, is the next stop for Marty Ellis and the OOIDA tour trailer.

Ellis and the Spirit of the American Trucker are scheduled to be at the Amarillo TA Travel Center through Wednesday, Jan. 11.

The Amarillo TA is at I-40 and Whitaker, which is Exit 74 from the interstate.

The Amarillo TA has parking for 185 tractor-trailers. There is a Black Bear Diner there for sit-down restaurant meals, plus fast-food eateries Burger King, Pizza Hut Express and Popeye’s.

Among the things that contribute to Amarillo’s reputation:

• It is the home of the Big Texas Steak Ranch next to I-40 there. Dare take the 72-ounce steak challenge? Eat the whole thing in a hour and it is free.
• Meat-packing is big business there, and Producer Owned Beef LLC got $12 million from the state to build a $670 million facility there in 2023.
• The Cadillac Ranch is just west of Amarillo. It is a famous public art installation consisting of 10 Cadillacs buried front bumper first in the ground.
• Amarillo once was the Helium Capital of the World. From 1929-43, almost all of the world’s helium was stored in a natural structure known as Cliffside Field.
• It is home to Pantex, the primary United States nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility. It has been there since 1975.
• The city’s name is Spanish for “yellow.” The name perhaps connotes the color of the subsoil there, says the Amarillo Chamber of Commerce.

Word from the road

Ellis also talks about what he sees on the road and hears from drivers during regular Friday broadcast segments on Land Line Now.

Last Friday, Ellis provided some stark reminders he has witnessed lately about problems that can be caused by cold weather.

He was headed to Joplin, Mo., when he heard about Interstate 44 getting shut down because of weather. He was lucky enough to be parked, but he said it sounded pretty hairy, with multiple crashes and people getting Life Flighted to hospitals. Later, when he headed out to his next stop, he saw remnants of the collisions.

When the temperature drops like it did when the I-44 collisions happened, the roads ice up in a heartbeat, he said.

“Try to slow down. That load is not worth your life or somebody else’s,” Ellis said.

The problems with winter driving also caused him to be concerned about safety features, like
automatic emergency braking.

“I really do wish there was a way that we could get a study and see how many of these accidents, especially in the winter, are caused by that truck using the automatic emergency braking, where maybe the driver maybe wouldn’t have slammed on the brakes and the truck did,” he said. “Would the outcome be different?”

List to the program here.

You can listen to the broadcasts via SiriusXM Channel 146 or listen to them via the Bulldog smartphone app.

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 Amarillo, Ellis plans stop in Deming, N.M., and then return to the Lone Star State for stops in El Paso and San Antonio.

Here is the schedule for The Spirit. LL