OOIDA tour trailer visits West Memphis, Ark.

This weekend, Marty Ellis hauls the OOIDA tour trailer to West Memphis, Ark.

Ellis and the Spirit of the American Trucker tour trailer will camp out in West Memphis through Monday. After West Memphis, he heads to the Mid-American Trucking Show.

Look for the OOIDA tour trailer at the West Memphis Petro. It is in the Y-area between I-40 and I-50 just east of where the interstate highways diverge. That is Exit 280 from I-40 and Exit 4 from I-55.

The West Memphis Petro has parking for 280 tractor-trailers. There is an IHOP restaurant there. This truck stop was dedicated to Jerry Fritts of Cordova, Tenn., an OOIDA life member who was named a 2014 Citizen Driver.

(H3) Listen to Ellis on Friday evenings

Ellis regularly discusses what he hears from drivers during Friday broadcasts of Land Line Now. Two topics on last Friday’s broadcast were road rage and truck parking.

Drivers’ tempers seem to be frayed, he said.

“It seems like everyone has a short fuse, and it’s being triggered faster than you have ever seen it,” Elis said.

He mention his home state of Missouri, which is permanently taking out rest areas but at the same time expanding truck parking. Leaving barebones parking for long-haul drivers is a great fix, he said. Missouri also has converted former weigh station stations to parking areas for commercial drivers.

“More states could take lessons from Missouri. Instead of spending thousands and thousands of dollars of digging up asphalt and that, that were already laid down for a scale, you can leave it, make some spots for trucks to where you can go in, this is all they’re supplying, is a parking spot and maybe a dumpster for trash,” Ellis said.

Listen to the broadcast here.

Land Line Now is broadcast at 7 p.m. EDT on SiriusXM. Land Line Now makes its full show available starting at 8 p.m. EDT streaming online at LandLineNow.com. For those on the road and listening to audio on their phone, the show can be accessed as a podcast on various podcast apps as well.

The podcast is available online at LandLine.Media and on a variety of streaming services. Many of those locations support the full archive of shows, so you can catch up at any time, day or night.

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.

Ellis plans to be to the Mid-America Trucking Show on Friday and Saturday, March 30 and April. After that, he heads to Seymour, Ind. He plans to be there April 4-5.

Here is the schedule for The Spirit. LL