OOIDA tour trailer weekends in Beaumont, Texas

Marty Ellis plans to spend a final weekend in Texas on his short recent tour of the state. He and the OOIDA tour trailer are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, Jan. 27-28, at the Petro truck stop in Beaumont.

The Beaumont Petro has parking for 275 tractor-trailers. There is a Black Bear Diner there.

Beaumont, where Texas oil started

Beaumont is where in 1901 the Spindletop oil gusher told the world that there was a huge oil field beneath the ground in this region. On the campus of Lamar University in Beaumont, the Spindletop Gladys City Boomtown museum celebrates the historical era.

Because of Spindletop, Texaco and Gulf Oil were founded for developing oil production there. Those companies are now part of Chevron Corp.

Truck stop behavior

Ellis regularly talks on Friday broadcasts of Land Line Now about what he sees and is hearing from drivers on the road.

Drivers who slide their axle onto a scale despite signs saying not to do that rankled Ellis enough to talk about it on last Friday’s Land Line Now broadcast.

Doing that can break the scale, he said. That means the scales will be off for the drivers coming after someone who ignored the sign. It also means the owners of the scale could be stuck with spending thousands to fix it.

Somewhere a driver needs to learn not to do that, Ellis said.

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 Beaumont, Ellis has stops planned in Louisiana. Starting Monday, he and the OOIDA tour trailer are scheduled to be at Shreveport, and on Feb. 2-4 Ellis is set to stop in Tallulah.

Here is the schedule for The Spirit. LL