The long winter months are drawing on and I’m missing the truck show fraternity and the reminiscent fun we have at the various shows we get to. It’s an opportunity for us all to get together with other like minded folk who also enjoy the trucks that we fondly look back on from the golden years and also the modern day trucks that are comfier, safer and more eco friendly than their car equivalents. Its our favourite time of the year, suns out, tyres stay black and trucks stay clean, we even keep the breweries happy!

So what are your plans? I have no doubt there will be a couple of mini convoys, well I hope so anyway. I’m guessing there maybe a new show or two on the calendar if I can get along to them. I’d love to get to the Devin Truck show at some point, but that’ll likely be next year, I may do the Truckfest Southeast if it falls on the right weekend, of course I’ll do the Retro Truck Show and a maybe a couple more local shows, then fingers crossed I might just get the Gr814 along to the Truckstar Festival in Holland, although I might need to borrow someone’s fuel card! I also hope to do a few more jobs to the Gr814 before all this. I’d like to change the rear axle for a better gear ratio. I’d like to get the chassis shot blasted and repainted in factory gloss black. Finally if the budget allows, I’d love to get the cab painted too but I don’t think that’ll be this year because of both time and cash.

The other thing I’m looking forward to is catching up with and making new friends and acquaintances. Something about the trucking lot, that means there is never a lot of ice to be broken if any. We meet up with new people and we start talking, chatting or helping, this is where the romance of the roads originates. How often have you met a fellow driver, shared a table for dinner and a beer and then gone your separate ways and then met up again at a random delivery or overnight stop a year or so later. Well that’s much the same as the men’s bad women of the short circuit. We all know each other and we all get along but we may not see each other from one year to the next, but you just pick up where we left off. You also get to rub shoulders with the big boys, those who some expect to be different for some reason, but they are all drivers and truck nuts at heart. The generosity of people such as Richard Payne, Mark Farrow, Charles Russell, John Thomas, Fred Parker and a few others, almost knows no bounds. Always happy to help, always willing to get involved, totally approachable and won’t see anyone struggle, go short or miss out if they can help it. Proper old school bosses the lot of them! It seems that all of this is in the blood whether you’re driver or guv’nor we are all there for the craic, the beer and of course the trucks. Bring on the 2023 season and please, say hello.