After a few lean years (thanks to the recession), the Mid-America Trucking Show (MATS) came roaring back this year to full strength.\u00a0 With sold-out exhibitor space (1,072 exhibiting companies), over 78,000 attendees, and a huge parking lot outside with over 100 of the finest rigs around, this was a great way to kick-off the new show season.\u00a0 Held March 21-23 at the Kentucky Expo Center in Louisville, the show covered over 1.2 million square feet of indoor space, which was good, because it was cold outside!<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n
On Wednesday, the day before the show opened, it was 20 degrees outside, and if you added in the wind-chill factor, it \u201cfelt like\u201d 11 degrees!\u00a0 The local weatherman on the TV pointed out the fact that it was 50 degrees colder than the same day last year.\u00a0 But, surprisingly, that did not keep many from coming to the show or walking the outside parking lots.<\/p>\n
Walking the floor inside, the displays were amazing and the place was packed from wall-to-wall with people and exhibits.\u00a0 Everybody was there, but there weren\u2019t really any big announcements or unveilings.\u00a0 There was a big focus on fuel efficiency this year, as companies promoted their various tires, additives, aerodynamic packages, anti-idling devices and other fuel-saving products.\u00a0 Cummins had a neat wall display of pictures and information about their co-founder, Clessie Cummins, and the early history of the Cummins diesel engine.\u00a0 There was even a cool black sedan from the 1930s, equipped with a Cummins diesel engine, parked in their booth.<\/p>\n
Over in our booth, while handing out thousands of free posters and magazines, we had visitors from all over the world stop by, including friends from Japan, Australia, France and Canada, just to name a few.\u00a0 It seems that our little publication finds its way to every corner of the globe!\u00a0 As usual, we had a terrific team of volunteers helping us out in the booth.\u00a0 Marion Stolz of Courtland, MN runs the booth and makes sure everyone is doing what they are supposed to be doing.\u00a0 She also brings that great summer sausage from Schmidt\u2019s Meat Market in Nicollet, MN for us to snack on during the show.\u00a0 Our other \u201chelpers\u201d included Jim Stolz, Jed DeBardeleben, Frank Strohmyer, Troy Miller and Ciara Sleeth.\u00a0 Thanks for all your help!<\/p>\n
One night we were invited to a VIP dinner hosted by Carl Carstens of Rockwood Products.\u00a0 Two seats at this dinner, which was attended by truck model Agnes Olech, photographer Roger Snider, videographer Chris Fiffie, one of Rockwood\u2019s programmers (Austin), and Erik and Dan from 10-4, were raffled off in the Rockwood booth during the show.\u00a0 A young kid won, but two crazy guys on holiday from Australia offered the kid a couple hundred bucks for his tickets (they really wanted to hang out with Agnes), which he happily gave up.\u00a0 We had an amazing dinner at this posh restaurant\/art gallery called \u201cProof\u201d and had tons of fun with this group.\u00a0 Our thanks go out to Carl for including us in this special dinner.<\/p>\n
Back at the show, out in the parking lot, there were a ton of new trucks to photograph and admire.\u00a0 It was nice to see some new blood out there!\u00a0 As you can see in the photos on the pages of this report, there were plenty of standout rigs, including two from Farmer\u2019s Oil.\u00a0 PDI also brought out an extremely-modified Peterbilt that was over-the-top.\u00a0 Using the outline of their logo, this shape was integrated into everything, including the back window, the deck plate, the holes in the wheels and more.\u00a0 Jonathan Eilen brought out his latest creation called \u201cAftermath\u201d and cleaned house.\u00a0 Phil Langevin, Larry Diller, Dallas McCord, and several others also had cool new (or redone) rigs on the lot.\u00a0 Shawn Gibson\u2019s \u201cWicked Obsession\u201d Peterbilt was lookin\u2019 top-notch, too – he bagged a bunch of trophies!<\/p>\n
After the awards ceremony on Saturday morning, everyone headed out to the parking lot where PDI was finally going to draw the name of the winner of the pink and black 2001 Peterbilt 379 they built to raise money for cancer research.\u00a0 Selling raffle tickets at truck shows for over a year, PDI was able to present Lucretia Gilbert of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation with a $100,000 donation.\u00a0 Kentucky\u2019s Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes came out to pull the winning name from a spinning polished fuel tank.\u00a0 The winner, Art Pflughoeft of Wisconsin, was not present, but they were able to get him on the phone and inform him of his prize.\u00a0 Art told the crowd how he was moved to buy the raffle tickets at a show because his grandmother had recently died from breast cancer – I guess it was meant to be.<\/p>\n