CHARITY, COMEDY & CAMARADERIE
BY DRIVER & ROVING REPORTER BRYAN WELSH
For the third straight year in a row, I was lucky enough to make it out to the annual United Hauling Truck Show in Caldwell, Idaho, and as always, I had a blast. This year’s 6th annual event, held June 11-12 at Gabiola Field, started out with a convoy on Friday to the site. Afterwards, the vendors set up their booths while the truckers got their rigs ready. Later that night, there was a kick-off party and fundraiser featuring great food and funny comedians, followed by the actual show on Saturday. This combination of charity, comedy and camaraderie proved once again to be a winning (and profitable) combination.
This year, I rolled into town early enough to shine up my wagon and enter it into the convoy, which started in downtown Boise and ended at Gabiola Field. Escorted by Boise’s finest, United Hauling’s owner Rod and event organizer Talie Elordi asked if I’d mind taking a passenger with me – which turned out to be comedian Greg Hahn from Los Angeles, CA. I said, “Heck yeah,” and off we went in a shiny lineup of over 40 trucks, cruising through every light in town, as we made our way over to Caldwell. We all had plenty of laughs on Friday night when Greg and his fellow comedian Kier from Nashville, TN entertained us at the dinner banquet throughout the evening. Before we knew it, it was time for breakfast!
Fortunately for us, United Hauling treated everyone to a full breakfast at sunrise, which included endless cups of strong black coffee and a few aspirins! Unlike the last show, this year the skies were blue and the weather couldn’t have been better – and neither could the people! Frank and Dianna Pangburn from Truckin’ for Kids and 10-4’s resident poet Trevor Hardwick and wife Alicia were all there (again) doing their huge part in helping out around the 10-4 Magazine party tent. This is always a good show for kicking back and catching up with old friends that you rarely get to see outside of their trucks, and to see who can come up with the biggest story. I’m usually the one with the fastest tarp time story, but this year United Hauling driver Shawn Pruitte chimed in and reminded everybody that I only use 3-foot drop tarps – thanks, Shawn!
We were all glad to see Elden Easterday of Twin Falls, ID roll in with the flagship of Gary Amouth’s fine fleet and this year’s Best of Show Combo winner – a viper red A-Model KW pulling a brand new matching 53’ Western 4-axle. Mike Mulchay of Nampa, ID also showed up with his T800 Kenworth straight truck with a polished stainless box that left us all wondering how many hours it took to wash it. This year’s Best Show Truck and People’s Choice awards went to a true gentleman – Steve Treasure – and his yellow and chrome 1985 Pete 359 long-long hood.
Riding away with the Best of Show trophy was Mike Miller from Jerome, ID with his clean copper-colored 2006 Peterbilt 379. The United Hauling Driver’s Pick went to Blake Van Vliet of New Plymouth, ID for his 379 Legacy (you may remember this sweet ride from our February 2010 Show-On-The-Road article). Brian Banks of Boise and his pressed-out 1975 daycab not only scored another point for the A-Model team, but also took home the Best Bobtail trophy. And speaking of trophies, we can’t thank Carl Carstens of Rockwood Products enough for providing this year’s show with the finest trophies ever!
This year’s overall turnout was good – in addition to the big rigs, the show was packed with Harleys, street rods, and pickups – which helped to make this year’s show a hit with over 1,200 visitors and over 100 vehicles entered. This year’s event also raised almost $9,000 towards Special Olympics of Idaho. Like any truck show, there is months and months of planning and sweat that goes into putting one of these types of events together, and our summers wouldn’t be nearly as fun without shows like this. So, with that said, we would like to thank Rod, Talie and Barry of United Hauling, as well as all of the sponsors involved in making this event such a great show. We hope to see all of you and more next year!