In this edition of Overdrive Radio, take a tour down I-75 in Kentucky in search of an answer to an age-old question: Who has the best nanner pudding among the truck stops along that route, and which one of them was the first to advertise it on the CB?
This week, we run back through some trucking micro-history with our own "Long Haul Paul" Marhoefer via another edition in the Over the Road podcast series, originally produced by PRX’s Radiotopia in collaboration with us here at Overdrive.
Each of the independent truck stops profiled in this funny, moving southbound haul of an episode – the 76 Fuel Center, the Derby City South Truck Plaza (exit 62) and the 49er Fuel Center – claim to be the first to have advertised the special decades ago.
In the quest for an answer, the intersection of the personal and professional lives of staff and management at these trucker refuges stands in clear relief, especially in an extended visit with Genevieve Slusher, a songwriter and waitress at the 49er, and her husband, Dewey. Driver camaraderie, still offered at the best of diners, illustrates how any truck stop truly can be a trucker’s home away from home.
It’s a veritable caper of a episode, so hang on tight:
