Pipestone, Minnesota-based owner-operator Aaron Walters wipes raindrops from the bumper of his 2019 four-axle Peterbilt 389, showing the next two days at the Walcott Truckers Jamboree at the Iowa 80 Truck Stop.
It's a sort of maxim I've held in my mind for years doing the work of journalism as it relates to events. Show up early and get the lay of the land, and you might well find something you don't expect to. Yesterday, as owner-ops and drivers set up and shined up on the grounds of the Iowa 80 Truck Stop in Walcott, Iowa, for the Super Truck Beauty Contest, the opposite applies, too.
I hung around long enough to be surprised. I wasn't the only one.
Rain had been spitting on owner-operator Aaron Walters' efforts to keep it and other elements off of his 2019 Peterbilt 389, pictured above, for the time I spent out on the competition lot during set-up yesterday. With a minor shower dissipating near sundown, he was so focused on the power unit, in fact, that he didn't see the big-sky rainbow appear to the east of the lot until I showed the picture of it I got above his truck.
On day one of a truck show, it's hard to take an owner-operator's attention away from preparation of the truck, but this had scores pulling out their phones to capture the moment. Aaron Walters' 389, pictured here at the end of a big row of Super Truck contestants at Walcott, is among an approximate 100 or so registered to compete as of this morning, according to show organizers. That's in addition to a huge antique show component featuring all manner of classic iron and much more besides.
Small fleet Walters Transport Service was founded by Aaron Walters' father, and the business hauls freight on lowboy trailers. That includes a sizable amount of wind-energy-related freight, often cranes used in assembly at windmill sites.
The Walcott show is notable not only for its Super Truck contest, of course. Fleets take the opportunity to show off their own equipment and opportunities therein for drivers, and owner-operators looking to lease on.
