10-4 Magazine December 2022

Truck Show Report: By Stephanie Haas Like every show, Mother Nature doesn’t always cooperate, but like in the theater, the showmust go on. The second annual Mayberry Truck Show, held on September 30th through October 1st in Mt. Airy, NC, was an unseasonable mix of cooler temperatures, sunshine, rain, wind, and a hurricane! In 2021, with approximately 300 trucks and raising $351,000 for Brenner Children’s in Winston-Salem, NC, the inaugural Mayberry Truck Show set the bar high, but the goal in 2022 was to exceed the amount raised – and they did. I arrived in town on Tuesday, September 27th to help with preparations for the show. This is also the same day that Hurricane Ian decided to make landfall in Florida causing unfathomable damage in its wake. The hurricane went through several changes along its path, including going from a tropical storm to a tropical depression, then back to hurricane status, and it hit landfall on the western side of central Florida, bringing storms, strong winds, and heavy rain. And it was only a matter of time before that heavy wind and rain would make its way to Mt. Airy, NC, during the show. There are many moving parts to every truck show, and this one was no different. My part is the collecting of items for the goodie buckets and then stuffing them prior to the show. This year, there were 350 buckets, and I’m grateful I had help from a few of the great guys working in the Bottomley shop and from my friend Amy Blough who didn’t miss a beat in asking if I needed help and following through with that offer. My heartfelt thanks go out to all of you. For those who attended, the days leading up to the show saw several changes in the show schedule as the decision makers were trying to navigate through the impending weather. We all enjoyed cooler, sunny days up until Thursday when the forecast showed the rain coming in midday on Friday. A race against time looks different in many scenarios, but at this show, it was a race against the weather. Evan Steger of Evan’s Detailing and Polishing is the president of the Mayberry Truck Show board, and with all of his responsibilities before and during the show, he was also appointed to pick the calendar spot holders for the show’s 2023 calendar. 62 10-4 Magazine / December 2022 Wanting to do something different this year, Evan decided to have some months of the calendar feature multiple trucks photographed together. We took advantage of Thursday and Evan picked out six calendar spot holders for me to photograph. These included Cody Warner with his 2022 Peterbilt 389, Todd Gribble and his 2012 Peterbilt 389, David Strickland and Danny Glea with their antique Mack trucks, Dale Bennet and his 1985 Peterbilt 359 and 2018 East dump trailer, Oscar Lizano with his 2000 Freightliner Classic and 2007 Reitnouer, and I rounded out the day at sunset with Rob and Karen Hallahan and their 2022 green and orange Peterbilt 389. For the second year in a row, Thursday evening served as a gathering for volunteers, vendors, and registrants THE SHOW MUST GO ON