10-4 Magazine / January 2026 21 apart. Once their front bumper cleared the cones, they had to shut off their truck, exit the cab, run to their awaiting pedal tractor, ride it back to their trailer, and then load and strap it on their deck. If you haven’t seen any of the videos of these big strapping truck drivers riding those little pedal tractors, you really need to, because it was hilarious. Once the competitions were done for the day, we headed out to the parking lot where the light show, held this year in honor of the late Harm Speerstra and Jack Miles, was already glowing in full display – and what a display it was. I’ve been to a lot of truck shows over the past 30 years, and I have to say (even if it sounds biased) this was one of the most amazing sights I’ve ever seen at a truck show. All the photos and videos are awesome, but they don’t even do it justice. Then, at about 8:30 that night, the Trucker Karaoke party started, and I think that was my favorite part of the weekend. Everyone was just having fun, hanging out, laughing and singing – it was exactly what we wanted it to be. At the end of the night (at about 11:30 PM), the coveted Karaoke Champion trophy was awarded to our resident cowboy crooner and friend Marty Miles. With daytime temperatures in the mid to upper 70s and nighttime temps in the mid to lower 50s, the weather was perfect all weekend. On Sunday, the competitions began at around 10:30 and started with the always popular cow loading. After backing up to a portable cattle chute and opening all their doors and ramps, contestants have to load three inflated vinyl cows, one at a time, into the nose of their trailer. But this year, to make it a little more difficult (and fun), we put numbers on the cows, in various places, and each driver had to find either the even or odd numbered cows to load. It was fun watching them look for the numbers, as we put some of them in “funny” places (like under their tail). After the cow loading was done and the buckle was awarded once again to Ronnie DeVries Jr. (now a two-time cow loading champion), it was time for the hay squeeze competition. Again, to make it more challenging, this year we switched from big bales to small bales, and also added a few other obstacles, which proved to make the contest much more difficult. This year, we made the drivers start outside of their squeeze, and also on the back side of the haystack, so when the air horn sounded to start the race, they had to jump in their squeeze, drive around the stack, load and then unload three blocks of hay, then sprint between two cones without hitting them to complete their run. In addition to earning a buckle, this year, the winner also received a certificate for (2) free Pirelli steer tires, compliments of our friends Nick and Dylan at Cost Per Mile Tire in Fresno, CA. After the squeeze contest ended, it was time to start setting up for the hay boom competition. While this process was happening, we took advantage of the downtime and handed out a few raffle prizes to the participants that registered
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