10-4 Magazine May 2022

called to take over, and he and his crew did a great job. The old baseball stadium that sat right next to the truck show lot was finally tore down and gone, freeing up an almost unlimited amount of space for trucks. Typically, they limit the trucks to about 100 due to the space issues, but without the stadium there, the sky was the limit. This time, for the first time ever, almost 200 trucks were parked neatly on the lot and competing for trophies and bragging rights. Typically, Thursday is a pretty slow day at MATS – but not this year. Star ting the day off with a VIP session, which is usually quiet, this year the crowds immediately came. We were busy all day in our booth, handing out magazines and posters, and selling 10-4 swag. As the day came to an end, we headed out to the lobby to check out a special reception that was offering $1.00 beers, food, a silent auction, and other special activities to help raise money for the St. Christopher Trucker Relief Fund. The MATS show producers were also unveiling the “Wall of Fame” and announcing their choices. Many of our friends were on that wall, including our co-founder Erik Sieben, who passed away in 2019 from cancer. After the fun reception, we headed out back again to get more pictures of trucks during the official light show. About a week before the show, we heard that none of the major truck manufacturers were going to be on display at MATS this year. This was not good news, and some people even decided not to come because of that. I don’t know why they chose not to suppor t this event, but I have to say, it did not hold the show back. In fact, it might have driven attendees to spend more time visiting us smaller vendors, instead of hanging out in those big fancy booths. We were in the Nor th Wing, and it was packed from wall-to-wall with vendors and attendees, as was the West Wing. The South Wing, however, which is the largest hall, was only half full. From a vendor’s point of view, those big OEMs were not missed! We hope they come back, but if they don’t, the show will be fine without them. By the end of the day on Friday, we were down to our last 10 t-shir ts (and we brought a lot), and our stock of magazines was quickly dwindling, too. But that did not slow us down. Friday was crazy – the busiest Friday I have ever seen in 20 years of going to MATS. My mind was spinning as to how crazy Saturday might be since that is typically the busiest day. Wandering out to the front parking lot in the afternoon, the National Association of Show Trucks (NAST) was hosting their own truck show – the Louisville Invitational Shootout – featuring 15 sweet trucks that were invited to compete. Congratulations to Kaleb Hammett (Working) and Josh Ihlenfeld (Non-Working) for winning their classes. After the show ended on Friday evening, we headed out with 26 of our friends, contributors, cover truckers, and adver tisers for a special 10-4 Magazine dinner. We usually hosted this dinner each year at the nearby Texas Roadhouse, but due to Covid and worker shor tages, they were 10-4 Magazine / May 2022 21 not seating any par ties larger than eight people! Scrambling to find another location, we ended up at Mark’s Feed Store for some good BBQ. These folks were awesome and very accommodating, giving us our very own room to stretch out and be comfor table. Thanks to everyone who joined us. It is always fun to get together and hang out with our truck show friends! Saturday morning came quickly, and before we knew it, we were heading out to the awards ceremony, which began with tributes to a few people we have lost since the last MATS show, including our very own Erik “Big E” Sieben, Bob Brinker, Larry Diller, Paul Marcotte, and Kam Wilken (a young man in his 20s that recently died in his truck from a hear t ailment). The Wilken family was on hand to give out a special award in Kam’s honor, as was the Eilen family, who give out an award each year in honor of Jake Eilen. As I sat there and listened to the winners be announced, I couldn’t believe how many of them were affiliated with 10-4 Magazine as either cover trucks, feature trucks, or friends. Some of the notable names on the winner’s list include Don Wood (our January 2022 cover truck), Tyler Van Der Zwaag (an adver tiser on our back cover), Charles Hale (our February 2022 cover truck), Everett Ford (our June 2021 cover truck), Jimmy Ganski (our December 2020 cover truck), Danny Kimball (our November 2020 cover truck), Chad Foss (featured in our September 2021 edition and on one of our 10-4 t-shir ts), Arlyn Workman (featured in several of