10-4 Magazine November 2024

Truck Show Report: By Daniel J. Linss (grilled sandwiches), Mama Dees Taco Truck, Smokin Joe’s BBQ, Titanium Lunchbox (pizza), The Wandering Brew (coffee drinks), and Woody’s Hot Dogs. All day, B&B Sound & Lights played music, which could be heard through most of the show grounds. Aside from some wind, Saturday was a good day. But it wasn’t over yet. Come Saturday night, the live band “IV Play” took the stage and performed some amazing cover songs from all sorts of genres, including rock, country, pop, and even some old 80s tunes. And their stage and setup were first class all the way. We watched a team of people build the stage right in front of our booth all day long. Complete with lights, video screens, and great sound, it was a top notch setup, for sure. The truck light show was happening that night, as well, so we made sure to go around and get some great light shots. The band played from 9:00 PM until midnight, and we sat in our booth and watched and listened until about 11:00 PM, when we called it a night (it was a long day). What started out as a bit of joke has become a major apparel company and a fantastic truck show! With the advent of Facebook, various truck clubs began popping up around the country. There was a West Coast Large Cars club, an East Coast Large Cars club, and as a joke, JR Schleuger of Lifetime Nut Covers in Iowa started the No Coast Large Cars club. Most of these “clubs” were just Facebook pages that eventually began selling apparel, but the No Coast “club” actually took root and became more. Now, each year around Labor Day, Lifetime hosts the No Coast Large Cars Truck Show, and guess what, no coast was in sight! Held at Heritage Park in Forest City, IA on Labor Day Weekend (August 31 through September 1), we decided it was time to stretch our legs and check out this show in person. In past years, our Midwest contributor Eric Hill has attended this show a few times on our behalf by himself, but we wanted to support our friends at Lifetime and come out ourselves, along with Eric to help, of course. And with plenty of “Midwest cool” trucks to look at, food trucks to visit, live music, and new and old friends to talk to, it was a great weekend – and the weather was perfect, too! LandinginMinneapolisonThursday, Miss Shannon and I drove south down to Forest City late that afternoon to meet up with Eric and get checked into the hotel. Leaving the dry and hot climate of Central California, Iowa’s lush green fields and moderate temperatures were a welcomed surprise. Typically, it would be hot and humid there, but it was not. With temperatures in the upper 70s in the day and dropping into the low 60s at night, we really couldn’t have asked for better conditions. For the first time in a long time, it felt like summer was finally over, and fall was upon us. On Friday, we had planned to scope out a few photo locations for a shoot we had scheduled for Monday and to visit the Lifetime shop, but we got caught up with work in the hotel room, and didn’t leave until about 2:00 PM. Also, everyone at Lifetime was busy getting ready for the show, so we didn’t really want to bother them for a tour. Heading over to the show grounds, we went ahead and set up our booth, which was located right next to our friend Gary Pons of Valley Chrome. That evening was a BBQ hosted by Lifetime that included ribs, brisket, pulled pork, and a few sides. Although it started a bit late (9:00 PM), everything was really good. Saturday was the first official day of the show, and having a golf cart to ride around in made things easier. In addition to running the booth and handing out posters and magazines, we drove around, took pictures, talked to folks, and visited some of the food and drink trucks. Lucky Wife was a popular booth, as it was selling wine slushies, along with Cosmic Smash Burgers, Gettin Toasted 22 10-4 Magazine / November 2024 NO COAST IN SIGHT