The OuterBelt's Podcast
The OuterBelt's Podcast
Goats in Strollers: Just Another Day at the Truck Show
Walking the floor of the Mid-American Trucking Show feels like stepping into a world where massive machinery meets precise engineering and creative expression. This year's event didn't disappoint, with standout exhibits demonstrating why this gathering remains essential for anyone connected to the trucking industry.
The European Scania cab-over truck stole the spotlight with its remarkable fit and finish that rivaled luxury automobiles. Unlike American trucks with their visible tolerance gaps, this Scania featured flawless integration of components that screamed precision craftsmanship. The V8 diesel engine, four-point airbag suspension system, and ergonomically placed coffee maker showcased a different philosophy toward driver comfort and vehicle design. Perhaps most striking was how the entire cab floated on air suspension rather than just the rear portion, promising a dramatically smoother ride quality that American drivers rarely experience.
We spent considerable time at the ARI booth developing a custom 120-inch tractor floor plan better suited to our fleet's needs. These conversations went beyond simple layouts to discuss practical considerations like which materials best resist pet hair, maintain cleanliness, and still provide aesthetic appeal. The collaborative approach highlighted how manufacturers are increasingly willing to work with carriers to develop personalized solutions rather than offering one-size-fits-all configurations.
Beyond the convention floor, our team discovered Louisville's South Seas Tiki and Golf Lounge, an adults-only mini-golf establishment that proved perfect for networking in a relaxed setting. With cocktail shelves strategically placed throughout the course and themed holes featuring zombies and trap doors, it represented exactly the kind of unexpected discovery that makes these industry events worthwhile. Sometimes the most valuable connections happen away from the formal exhibition space, over a round of mini-golf and tiki drinks in Butchertown's distinctive atmosphere.
Want to join a carrier that values innovation and provides opportunities to engage with the latest industry developments? Reach out to our recruiting team at 833-HYFIELD (833-493-4353), option one, and discover what makes our approach different.
Email us: theouterbeltpodcast@gmail.com
Website: www.hyfieldtrucking.com
Interested in joining our team? Email us at info.hysg@gmail.com we have open trucks! You must be part of a team. No solo drivers.
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And we're back to normalcy. As you can see, we got our friends back with us. We got zucchiniucchini Bread.
Speaker 2:It's like movie magic, silent movie. That's doing wonderful for the people at home that are listening to us on the radio.
Speaker 4:I'm sorry One more time. Zucchini Bread here.
Speaker 3:Hold on, and we've got Zucchini, bread, hello. And of course, we've got our producer, our director, our cameraman, our number one man with the most talent, I'm being told, jerome Barrow. Whoop, whoop, whoop, hey, everybody.
Speaker 2:He's definitely the light man.
Speaker 3:He's definitely the light man when he turns those on every week and it's blinding. I know, I hear that song every week.
Speaker 2:Blinded by the lights. Really, I wear my sunglasses at night I can't really so. I can record.
Speaker 3:All I see is just two giant. These lights are, like what? Three foot in diameter. Yeah, they're huge, huge and they put out like what? Six megawatts of light. They actually fun fact they actually use these at like events that are going around town. They put them on outside and they put them on a little swivel thing.
Speaker 2:Oh, and they do the rotating so people can see them from miles away.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's what we got here, that's what it feels like. Yes, can see them from miles away. That's what we got here. I have the same one at home that I bought. Do you have two of them? No I have one, don't be too. I turned one on and it lights up my entire basement.
Speaker 3:Through the walls, he turns it on the third floor. That's what's crazy. That's right. We just got back from the Mid-American Trek show. We had a wonderful time. Sorry y'all couldn't be there and missed it, but we made up for it and still managed to have a pretty good time. Got to chat with a bunch of people. I got to work on some business. Y'all got to look at some drugs. We did Somebody said drugs.
Speaker 2:We did not look at drugs. We did not look at drugs.
Speaker 5:We did not look at drugs, we looked at trucks.
Speaker 2:Now, mind you, you didn't miss all the walking yeah. There's a lot of walking.
Speaker 3:It was crazy, but as you saw in that video just now but y'all don't know yet because you haven't seen the video yet Centromatics we have Centromatics on all of our trucks.
Speaker 3:They're wheel balancers, centromatics. We have centromatics on all of our trucks. They're wheel balancers. They're like a little metal disc and they've got a ring around them and inside that ring is oil and basically sand. So when it's going down the road, if the tire gets a little out of balance, the centrifugal force, the sand, actually goes and balances out. So as it's rolling, it's constantly being balanced. It's really cool. It makes the tires last way longer because of it. We have them on all of our trucks and so we made a point to go say to them and say hi. We stepped up into their booth.
Speaker 5:Yes, we did. When I say up into their booth, I mean, what about four-inch rise? It wasn't steps, it was just the cushion beneath their carpet was like four inches thick. It was so comfortable.
Speaker 3:It was plush, it was so comfortable, it was heavenly.
Speaker 5:We stood there for like two hours.
Speaker 3:We did, we did. It was so nice and relaxing, I mean after a couple hours of just hard concrete. The guy was joking. He said, if they'd let him he would have brought his sleeping bag in and just slept there because the floor was so comfortable. I didn't see anybody else have that much carpeting pad. Nobody else had that much I saw some people have carpeting pad but this was like triple layer. You know what made me think. You know what they did. They went to Joey and Fabrics because they're closing.
Speaker 2:They went to their foam selection.
Speaker 3:Yes, and they bought the four-inch block foam and just made their own carpet pad.
Speaker 2:There you go. That's the way to do it.
Speaker 3:It was crazy but to do it.
Speaker 2:It was crazy, um, but yeah, so, uh, melissa, what was your? Favorite part vincent and eric, get on deck, you're coming up next um, I want to say some of the trucks outside that we walked around the parking lot so that was cool, took a look at.
Speaker 2:I definitely liked the one uh tow truck yes, it was flying the american flag, his lights, and it almost looked like a Ferris wheel. You know like, you know Ferris wheels, they come in on trucks and then they kind of unassemble but the used part of the truck is still like maybe the walking platform. His kind of looked like that on his dolly the arm. What's the arm called?
Speaker 2:The boom, the boom On the boom. Some of that looked like a uh ferris wheel riding big lights, but his, his art on that truck was pretty phenomenal. I'm not saying that the semi trucks, the other standard, like cab overs and different ages and all that, weren't nice too, but I don't know that one out of all of them just kind of it had beauty to it.
Speaker 5:yeah, it was really cool to see that scania cab over inside we were able to actually climb into. That was really cool to just experience that. Versus what we've seen in past matt's videos about the older cab overs, the scania was pretty quite a coffee maker. The scania branded coffee maker on the dash not my favorite thing in the show, though. I'll wait till you ask me before I tell you that.
Speaker 3:I got two things. Obviously we can't let that go by Not to converse about it. So the wrecker truck, that was definitely a recovery truck, so it has to go and it'll drag you out of the embankment when you go over all that stuff.
Speaker 3:And that thing was phenomenally beautiful. It's so interesting at a truck show like this and you're looking at this thing and you're like, oh, this is what $600,000, $700,000 to buy you. Yeah, like it's so expensive, but it's a beautiful truck. It was tricked out and the flag hanging was really cool. Scantia, the Scantia truck.
Speaker 1:Is that right? I think it's just.
Speaker 3:Scania, scania, s-c-a-n-i-a. I believe.
Speaker 5:I think that's the way it's pronounced I apologize, for You're putting an extra C in there.
Speaker 3:Well.
Speaker 2:I try.
Speaker 3:It's your lisp, it's Swedish, so it's, is that Volvo?
Speaker 5:No, I don't think it is. I think it's Scania.
Speaker 3:No, I mean Scania and Volvo are both Swedish.
Speaker 5:Yes, they're both Swedish. Sure Tasty though, boyardee. Is that what you meant? The chef?
Speaker 3:No, the sweetest chef.
Speaker 4:From Muppets.
Speaker 3:Hoopy-doopy-doopy-doop there you go. This woke thing really is over, anyways. So the truck I love. When you got in that thing it had the fit and finish of a dang Audi, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Or a BMW Wow.
Speaker 3:Everything was so polished I don't mean polished and shiny, I mean just like it looked, like it rolled out of a high-end car's manufacturing. It was perfect, as opposed to like Kim Warris and Freightliners I mean, obviously we own a bunch of Freightliners so we're big fans of it you can see where there's gaps for tolerances, so that if pieces don't quite fit together, it's still fine, they do a lot of overlapping stuff instead of things buttoned up side to side.
Speaker 3:That way there's. You know, it's not a big deal, and this had none of that. This was flawless, flawless, um, and then that that coffee maker we're joking about having ergonomically placed, yes, so you could be literally driving down the road. Reach over, press a button, brew your coffee, yes. And then go over and just grab it like you didn't have to stop.
Speaker 5:It wasn't like a single cup maker, it had a pot. The pot was like a four cup pot but it had a glass or whatever material. It was a pot in the coffee maker. Yes, yeah, and it wasn't a permanent fixture. You could move it, but it did sit there and as you're down the road, you could do just what he said.
Speaker 3:I think the base had something locked in but you could move it around.
Speaker 4:Do you have any idea how long I tried to do something like that in the truck when I was out on the road? That sounds amazing.
Speaker 5:Well, we do have a scanty on. I don't know if I'm supposed to say that or not.
Speaker 3:Well, you might not have been happy with the sleeper.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you may not have'm sorry. The sleeper was right behind Patrick and I, so it's right behind the driver's seat. There was no space to stand in the sleeper. It was I think they call those coffin sleepers like on the Peterbilts. The bed was right behind the seats and that was it.
Speaker 3:Where it is different is it was taller than a coffin sleeper would be.
Speaker 5:It was taller than a coffin sleeper would be it was taller than a coffin sleeper?
Speaker 3:yes, so you could get on the hump and kind of stand. Eric, didn't you get up on the hump in the bed and you were looking at stuff, or no?
Speaker 1:I didn't get all the way in the bed.
Speaker 3:So by the hump I mean the doghouse, sorry, the doghouse. So you could kind of get in there and move around a little bit.
Speaker 2:We had some video of it too. Basically, You'd be laying in the bed and shimmy off, shimmy on.
Speaker 3:But above the mattress. It did have a bunch of cabinets.
Speaker 5:So there was tons of storage for being such a little thing.
Speaker 3:They thought and maximized every little thing. But that truck was so cool because we're talking V8 diesels, which you're not getting in America. I mean, I know, yes, I get that the Duramax diesel and the Powerstroke diesel from Ford and from GM is a V8.
Speaker 5:But you're not getting those in Class 8 trucks. You're not getting those in.
Speaker 3:Class 8 trucks Correct, this thing was massive diesel engine, just gorgeous. Four-point airbag suspension, which means the entire cab is floating on air, like on our trucks. The front is fixed with cab mounts, so like basically rubber bushings on steel, but hard mounted into the cab, and so the only cushion you're getting is from the airbags on the very back of the sleeper or the back of the cab. This thing, the entire cab, is riding on air.
Speaker 3:It's gorgeous and it has an independent front suspension, not a solid suspension, so that thing would probably be amazing to drive. I'd love to take one down the road and see what it's like. Maybe one day, maybe Maybe Beautiful Again with the fit and finish. I can't imagine what that thing costs. It's got to be insanely expensive because it literally has, literally has, like an audi vibe gorgeous.
Speaker 5:That's the one I was telling you about last week also. Yes, I kind of last episode, yeah, that where the guy went through all the work to get imported from sweden, uh, worked with scania to get all taken care of, and I heard him when I walked by. He said that not anyone can drive the truck. You have to be approved by someone and not in their company, but someone in the government to drive the truck, because you have to make sure you're trained to drive it and they're worried about that kind of stuff. It's a special thing right now and hopefully we'll see more of them.
Speaker 3:I'm curious Are they trying to bring the brand to America?
Speaker 5:I think they are. Wow, I think they an opportunity. Oh sure.
Speaker 3:Because Volvo, I think would. I could be wrong, but I think they would love to get rid of Volvo North America, which is their truck, volvo Trucks North America, and just do all the same trucks they're doing in every other country, Every other country yeah.
Speaker 3:Because Volvo I mean Volvo's a worldwide company, so they literally make one truck and they ship it everywhere, except for America. Right, we're the only place where they get a different type of truck. That's got to be killing them at R&D. It's got to be, it's got to be. Yeah, that would be fascinating to see what happens there.
Speaker 4:If they brought it over, you think they would tweak it. Because Americans love their space, they're going to want a bigger sleeper.
Speaker 3:Well, so I think Scania already has the largest sleeper.
Speaker 5:They do have larger sleepers than what we saw. Yes, so that was a smaller. They do have larger sleepers where you can actually step into them and have more space.
Speaker 3:And this one was set up for a solo, so there's a twin size bed, no upper bunk or anything. They do make them with upper bunks. They also make them with full size beds, so they do get quite a bit larger than what we saw. I think Scania actually has the largest sleeper on the market right now. So, yeah, now their engines don't necessarily meet American EPA standards. That's going to be tweaked. But that's a lot bigger, a much easier change than having to literally build frame rails and yada yada just for the American market. So that'd be cool to see. I like cab overs. It is very weird getting in and out. I will say that.
Speaker 5:It was where the stairs are placed.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 5:Because you're walking you sit right over or just in front of the steer axle, so that's different right? It's like an. Isuzu truck Like you've seen the little Isuzu cab overs.
Speaker 3:Your feet are in front of the steer wheel or the steer axle. But you're kind of sitting directly on it, right?
Speaker 5:But when you go to climb out, the steps wrap around the front of the steer tire on either side, so you have to step kind of at an angle towards the front. It is weird. You get used to it, obviously, but it is different.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think by your like third day you would just be normal. Yeah, you're good to go. Not falling out of the truck anymore. Yeah, and Freightliner had a really cool design on the Argosys back in the day where the side like the wheel well, and behind the wheel well would actually like pop out and it was a staircase up and they had a little porch and you would sit inside there and then, once you got inside the I don't know if it was close the door or put your seatbelt on or something they would actually fold the stair back in Interesting.
Speaker 3:So that was their kind of way of making it more accessible. I can see something like that happening. Yeah, so, vince, you already led us up to it. What was your favorite thing you saw on the show.
Speaker 5:My favorite thing that I saw off the show was right across from Melissa's tow truck wrecker recovery vehicle. It was also a wrecker with the big boom, but it was painted in an autism awareness color scheme with the puzzle pieces and everything. I mean not just on the outside, everywhere in the middle and on the back, and just it was really cool. It was really cool to see that.
Speaker 3:Very cool to see that. I thought so as well as soon as I walked up. I'm like, is that what I think?
Speaker 5:that is yeah.
Speaker 3:And then I saw you walk over to it and you're like, look. And I'm like is that what? I think that is yeah.
Speaker 5:And then I saw you walk over to it and you're like, look. And I'm like, okay, yeah, Melissa dragged me over to the other record to get video and pictures of that. And I did one side of that and came around and saw the other one, the autism awareness, and was like, yeah, you can have fun with that one. I'm going to take this out, so both of them were beautiful trucks, but I just like the Autism Warriors. My son is autistic, so I like that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3:Very cool to see that happen.
Speaker 2:I think the weirdest thing I saw was the two small miniature goats and the pet stroller inside the building.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:That was probably the weirdest thing.
Speaker 3:Now, obviously you've all seen the video. Yes, that was probably the weirdest thing. Now, obviously you've all seen the video. So far we have not, but we do know that we did get a little bit of a glimpse of it. I hope they're on there I hope they're on there, but I don't know if you'll be able to or not. Honestly, if you can, it's awesome. I hope you get to see it.
Speaker 2:If not, we tried Picture two small it's goats, Small Goats.
Speaker 3:Goats, Kids I believe, Kids I believe.
Speaker 2:Goats, I don't know what they were.
Speaker 1:I don't think security.
Speaker 5:Emotional support goats. Thank you, emotional support goats. They must have been.
Speaker 3:It was bizarre and they were in a carriage.
Speaker 2:Like a pet stroller.
Speaker 3:Like a pet stroller With a screening.
Speaker 3:you know the dogs now ride in and that kind of thing and they had them like pushed up to the table and they were eating Like the owners were eating I assume they were owners, the caretakers were eating and then like feeding the goats it was, it was I'm not going to say bizarre, teach their own. I'm going to say it's not something I was expecting. I mean, look, I've been to truck stops and seen monkeys and we've had parrots in the truck, we've had snakes in the truck. There certainly are things that you kind of get used to. That was a new one. So next year we are bringing baby giraffes. We're working with the Columbus Zoo to try to acquire a baby giraffe and we're going to push that around.
Speaker 1:Well, you carry a giraffe in yours. I'm going to get a sloth in mine. He's going to walk with me.
Speaker 3:Oh gosh, you won't get past it. I'm going to take five years more around the bastard sloth.
Speaker 4:You know, what?
Speaker 3:How about I walk the giraffe and you cart the sloth Deal?
Speaker 1:What was your?
Speaker 2:favorite thing, Eric.
Speaker 1:This Gen. What was your favorite thing, eric? The Scania cab over was again my favorite as well. The other thing I thought was interesting to see was the Maximum Overdrive truck outside.
Speaker 3:Yes, that's the one. I didn't know what it was right.
Speaker 1:Yes For you, stephen King people.
Speaker 3:I've never seen Maximum Overdrive, but they had a truck out there that I guess was just like it.
Speaker 5:With a big green face, if you're ever just bored and don't have anything else to do and don't mind being just watching the most cheesy movie you ever saw.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Maximum Overdrive.
Speaker 2:It's cheesier than Top Gun, it was cool for its time, so you have to put it in perspective. But nowadays it falls in the cheesy category.
Speaker 3:Okay, all right. All right, kind of like what's that movie where they're skydivers and they are robbing a bank or something?
Speaker 1:And surfers and surfers.
Speaker 2:With Patrick, swayze and Keanu.
Speaker 3:Reeves, I never saw that one. I saw the old one, the new one rather oh yeah, I, I saw the old one.
Speaker 2:The new one rather.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I saw, the old one what's it called?
Speaker 2:Why can't I think of what that's called? I don't know.
Speaker 4:I told you who's in it already. Point Break, point Break, point Break Point.
Speaker 2:Break Gotta.
Speaker 3:Watch the OG I don't know, maybe We'll see.
Speaker 2:They were very different movies, kind of like Roadhouse. They were very different movies. You saw the new Roadhouse or the old one.
Speaker 3:I saw the one with Patrick Swayze. Okay, I did not see the new Roadhouse. I heard it was terrible.
Speaker 5:It was.
Speaker 1:I haven't seen the original, but the new one was terrible. I didn't think the original was that great what?
Speaker 3:No comment. It was fine. It was better than Top Gun. Speaking of Top Gun real quick, just want to interject Today, the day we are recording, if you want to actually figure out where and when this happened. We just found out today that Iceman passed away.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we did so that was very very sad.
Speaker 3:I did not see Top Gun until I was much older in life, so for me Batman passed away, and that was a rough one.
Speaker 5:The Saint passed away. He did a rough one.
Speaker 3:The saint passed away. He did, yeah, yep, I liked his movies a lot, and For sure, certainly so young, so young, 65. I know I know Well same age my mom passed. But yeah, crazy, crazy, crazy. So our thoughts are with his family and loved ones who are hurting, and the rest of us, uh, people who like movies, uh, and just knowing that we just lost a a really good one, yeah so um, anyways, back to the show.
Speaker 3:You said the scanty at skinny and, oh yeah, the uh the movie for maximum overdrive. Yes, yes, which is funny, because that's the second truck we've seen at Matt's. That is a movie truck. The first year we went we saw Megatron. Is that who it is? No, yes, he was a Western star.
Speaker 5:I don't know my Transformers. Optimus Prime, optimus Prime, he was Optimus Prime.
Speaker 3:I know Some of y'all out there listening are like losing your mind over what I just said you just woke up the person sleeping.
Speaker 5:I apologize.
Speaker 3:But it was Optimus Prime. That was really cool that year. That was probably my favorite apologize. It was Optimus Prime, that was really cool that year. That was probably my favorite show. It was my first Mets, so there's always that first time you get a show.
Speaker 3:It was also the year that Western Star assembled a boxing ring in their pavilion. It was two Western Star trucks that were actually boxing it out and if you went outside they had Western Star trucks and they built a dirt course so you could actually go drive these dump trucks and stuff through the dirt course and all this stuff.
Speaker 3:It was very cool stuff and that might be the last year I was there that everyone was there Mack, volvo, kenworth, peterbilt, daimler, what was their? The people that made their kit trucks were there, so like the gliders.
Speaker 5:The glider kits. The glider kits were there.
Speaker 3:Obviously Western Star Freightliner, like it was just one of those like rare moments where, like everything was kind of perfect and the show was twice the size it is now.
Speaker 1:Plus, all the carriers were there too.
Speaker 3:All the carriers were there. It was a very different show back then. It's the second time we've seen a television truck Movie truck. Movie truck. Thank you.
Speaker 1:I have a question.
Speaker 3:Go for it.
Speaker 1:Did you guys get to play with hey Bubba?
Speaker 2:We did walk by and there was no demonstrations. It didn't look like it was the end of day two.
Speaker 3:It was the middle of day two, but there didn't look like there was any demonstrations.
Speaker 2:There was one person it was about one o'clock One person standing at a podium with a closed up laptop. Wasn't really sure if he was just a passerby. There was a kid laying on the ground eating pizza. I don't, it didn't.
Speaker 3:They had a pretty big space.
Speaker 2:But there was nothing, it just was.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there was nothing going on.
Speaker 2:Like decoration.
Speaker 3:Yeah, archways or whatnot.
Speaker 2:So we just passed it up.
Speaker 3:I was kind of expecting like TV showing off the product.
Speaker 4:There was nothing.
Speaker 5:You know seating areas and somebody at a screen talking about what was going on.
Speaker 2:Like a kiosk. You can walk up to them, maybe watch the demonstration and they didn't have anything.
Speaker 4:I wonder if last minute they had production issues Could be. Could be that they weren't ready to show Could be.
Speaker 3:I almost wonder, because we got the advertisement for them like a week or two before Matt's yeah. I wonder if they were a late comer going like, oh, we'll have this and we'll do this, and then they just weren't prepared could be, yeah, but it.
Speaker 2:They thought they'd have everything ready to go and if the guy with the closed up laptop was showcasing everything, he wasn't inviting. His body language didn't look like come talk with me.
Speaker 3:Especially if you're closed up, right? The only thing I could possibly think of was it was 12.30, 1 o'clock. Maybe the team went to go have lunch, but if you're at these truck shows, and we've done these truck shows you tag team, you go have lunch while I do this. I'll see you in 30 minutes and then that person go.
Speaker 5:I mean, the show didn't open until 10, so it's not like they'd been there for four hours, five hours already, anyway.
Speaker 3:So Bubba was a little bit of a letdown, but no judgment on the software yet. It could still be the best thing since sliced bread. Sure, we don't know, but no real report from the show, unfortunately. Did get to see our good friends at ARI Spent some good time over there yes we did Talked to their new head of sales, anthony, and worked with him. We are in the process of making a new floor plan, cabinet plan I don't know what you call that Floor plan.
Speaker 3:For a 120-inch tractor with ARI, and if you know ARI, you're like they already have a 120-inch floor plan. I don't like it.
Speaker 3:I mean it's a fine floor plan. I just think there's some things they can do to make it better. So we are working with them to try to tweak the design a little bit more. That's in line with our fleet and what we're trying to do. So we got a chance to actually sit down face-to-face have those conversations. Go walk over, look at trucks. One of the things we talked about, too, was finishes, and finishes like paint and vinyl and tile floor and all that stuff that they have available, and also what can look good, but also what can be easily cleaned and all that stuff.
Speaker 3:So we have the luxury of having so many trucks with multiple schemes and vinyls and all that stuff. So we have the luxury of having so many trucks with multiple schemes and vinyls and all that stuff that Buttermilk has been able to kind of see like what's easy to clean, what's not easy to clean, what's going to hold pet hair, what's not going to hold pet hair, all these different things. So we actually went. The last things we did in the booth was go into three or four different trucks and we looked at the different things they were doing and kind of made a little list of like here's the things we want to do so that it is the easiest to clean but also still looks aesthetically pleasing. Because there's some stuff you can do that's super easy to clean but it's ugly and nobody wants to be in it. So, like being able to work through some of that stuff and really shoring up this design, I am excited about Me too.
Speaker 5:I'm super excited about it. I really am.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we had some great conversations.
Speaker 3:Vince and I sat down at one point, so like everybody had their little time at the table and Vince and I talked about getting the wheelbase correct for the size truck we're using, because we're using reefer units and we've got to make sure there's clearance. But we don't want too much clearance, still want to be aerodynamic. Plus we add some custom fab stuff on the sleepers on the backside once we get the trucks and just making sure all that fits. And it ended up being a very productive meeting. Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with my Matt's experience. We did get a chance to hang out and chill for a little bit afterwards and that might be one of my favorite things we did at Mets was actually not at Mets. We found a restaurant, tiki bar mini golf for adults only.
Speaker 3:Yes, adults only Nice.
Speaker 5:Over 21. Over 21. It happened to be in Butchertown, so it had the stench of.
Speaker 3:Butchertown. Oh my gosh, and I screwed up. I didn't really know exactly how the parking situation would be, so I parked us pretty far away, a quarter mile. So, on the way there, it looked like it was going to be nothing but street parking. So we found a spot about a quarter mile away, yeah, and it was like, well, we can walk, this is fine If it's going to be street parking.
Speaker 2:Weather was nice.
Speaker 3:Weather was nice, it was beautiful weather, it was just great. Get out of the truck and immediately you smelled delicious.
Speaker 2:Jerky sausage Beef. Jerky sausage Smoked food. The good part, the good part of Butchertown, oh, it was great. It's the finished product.
Speaker 3:Yes, we're like this is awesome, and then we started walking. It was maybe.
Speaker 5:And we got to the front side where, so I guess we were on the back side where products come out when we noticed.
Speaker 3:yes, exactly yeah.
Speaker 5:And then we got onto the front side where they go in, and it was, it was different. It was very aromatic. It was very aromatic.
Speaker 2:It was a unique place for a restaurant.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I know you would think that that smell would not be appetizing.
Speaker 2:Yes, it doesn't go inside. It is not, I don't know. They must be running a really good filter system or something we didn't smell inside.
Speaker 3:Well so, and when we get there, there's a huge parking lot, Giant free parking lot that we could have parked at.
Speaker 4:So who ran back to get the vehicle? No one.
Speaker 3:We just at that point we were committed, yeah, and so we walked on in and sat down. We'd already had dinner, so we didn't eat. Actually, we had a really cool. What did we do for lunch that day?
Speaker 2:We did the it was Cuban.
Speaker 3:Cuban. Thank you, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, had a little mom-and-pop mall strip kind of deal. It was delicious.
Speaker 3:It was great. We get up to the register it's one of those things where they kind of speak English but you could definitely tell Spanish is the primary language spoken there and order the food and oh man, oh, it was great, it was delicious, it was great. So, oh man, oh, it was great, it was delicious, it was great, so good, so good and not expensive.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 4:No, no, it wasn't. So that was really Grandma in the back cooking it for you. It was Grandma. It was, yes, the candies. You could tell.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yep, the nieces were there. Yep, it was family stuff.
Speaker 3:So All we did was go in and have a couple of drinks, and then we were going to do a round of mini golf.
Speaker 2:Nine holes.
Speaker 3:Nine holes. So we ended up getting another fleet owner friend was in town. Obviously it's a big truck show. And then we had one of our truck salesmen was finished with his engagement for dinner and they were like, where are y'all at? So we told them didn't really think any of them were going to show up?
Speaker 5:No, we didn't.
Speaker 3:And they all showed up and they all brought extra people with them. So we ended up going and doing the nine holes with all of us, Two scorecards worth of people and at some point I think it was on a whole, two scorecards worth of people and no scorecards.
Speaker 1:I think it was hole one and a half, one and a half we all decided well, who's keeping score?
Speaker 2:No one, let's just do this for fun. Oh, and it was fun.
Speaker 3:And fun we had. It was the very first one, so their cocktail theme. Yeah, if you don't know Tiki Cocktails, it might sound a little weird, but Tiki Cocktails all have very unique names, like zombie right or painkiller or something like that.
Speaker 3:Mammy Vice right, or painkiller or something like that, exactly. So the very first one. And they had a mannequin of a zombie in the middle of the course and they had these random hands just sticking out of the course and uh, it all like it sounds super cheesy, but they actually did it very tastefully it's a two-story building, so all of the second floor was the golf course.
Speaker 2:Yes, with a bar, another second bar, which it wasn't open, but a second bar with booths, the whole things. Different feel, different vibe for that bar than the one downstairs with the dining room, for more food I think. But they were very neat. They were. I mean, they weren't long, it wasn't, like you know, your outdoor miniature golf where it might take you 10 shots. These were all intended for, like probably five and under, even though I think some of us may have taken seven to 10 shots on some of them. But you know, some of them had trap doors, trap holes where if?
Speaker 2:you got it just perfect, then it was all in one and you were encouraged to bring your cocktail with you on the golf course all throughout strategically placed.
Speaker 5:They had tables or just this shelves yes to sit your cocktail on as you played your nine holes, and I mean it.
Speaker 3:It's almost like they built the golf course and then made cocktails and then walked around and were like, okay, my ball's here, so I need a cocktail table here.
Speaker 2:They were literally everywhere you needed them. It was really cool. It was a fun place. I'd go back. It was fun.
Speaker 3:And it was cool because apparently it had been there for a while. But a new owner just bought it, put a bunch of money into it, really polished it up and made it a lot nicer and you could definitely tell it was spiffy, Very cool place to go visit. So next time you're in Louisville, look it up.
Speaker 2:It was called the Surfside Reality.
Speaker 3:It was called the Louisville.
Speaker 2:While you're looking it up, I have a funny. So the bartender kind of told us about the two slushies they had on tap. Um, I remember one of them was a miami vice and the other was a painkiller it was.
Speaker 2:It was a painkiller and a strawberry daiquiri and mixed together you got a miami vice so I told him, thinking about my selections, and I told him, I said I'll have a Don Johnson, and he says a, what, a, who, a, what and it like totally went over his head. And I said I'll have a Miami Vice.
Speaker 5:But like he didn't, know, who Don?
Speaker 2:Johnson was. I'm like, oh, I feel like I just dated him myself.
Speaker 3:Well, in all fairness, he was 14.
Speaker 2:Well, he had to be able to serve liquor. Well, he had to be, able to serve liquor.
Speaker 5:Well in Kentucky, 14 is really low. Oh no, just saying yes. That was as long as your mom was. Your sister-in-law was working there, yeah, yeah yeah, but the owners were there.
Speaker 3:They actually were down at the very end of the bar. The food looked great. We had already eaten, but the food did look phenomenal, but it's the South Seas Tiki and Golf Lounge Tiki and.
Speaker 3:Golf Lounge South Seas, Tiki and Golf Lounge. If you're in a commercial truck and you're like, hey, we're going to go camp out for the weekend in Louisville and get a hotel and be out of service and all that stuff, it's a really cool place to go. You cannot bring your truck there. I know we said it's a big parking lot but there is no room at all.
Speaker 2:It's too busy. I think it's probably close to truck size limit weight Truck size limit weight.
Speaker 3:So I don't know. It's a cool place to go. Louisville's one of those places. I keep saying it's an upcoming but I think it's not a has-been, because it has been in Furs. It used to be, but I'm saying it's been an upcoming.
Speaker 2:It has been an upcoming.
Speaker 3:It's been getting greater, better it's a happening place.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm going to say. It's a happening place.
Speaker 3:That's what I'm going to say it's a happening place. I like it a lot. Don't know if I could live there. It's still a little bluegrassy, but it's a fun place to visit for sure it was fun.
Speaker 2:I had a good weekend.
Speaker 3:I did too. Well, it was a great show, glad to be there. Always fun to hang out with you, vince and Melissa and Eric Wish y'all could have been there. We'll see about next year, still debating if we're going to record next year or not. We've got to go, we've got to. You know what do you call that?
Speaker 5:Like kiss hands and shake babies, yeah.
Speaker 3:But we'll see. Did talk to a few vendors who are talking about scaling it down, but then they also said I heard a lot of people say this was a higher turnout for the show. That's been in a while. Very interesting what happens next year and we will. If we don't bring a recording, we'll at least talk about it on the podcast.
Speaker 5:We'll talk about it sure.
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Speaker 2:You can email.
Speaker 4:You can email us at theoutofbeltpodcast at gmailcom.
Speaker 3:And we always love those emails and we do actually take that information and put it in the show.
Speaker 4:Check us out over at highfieldtruckingcom. If you're interested in joining Highfield or learning more about it. You can also reach out to our recruiting department at 833 Highfield or 833-493-4353, option one.
Speaker 3:Have the opportunity to talk to one of our lovely recruiters, such as Delina and yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, delina, delina, or Buttermilk.
Speaker 3:I almost said zucchini bread, didn't I?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, she's not answering calls she's not answering calls.
Speaker 4:I don't do the phone thing, no more.
Speaker 2:Like she could probably do the spiel. Vince could probably do the spiel.
Speaker 3:I could do the spiel oh, this is. Patrick, you're in recording, but do I?
Speaker 1:have to say Melissa, or do I say Wayne?
Speaker 3:that's a good one you just start saying you're Melissa yeah, we would never do that.
Speaker 1:This is Melissa, you can also chat with us online.
Speaker 3:Yeah, do a lot of things. We're accessible. Now I can say until next time, stay safe, make good decisions.
Speaker 4:Don't leave money on the table and keep those wills eternal. Bye, bye, good night. Bye, we'll be right back, bye.