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Troy: Alright hello and welcome. The date is April 15 and you’re listening to the 52nd episode of Big Rig Banter. I’m your co-host Troy Diffenderfer.
Lenay: And I’m your favorite co-host, Lenay Ruhl
Troy: And hey guys I just wanted to take a minute and give a special shout out to all the professional drivers out there. You’re the ones keeping America moving during this challenging time
Lenay: And Pilot Flying J wants to say thank you as well. To show their gratitude for all you do, they want to give you more rewards and more points. It’s called Push4Points, and it can get you to four points faster while you’re racking up those hard-earned miles. That’s right, you can reach four points per gallon after only six qualifying fills.
Troy: Push4Points is available only in the Pilot Flying J ap for a limited time. It’s as easy as one two three, and here’s how it works. Step one: push the activate button in the app at the beginning of each month. Step two: fill your tank with at least 75 gallons of diesel. Step three: sit back and watch your point balance grow faster than ever before. You’ll increase your earning level after each commercial diesel fill over 75 gallons, from one, to one and a half, to two, to two and a half, and so on. You’ll be earning four points per gallon for the rest of the month after six qualifying fills.
Lenay: And what can you do with all those points? Well, your rig’s not the only thing that needs a fill up, right? When you get hungry or you need a tasty beverage, you can redeem points for in store savings on the essentials as well as merchandise for you and your rig. And when you pull into park for a while, you can redeem points for a reserved parking spot and WIFI credits at participating Pilot and Flying J locations.
Troy: And again, from Pilot Flying J, thank you for all you do, drivers, and stay safe on the road! See terms and conditions at www.pilotflyingj.com/ap
Lenay: Awesome. So how are you today Troy?
Troy: I’m doing good. I can’t believe this is the second time we have to be apart from each other. You know, we’re once again on the phone.
Lenay: I know.
Troy: Stuck in quarantine, social distancing land, and having to bring the podcast to you truckers out there from a distance.
Lenay: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I live alone, so yeah. This week we’re going on a full month of being home by myself, so things have been getting a little weird over here (laughing)
Troy: I know, I bet. Luckily, I have Lydia with me, but I know she’s getting tired of me, so she’s been at least trying to spend some time on the porch or the back yard, and we’ve been trying to find our own space when we can, that’s for sure.
Lenay: I saw this funny meme on Facebook, and it was like, “How long is this social distancing supposed to last? My husband keeps trying to get back into the house.”
Troy: (Laughing)
Lenay: And I thought of Lydia.
Troy: That sounds like it. What have you been up to during your quarantine? You know, when we’re not working, how are you passing the time?
Lenay: Well, I’d like to say I’ve been exercising, and learning Spanish, and reading, and doing all these intellectual things, but really, I’ve been drinking beer, eating a lot of food, and watching TV. (Laughing) What about you?
Troy: Nice. That’s probably the main three things I’ve been doing too. Yeah, that’s what our episode is actually about. We’re going to talk about some awesome trucker movies and TV shows, whether you’re still out on the road right now or maybe stuck at home during this quarantine, we’ve got some great recommendations to pass the time. Lenay, what are you watching right now? I’m sure it’s maybe not a trucking show or anything, but I know you’re watching something.
Lenay: Um, I am watching Tiger King, so I feel like, whether you’re a truck driver or, I mean, no matter what you do, you can get some entertainment out of Joe Exotic. I personally – have you watched it? Well yeah, duh, you told me to watch it.
Troy: Oh yeah, I’ve definitely watched it.
Lenay: I love Joe Exotic. I haven’t finished it yet.
Troy: I know. He’s definitely a character and like, I probably watched it a week after the whole Joe Exotic craze started and I was like, alright I’ll watch it, but I probably had most of it spoiled from online. I was still shocked at every episode and every crazy twist, and I told Lydia, I feel like I would totally fit in with the big cat collectors’ group, because they all have like, facial hair and long hair and just like, are a little weird.
Lenay: And you’re weird. (Laughing)
Troy: Exactly, that’s me! And I feel like when they were talking how you can get a tiger for $2,000… I looked over at Lyd, and I didn’t even have the chance to ask it, and she goes, “Absolutely not.” So, I guess I’m not going to be getting a tiger or lion any time soon, but it’s definitely a TV show worth checking out, that’s for sure.
Lenay: Yeah for sure. So, I’m on like, episode six, I think. I’m hoping to finish that later tonight. I try to limit myself to like one episode a day, at least during the week, since I’m working still, so I don’t get too sucked into the TV. But I was thinking, when you said we should talk about TV shows and movies, what movies are out there that have to do with truck drivers specifically? So, some of the ones I was thinking of are Joy Ride, and then, Maximum Overdrive. Have you seen that one?
Troy: That – that one is a really good one. Of course, those listening know I’m a huge reader and I like writing, and Maximum Overdrive is actually based on a Stephen King short story, who’s obviously one of my favorite authors. It’s a crazy movie. It came out in like, 1986, and Emilio Estevez is in it, and basically everything with a motor comes to life and tries to kill everyone. There’s like crazy scenes of like trucks trying to run people down, lawn mowers are terrorizing people, and it’s definitely – I mean it came out in the 80s so it’s not some crazy high-end CGI and special effects, but it’s definitely one worth watching. It’s pretty creepy, and like seeing everything shut down, and seeing that like, trucks are one of the only things on the road right now, that’s kind of creepy too.
Lenay: yeah, yeah, so maybe that one’s timely. If you want to watch one that’s a little lighter, and not as creepy, there’s Smokey and the Bandit, um… Convoy, and then this one’s a little… (laughing) I was thinking about Cars, because like, I don’t know, I mean, I know it’s not like, called Trucks, but… (Laughing)
Troy: No, I think that’s a good one, and to go back to Smokey and the Bandit, that’s definitely a huge favorite for a lot of truckers. We have a blog highlighting some of these movies, and we have comments on there of people saying that Smokey and the Bandit is their favorite. I mean, it’s a classic. It’s a really cool trucking movie. And it has Burt Reynolds in it, and I’m a huge fan of Burt Reynolds. It actually became the second highest producing film of the year that it came out, which is really cool, so it’s definitely, it’s got a lot of accolades and definitely a lot of fans out there, so I’m not surprised that a lot of truckers have told us that it’s one of their favorite trucking movies. We recommend checking it out. I’m sure by now any type of these movies you can find streaming somewhere, whether it’s Netflix, Hulu, one of the other 30 different streaming services that seem to be out there. I’m sure you can find it or find it on demand for cheap to rent it and check it out.
Lenay: Yeah, for sure. And so, you mentioned our blog, so just for those of you listening, if you go to AllTruckJobs.com the blog is called “8 Badass Trucking Movies That You Need to See.” We’ll be sure to share that on Big Rig Banter’s social media once this episode comes out so you guys can go on there and see the full list of movie suggestions. So, then I was thinking, because you know I’ve been watching Tiger King, about reality TV/more documentary style shows to watch. I think a really popular one that always comes to mind is Ice Road Truckers. Have you watched that one?
Troy: Oh yeah, and I definitely have my dad to thank. Just growing up, he was a huge History Channel, A&E, any type of like, weird job reality show I’ve seen, so whether it be Swamp People, about these guys hunting alligators in the Louisiana swamp or Ice Road Truckers, or another one I’d like to mention is Shipping Wars… those who are owner operators, you would love that one. It’s basically just these people that are navigating a load board, but they’re finding weird things to ship, whether it’s a weird art sculpture or maybe one of those fun house attractions or something you’d see in like a mini golf course, like a giant windmill, and they basically just bid on these weird things to ship. Sometimes it’s animals, sometimes it’s all kinds of cool stuff. Yeah, I definitely have my dad to thank. I have spent so many hours watching all these weird reality shows going over different jobs. Obviously, Ice Road Truckers is a really unique job. They’re trucking in Alaska, across the ice, and it’s extremely – it’s one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, to be honest. That’s been around since 2007, and it’s still going. And there’s a ton of minor celebrities that came out of the show. I know they’ve been at things like GATS and MATS and made appearances like that. I think our listeners can really tell who the TV and movie junkie are, out of the two of us, because I can go on and on talking about all kinds of TV shows and movies and stuff like that. I think growing up as an only child, my TV became one of my good friends. I watched anything and everything, but there’s definitely some awesome trucking TV shows, like I said, you can usually find it on the History Channel or TruTV, or A&E, and I definitely have navigated all those channels and still do, watching, you know, weird reality shows and different strange jobs out there.
Lenay: Yeah, I know. I’m not a big… like, I have streaming services, but I haven’t had cable in probably 10 years, so I’m a little behind on my actual cable TV watching. I’ve not seen Ice Road Truckers, but I think I would like it because of the whole Alaska thing, because that’s just like one of those places I’ve always wanted to go to.
Troy: Yeah it’s definitely cool and they have a wide cast of characters, and you know, every season it’s the same concept but it’s different because some seasons the summer will come early and thaws out ice and that causes an issue and other seasons there’s too much snow and they’re hauling through the snow on things that aren’t really roads, it’s just ice. There are no snowplows going by and stuff like that, and it’s definitely – it gets intense – and it’s really exciting. And again, obviously, it’s reality TV so there’s always going to be some sort of drama involved no matter what. I definitely get hooked on those types of shows. Lyd will roll her eyes and go upstairs. I think that’s when she spends her time outside or on the porch, because that’s why I’m consuming all kinds of crazy TV.
Lenay: (Laughing) Well I’m definitely going to have to look some of these up and see if I can find them on any of my streaming services, since I have plenty of time right now to watch television.
Troy: For sure, I feel like we should just start doing what Troy’s watching on TV segment because I feel like no matter what I’m going to be watching something different when we talk. We’ll put that on the back burner.
Lenay: Right, well we should do like a special, I don’t know, quarantine slash whatever you want to call this social distancing. I feel like they shouldn’t call it social distancing though, because we’re still allowed to talk to each other. They should call it physical distancing, because we’re just not allowed to touch each other, see so…
Troy: Yeah.
Lenay: But we could have some kind of theme for that because I feel like we’re going to be recording the next couple podcasts from home.
Troy: For sure. We’re going to need some kind of outlet to talk about. Truckers, what is your favorite movie or TV show that’s related to trucking? We mentioned a ton, but we really want to hear some of your favorites, whether it’s commenting on our blog or using the #BigRigBanter on social media, reach out to us. We’ve got Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all of the awesome places we can connect…
Lenay: YouTube!
Troy: Exactly. And honestly, we just want to have someone to talk to because it’s been very lonely just talking to Lenay, so please reach out to us.
Lenay: Hey! (Laughing)
Troy: We want to talk to someone. Of course, we’ll always chime in and comment back and reply. We definitely want to hear from those listening, that’s for sure.
Lenay: Yeah, definitely, So, Troy, do you have anything on your watch list? What’s next?
Troy: That’s a good question. I’m trying to think… again, with the reality TV, and this is like an old school one, I’m still watching Survivor. I think I’ve watched every season since growing up. That’s one of those, people… every time I say that, they’re like, that’s still on? And I think there’s like five shows I watch that people say that. But Survivor’s one.
Lenay: That does not surprise me.
Troy: I know, and it’s withstood the test of time. I love reality competition shows like that. I’m still hooked on watching it. My mom watches it too so it’s an awesome thing we can do… we can text back and forth during the show and you know, especially during this quarantine, it’s a cool thing to still be able to connect and talk about and text back and forth – who do you think is going to be voted off this time? Stuff like that. I have always had cable, but I think there’s something different about having that weekly show where it’s like, Wednesdays at 8 I know I’m going to sit down and watch Survivor. I know you give me crap for it, but that’s how I feel about watching Jeopardy every night. It’s just become part of my routine. Still the number one item on my bucket this is to become a Jeopardy contestant. But there’s something different about, instead of saying, oh the entire season just came out on this, I’m going to binge watch it. Instead, you have to wait every week. To me that was part of my childhood. The exciting part of watching TV is having to wait and digest one episode at a time.
Lenay: Hmm, you just gave me an idea. I feel like I’m going to start doing Troy Trivia segments, so each week I’m going to ask you a trivia question.
Troy: Ok.
Lenay: And see if I can stump you, ok?
Troy: Definitely. Sounds good. I like that idea. I’m going to be studying for it, for sure.
Lenay: (Laughing) Alright well truckers out there listening, if you have any questions you think I should ask Troy in the next episode, send us a private message on social media. I pretty much manage all of our channels so you can reach out to me there, and if you have some free time while you’re on the road – I know ya’ll are really busy right now – please leave us a review. Let us know that you’re listening and what you like about the show!
Troy: Thank you, Lenay. And once again, truckers, we really appreciate it and of course we’re thinking of you during this tough time. What you’re doing does not go unnoticed and unappreciated, especially from the two of us. We interact with a lot of truckers on a daily basis, and we are so incredibly thankful of everything you’re doing, especially during this difficult time.
Lenay: Yeah absolutely. I know it’s not easy out there right now with so many businesses closed, so thank you and please stay safe!
Troy: For sure. But I think that wraps everything up. Once again, I’m your co-host Troy Diffenderfer.
Lenay: And I’m your favorite co-host, Lenay Ruhl.
Troy: And this has been Big Rig Banter.
Music – Thanks for tuning into another edition of Big Rig Banter. For your next job check out AllTruckJobs.com, the premier online source for finding the best driver jobs in the country. Browse hundreds of positions by freight or driver type to get back on the road with confidence. Click subscribe to keep the conversations coming until next time on Big Rig Banter.
