Interstate Reading: Road King

Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 08.28.01 | 9:08 PM ET

I spent most of yesterday zipping down Interstate 5 from Portland, Oregon to San Francisco—a long, dull drive punctuated by the pleasure of picking up the latest issue of Road King magazine. It’s a magazine for truckers, available for free at TravelCenters of America truck stops throughout the U.S., though anyone even the least bit curious about the reality and romance of life on the road should give it a read. Rarely does Road King’s mix fail to seduce, the July-August issue included. Highlights include profiles of Rick “Town Marshal” Chester, a North Carolina driver with a soft spot for John Wayne, and George Derks, a truck-driving missionary known far and wide as “The Gospel Cowboy.”

Visit the Road King website if you can’t make it to a TA, and be sure to click on the Coffee Break section. It’s a web-only column featuring stories, poems and songs written by drivers, including Many Miles Traveled by Lillie May. An excerpt: “As I watch the late night news to see what tomorrow’s weather may hold, the phone rings and I smile, as I know whose voice will be carried across the line. ‘Hello honey, just wanted to let you know I’m in Florida and I’m putting it to bed for the night.’”