Transport for Christ’s traffic jam well worth the wait
Even as the truck show rolled through Holmes County, families and friends took time to commemorate the moment by taking a few pictures that will serve as wonderful memories down the road.
An enormous traffic jam occurred in Holmes County on Saturday, Sept. 16, but while a typical crowded house in the likes of Mt. Hope, Berlin and Millersburg on a fall weekend would be filled with tourists visiting Amish Country, this traffic jam proved to be of a different ilk.
The annual Transport for Christ Truck Show and Parade ventured from Kidron in Wayne County, through the byways of Holmes County through the previously mentioned towns and headed west to Harvest Ridge, where close to 200 truck drivers, family members and countless other people spent the evening fellowshipping, listening to live music, dining on chicken barbecue and enjoying the shared conversation of what it’s like to be on the road as a long-haul truck driver.
TFC designed the event to provide an avenue to unite truck drivers who are often left driving alone for hours on end with little conversation and feelings of loneliness.
While the truck drivers created a conga line of 200 vehicles that stretched for miles and held the roadways at ransom for the early portion of the evening, they weren’t alone.
Thousands of onlookers sat on blankets, lawn chairs, grassy knolls, sidewalks and banks, watching the spectacle roll through the area like a giant snake meandering along a trail.
Throughout the trip, plenty of youngsters encouraged drivers to honk their horns with the time-honored pumping of the arm raised at a right angle, an action truck drivers have used for years by pulling on the air horn line next to their window.
As the trucks arrived at Harvest Ridge, they began lining up in parking areas, making the fairgrounds look like a real-life version of the game “Traffic Jam,” where vehicles are parked end to end, side-by-side all over the place.
Many families chose to walk the grounds and check out all of the varieties of trucks, many of them sporting company logos, all with their unique color schemes and some of them even hauling other vehicles, with quite a few drivers showing their humorous side by hauling small toy dump trucks on their large beds.
At the same time, drivers and visitors alike helped Transport for Christ by purchasing a chicken dinner for a donation. The Hiland FFA volunteered to serve the dinners as part of its community service project.
As the revelry continued into the night, the event served the purpose of giving truck drivers their time in the spotlight, the recognition and appreciation of the job they do and a chance to fellowship together.
Thus, a traffic jam of a different sort wasn’t such a bad thing for folks to sit through for one night.