1965 Peterbilt 351

Summer, windows down, sunroof open, an unfolding highway and that rhythm you find driving where it feels like your wheels aren’t even touching the pavement.

Rock ‘n’ roll, electric guitars swirling, blasting from the stereo.

I love summer driving and on a recent trip to Walcott, Iowa, to attend the I-80 Truckers Jamboree, I’m now 97 percent sure that AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” is the best rock ‘n’ roll song to drive to in the summer — on an open highway (doesn’t work in traffic). It’ll also help you find that road rhythm, where you move like water around the proverbial rocks in the stream.

“Hell’s Bells”, “If You Want Blood (You Got it)”, “Highway to Hell” are a few other AC/DC tracks that make for good driving, but “Thunderstruck” … “the sound of drums beating in my heart… went down the highway, broke the limit, we hit the town, went through to Texas, yeah Texas…”

That opening riff — are you kidding me? Did summer driving even exist before AC/DC?

I get shivers. The drums come in, the chanting begins, then the riff comes to the front again. The song builds wonderfully. Go listen to it. Turn it up. It’s an exquisitely crafted rock ‘n’ roll song.

1950 Kenworth 925

“Thunderstruck” only makes sense when I’m driving, however — in the summer. The I-80 Truckers Jamboree at the Iowa 80 Truck Stop was the third truck show I’ve attended this summer (one more to go — Rodeo du Camion) and, either because I take my job way too seriously or because I know I’ll be going for my CDL sometime this year, it was another great trip to pretend I’m driving a tractor-trailer. I’m not sitting in the far right lane doing truck speeds, but I’m watching and navigating the road like a professional driver would. Anticipating, leaving space… my trip planning needs work, however.

I find great mental pleasure in reading the road, knowing when that truck in front of me needs to move or that car behind me is going to pass.

I’m never bored when I drive now (never really did get bored before, but now it’s more like a series of games) and I told Penner International driver and Today’s Trucking contributor David Henry that over the phone on my way home from Iowa.

As we were chatting (hands-free), I lost that focus and missed my exit because I didn’t anticipate that Jeep Cherokee cutting me off, forcing me into the far left lane. I couldn’t get back over and had to double-back. I blamed the Cherokee, but really, it was my fault.

1959 Mack B-61 Thermodyne, with a 1950 Fruehauf Tanker

It’s tiring, driving. I get back pains, my muscles tense, my skin becomes fantastically greasy, and the long-periods of solitude tend to make me a little, um, weird. Sometimes my brain wanders to dark territory, sometimes to giddy, zany-wonderlands, and I lose road-focus. When I get to that point, there are very few rock ‘n’ roll songs that can save me. But truck stops like the Iowa 80 exist to alleviate all those things.

I got a tour of the I-80 Truck Stop last October, and I learned how much thought went into it — how much the whole thing was built with truck driver’s in mind: 300-seat restaurant with a 50-ft. salad bar, Truckers Warehouse Store, 24 private showers, 60-seat Dolby Surround Sound movie theater, driver’s den, two game rooms, barber, dentist, truck wash, CAT Scale, state-of-the-art Fuel Center, and parking for 800 tractor-trailers, 250 cars and 20 buses (they are adding more parking, by the looks of it.) Plus, there’s a Trucking Museum, too.

All truck stops should work as hard as I-80 for their customers and celebrate them, too. That’s what the I-80 Jamboree does exceptionally well — it celebrates all things trucking, from the classic iron, to the music, and most importantly, the people.

That’s what this show and this one did, too. So, I’m told, will this one.

It’s shaping up to be a great summer.

(We’re working on something special to showcase all the trucks we’ve seen this summer. Stay tuned.)