Today on the podcast, the captivating story of a truck -- and its owner-operator, Kate Whiting of Wisconsin. The rig, a 1973 Kenworth W900A, turned a half-century old this year of the Kenworth company's centennial. Whiting piloted the rig, "Cherry Pie," in the 100th-anniversary parade in Chillicothe, Ohio, back in June: https://www.overdriveonline.com/custom-rigs/article/15541257/kenworth-celebrates-100th-anniversary-with-kenworth-truck-parade

That's not its only recent accolade, following the truck's first bit of national notoriety around the time of the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville last year. Overdrive's video from that show of the Cherry Pie 1973 Kenworth W900A has since been viewed tens of thousands of times: https://www.overdriveonline.com/custom-rigs/video/15291440/owneroperator-kate-whitings-1973-kenworth-w900a 

And with more show participation since the debut of Whiting and her team's immaculate custom-restoration, the accolades have just continued to pile up and pile up.  On the podcast, we're joined by Rich Guida of the Howes company, Overdrive Radio’s sponsor, who describes the most recent such accolade. Howes inducted Cherry Pie and owner-operator Kate Whiting into the Howes Hall of Fame: https://www.overdriveonline.com/custom-rigs/article/15542307/cherry-pie-1973-w900a-owner-get-hall-of-fame-nod-from-howes 

The truck features an old-school, reclaimed Double Eagle sleeper with heart-shaped windows on the sides, a Cat 3408 motor (just the second engine in its long history), and much more that you’ll hear about in today’s edition. Kate Whiting herself tells the story of how she became a part of a tight-knit custom truck restoration community in her immediate Wisconsin environs but also spread across the nation. It's that community, broadly speaking, that is represented by induction of the W900A into the Hall of Fame, Rich Guida said, a testament to the pride and camaraderie that just flows from the community like water. 

All in the service of preservation, of a fashion, of the many histories tied up in any piece of truck equipment. Kate Whiting's story in trucking is a growing part of that, wrapped in passion for this and other trucks. Today she’s running in a different W900 for Jerry Linander's small fleet hauling mostly furniture in an operation that gets her back home most days to the farm on which she lives. She’s done plenty more OTR work, too, though, as Linander early on urged her to learn the business for herself before she found her way back to his operation. Hear her story in her own words in today's podcast.

Visit Howes' virtual Hall of Fame and make your own nominations for it via this link: https://howesproducts.com/hof

Owner-operator Kate Whiting's journey to trucking by way of 1973 W900A custom resto

The Overdrive Radio podcast is produced by Overdrive magazine, the Voice of the American Trucker for 60-plus years. Host Todd Dills -- with a supporting cast among Overdrive editors, contributors and others -- presents owner-operator business leading lights, interviews with extraordinary independent truckers and small fleet owners, and plenty in the way of trucking business and regulatory news and views. Access an archive of all episodes of Overdrive Radio going back more than a decade via this link: http://overdriveonline.com/overdrive-radio