"Bourbon Street"

Cruising along one night with his chicken lights ablaze, Kermit Gribble heard a trucker say over the CB that the truck looked like Bourbon Street, thus hanging a name on the shiny covered wagon.

"Bourbon Street" runs about 120,000 miles a year, hauling steel for PGT of Monaca, Pa. Wherever he loads or unloads, Gribble draws a crowd of admirers.

Gribble's son, Todd, made most of the stainless pieces, including the bumper, sunbursts on front and back of the trailer, frame rails and cross-member pieces. The polished stainless multiplies the glow of his 320 LED lights. The cab has "suicide doors" that open opposite most tractors' doors.

Kermit and Todd also made the cutouts on each side of the hood, with "Go Cat Go" etched into the thick plastic. The headlights are Harley-Davidson motorcycle lamps.

Gribble credits his wife, Sue, and Todd with the design. "I can't picture things like that, but they're both talented at it," he says. It is a far cry from his first truck, a B61 Mack. Gribble has been trucking for 38 years, following in the tire tracks of his father and brother.

Gribble won second place in the 2001 Stars & Stripes truck competition. "It's a lot of work, and you don't win enough to make up for what it costs," he says, "but it's a hobby, and I'm proud of what we've accomplished."