PLAAY Truckin' '76 at the World's Largest Truck Stop, 09.13.25!
Update 09.18.25: We’re back from Iowa, and what a FUN time it was hanging out at the World’s Largest Truck Stop! Here are some photos…
We’re HERE! In the parking lot of the Iowa 80 Truck Stop, Walcott, IA: (from left) James Cast, Keith Avallone, Travis Jansen, Harvey Couch. At right, here we are “puttin’ the pedal to the metal” with Truckin’ ‘76 INSIDE the World’s Largest Truckstop! (from left) Travis Jansen, Harvey Couch, Chad McEvoy, Keith Avallone (standing), Andy McEvoy, Brian Hoxsey and James Cast.
After touring the venue and “seeing the sights,” we sat down to learn how to play Truckin’ ‘76. I started out by explaining the premise of the game, went through the various game elements, and then did a sample run to show how everything works together to create a fun game with a 1970s trucking motif. Once everyone was familiar with how the game worked, we paired off for a “test drive.” Then, we had everyone pair up again for “the real thing,” with a free copy of the game for the person with the highest score! James Cast was our Truckin’ Champion, recording and afternoon-best score of 154 on his final Texarkana to Atlanta run.
(at left) Andy and Chad McEvoy take a quick break from the action to “smile for the camera!” (at right), Brian Hoxsey shows off his trucking log chronicling his THREE trips to jail in ONE run—a new Truckin’ ‘76 record! You gotta slow down, man!
Here’s the original blog post…
It's just too perfect NOT to go there, so we're hitting' the road to launch our new 1970s Big Rig Adventure Game "Truckin' '76" at none other than the World's Largest Truck Stop, the Iowa 80 Truck Stop in Walcott, IA (just outside the Quad Cities IA/IL, halfway between Chicago and Des Moines).
AND...(because we like to be efficient!) we're going to hold the finals of our annual History Maker Baseball "Fall Classic Pre-PLAAY" that night!
We're inviting YOU to be part of this first-ever PLAAY Day in Iowa! It's free to attend, NO RSVP is required, and everyone/anyone is welcome!
Let's start with the Truckin' Game...
It's almost like they KNEW we were coming: just a couple days ago (08.31.25) CBS featured the Iowa 80 Truck Stop on their "CBS Sunday Morning" program! This place is AMAZING! I can see now why it's more than a truck stop, it's a "destination!" Watching the feature (it's about ten minutes in length) re-affirmed that we made the right call to have our "Truckin' '76" game launch here! There just isn't a better, more trucker-friendly place in the world! “It’s Disney World for truckers!” Can't wait to get there!
As we mentioned on our 08.28.25 "check-in" stream, we haven't been able to confirm/reserve space for our event--I'm thinking they've got bigger things to coordinate and that's doubly true after being featured on national TV! But like their website says, "Welcome to the World's Largest Truckstop! We're Glad You're Here!" And we're not exactly thinking we'll have a horde of board gamers show up to over-run the place, haha! So we're just gonna roll with it. Hope you'll join us. Here's the plan we've come up with...
• Meet at the food court of the Iowa 80 truck Stop at 1pm, Saturday 09.13.25. Our advance reconnaissance (we had a couple of PLAAY gamers check the place out for us) indicates that we should be able to secure a couple of adjacent tables and set up/play the game. We'll plan to hold a 15-20 minute live tutorial to explain the game, followed by a sample/demo run to show everyone how it works on the tabletop. Then, we'll pair up for as many two-player games as we can, with a run from Texarkana to Atlanta. The top two scores will compete for the title of Top Trucker with a return run from Atlanta back to Texarkana! The whole thing should take about an hour, maybe 90 minutes.
• Following the game experience, we'll plan to check out the venue including a CERTAIN visit to the gift shop to get some official Truck Stop swag and (possible, if time allows) a visit to the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum, on-site and totally free. The reviews are pretty much unanimous that the food here is GREAT, so we may catch an early dinner here as well! (I vote we do!)
Baseball Fast Forward, Fall Classic Pre-PLAAY with History Maker Baseball
Afterwards, we'll head back to our "official" event hotel, the Hampton Inn & Suites, Davenport (about 20 minutes east of the truck stop), 5290 Utica Ridge Road, Davenport, Iowa, 52807. After checking in (and taking a couple hour break?) we'll switch gears to baseball in the hotel lobby/common area starting around 6pm (not a firm time, but a good ball park guess), with our annual "Fall Classic Pre-PLAAY!" As we've done for the past dozen seasons, we'll use the History Maker Baseball In-Season card set to determine our champion a month and a half before the real thing. We'll fast-forward the regular season to its conclusion using the HMB "Instant Results" grid, and announce the playoff field on our 09.04.25 PLAAY Space YouTube stream. We'll play down to a "Final Four," and bring those four teams to Iowa where we'll conduct the ALCS, NLCS and World Series on-location at the hotel. We'll figure out a playoff format depending on how many people we have in attendance! (Hint hint, let us know if you think you might be there! Here's the e-mail link...)
Again, no charge to play, you don't have to be staying overnight at the hotel (locals welcome), and we'll provide all the baseball game stuff. All you have to do is show up!