Cliff and I have been planning to go to the Lathrop tractor show for quite awhile. We hoped to ride our motorcycle, because it's a nice little ride... about forty-five minutes.
This morning, however, after looking at the weather forecast, we decided to go in the car. Egg-sized hail wouldn't be much fun on a motorcycle.
We walked around the flea market and took a quick look at the antiques and tractors. I only took one picture during our walk through the show:
I don't know how old this fan was, but it was running. It's battery powered.
We looked at several tractors; trouble is, they're the same tractors we see there every year. We have them memorized. And all the time, we had that forecast in mind, because our Mercury is rear-wheel-drive. And at a tractor show, you park on grass. We knew if a downpour occurred, we'd be stuck.
It was hot and steamy when we went into the building where lunch was being served, and there was a long waiting line. Cliff said, "You know, we'll be going past lots of places to eat on the way home."
Normally I like to support the people putting on the tractor shows by buying lunch on the grounds, but I was worried about the weather. So we left, thank the good Lord. Because not ten minutes later, an unbelievably strong wind came up, and some mighty scary clouds.
Here's the view through our windshield as we headed toward home. We hoped to outrun the storm, but our hopes were in vain.
This was taken through my passenger window.
This shot was taken much closer to home, before we crossed the Missouri River.
We arrived home to find an inch of rain in our rain gauge and our electricity not working. For six hours. Oh happy day.
I'd noticed the gang on Tractor Tales message board talking about a tractor show and a "taler gathering". A couple of them, including the guy who cooks Cajun food for such gatherings, had invited me and Cliff to attend.
Somehow I thought it was in Indiana. I found out Thursday evening it was in mid-Illinois... not so far away after all. And then when I visited the website, I found out the world's largest farm tractor, Big Bud, was going to be there.
Cliff has seen Big Bud on television, and read about it for years; one of his dreams was to see this tractor in person.
So Friday morning, after having only four hours of sleep (because he had to get up and help a neighbor load his wandering bull), Cliff decided to go.
We threw together what we thought we'd need for the trip and took off.
You can click on this picture to make it larger and read the information about "Big Bud".
As you can see by the standing water, there had been considerable rain at some point in the previous twenty-four hours.
A heck of a lot of rain!
Cliff spent a lot of time looking at that tractor from every angle.
For $250, you could buy a toy replica of Big Bud.
We did not meet up with the Talers; Cliff wanted to get at least a couple of hours toward home before dark. As we were leaving the show, I said, "Why don't we go to St. Louis to your sister's and spend the night? We haven't seen them for awhile anyhow, and that way we're halfway home in the morning."
So that's what we did.
Here's a slide show of pictures I took in Rantoul, Illinois. If you click on the four little arrows in the lower right-hand corner, you can view the pictures full screen.
We went from Missouri to Illinois, where the tractor show is being held. However, we are spending the night in Keokuk, Iowa, some five miles from Keokuk.
We traveled over two hundred miles to check out another tractor show that's featuring Oliver tractors, in Hamilton, Illinois.
Usually parking at tractor shows is done in a pasture. Since our Mercury is a rear-wheel drive and it had recently rained a lot, this did not bode well for us. Thankfully, about a half-dozen corn-fed young men gave us a push out of the muck, and all was well.
We walked around the grounds for awhile, and came upon these all-wooden tractors. Works of art, that's what these are.
Works of art.
The third tractor Cliff owned, back around 1972, looked like this one: an Oliver 550. He even won a tractor pull with it.
Would you believe we ran into the same brothers we met last weekend, the ones who know so much about Olivers? Of course, this isn't so far from where they live.
Stay tuned. You never know what state we'll be waking up in tomorrow!
As I've mentioned before, the Marshalltown tractor show was not a big one; all our local shows have a bigger turnout than this one. And yet, it was a productive trip for Cliff, mainly because of one man we met at the show.
This man and his brother had an exquisitely-restored Oliver 1755. He was able to tell Cliff where to get every little part he might ever need. Cliff picked his brain for over an hour.
You'd never know their tractor was this old; it looked as though it just came off the showroom floor.
Such attention to detail!
We were quite impressed, not only with his Oliver tractor, but with his Oliver knowledge.
Plus, he sent us on a little side trip on the way home that was worth the drive to Iowa, all by itself. I'll do a different entry on that.
You city folks, be patient. Eventually I'll have something to blog about besides tractors, gardens, and canning. At least I hope so.
I canned several pints of peaches yesterday evening after arriving home from my family reunion. Cliff and I made a quick trip to the livestock auction this morning; then I fixed dinner: butternut squash and stir-fried zucchini, with a salad on the side. As luck would have it, we saw a couple of little girls selling produce at a crossroads on the way home from the auction, and they had some zucchini that was perfect... two for one dollar. I bought four, and tonight I finally got to make my ratatouille.
I have tomatoes to can, and only seven more quart jars. I guess I'll use pint jars once those are filled; it was not my original plan, but things happen, and I refuse to buy new quart jars. I like putting the peaches in pints, though. It makes just enough for Cliff and me to have one serving apiece.
I have nine butternut squashes harvested, and many many more to come. It's a good thing we like them!
Here's a snippet of things seen at the Marshallville, Iowa, tractor show. It shows a bit of corn-shelling at the first, and then some straw-baling, back when a bale of straw wasn't that easy to come by. It'll probably bore most of you, but I found it interesting. Besides, I'm too tired to come up with anything more.
Cliff and I finally managed a motorcycle ride yesterday; quite a feat, the way things have gone around here lately. We've always enjoyed antique tractor shows, and the one at Lathrop is just the right distance from home to make a nice ride. Cliff hitched up the trailer to the motorcycle, and we were able to do a little Walmart shopping in Richmond on the way home. Finally I've started getting curtains and valances. I also bought several of those handy-dandy little hanger thingies that stick on the wall. This means I can start hanging my decorative plates and pictures where I want them, instead of on the nails placed unevenly and too high by the last resident of this house.
This is a home-made can-crusher. It's a grand idea, but it works better in theory than in reality. I tried to take a video of it in action, but things just weren't going right for that gentleman. Still, if you'd like to see his efforts, click HERE.
There are always lots of old vehicles painted up to look like new at tractor shows.
Speaking of crushers, this is a rock-crusher powered by the tractor in back.
We generally eat dinner at the tractor show; it helps support the clubs putting on the shindig. I'm afraid we didn't stay with our healthy eating; we were sidelined by all the pie.
You can buy all sorts of magnetic signs at tractor shows. Reading these, you'll notice there's quite a feud between red-tractor owners and green-tractor owners. (Click on the picture to make it larger.)
