Another tractor show

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.