Road Trip, Part One: Tractors on the Brain

I used to plot ways to have some fun traveling.  Cliff is a home body, and has always hated to drive on long trips, but over the years I've found ways to make him love traveling:  if there's anything that involves tractors somewhere, he'll go.  For quite a while we had a popup camper to use on the long trips.  He also hates camping, but I loved it, and I got to the point that I enjoyed the tractor shows.  

When I wanted to go to Pawhuska, Oklahoma, and see where Ree Drummond had her store, I simply looked for interesting things to do along the way, like museums, which we both enjoy.   We stopped in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and toured the Phillips Petroleum museum.  That was probably the highlight of that trip for Cliff; I thought he'd never get through the whole place, reading all the stories about everything that happened.

There is a lovely Catholic church in Pawhuska that we toured.  Our guide told us the history of the church.  I blogged about it HERE.  I think it was my  favorite  thing in that town, because Ree Drummond's store is pretty much just an overpriced tourist trap.  No, we didn't see any of the Drummonds there.  I didn't realize at the time that a bus sometimes takes people to the Drummond Ranch... but you have to plan to go on certain days for that.  I would have loved it, but my husband will never go back.  He doesn't even want to drive to Oklahoma to take me to see my sister, these days.  

The truth is that I really don't want to go many places now.  My knees and legs always hurt, so I can't be on my feet long, which even ruins me for going through a museum.  Cliff is almost as bad off as I am.

He can't get up and down to do jobs like this, so Arick does it.  He sandblasted the whole tractor, which is a disgusting job that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.

Cliff has been saying for the last five years that he's done fixing and painting tractors.  He simply isn't up to doing most of the hard work any more.  And yet, every once in a while, a "new" old tractor appears in the shop... one that he swears again that will be the last one.  

Lately, he has a lot of help:  the grandson next door does the hard stuff (working on tractors is mostly hard stuff).  Below, the two of them are discussing whether this will be safe after they get the wheels off.  (Spoiler alert:  It wasn't, but nobody was hurt.)

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Here is the finished product.  Our son Jim made the canopy when he was visiting in July, because he's a great welder. 

This is the retired couple he bought the tractor from; they  live in walking distance from us.  

It didn't take long for Cliff to get it running; unfortunately, he soon realized it was going to need a lot more work.  But at least it was the last tractor he would ever fix, right?
 

.... to be continued