Out Here, We Take Our Tractors SERIOUSLY....

Each August, there's a huge tractor show and pull in a nearby town. Well, actually, it's not in town. That would be too dusty. And there wouldn't be enough room. And it would be too loud, for way too long.

It's actually just a ginormous corn field that backs up to a woods that a tractor club got together and made into a showgrounds and a campground, they built a parking lot and some restrooms, set aside a flea market area, bought some cashboxes and wristbands, put up showbarns for a craft sale, a cafeteria and a place for vendors to set up to sell elephant ears and all sorts of good stuff. They also set up an arena of sorts for tractor pulls (think a dragstrip for tractors).

Please note: these are not photos of MY or OUR tractors...these are just photos of some of the tractors seen at the tractor pull grounds during the long weekend. Click on any photo to enlarge!

This is something that takes place in the hot and steamy month of August. And it's a four day event, and you see huge semi rigs pulling in with their precious cargo: the show tractor inventory. The whole family comes behind pulling the camper and the golf cart and the whole works and they load up acres and acres and acres of rows and rows of TRACTORS.

Some are FAST, slow, COOL, lame, from dual wheels to lawnmowers all hyped up, and they're driven by (no kidding) granny and GRANDPA, sister and BROTHER, the farmwife or a teenager....any kind of person and any kind of tractor.

Now if you haven't been to a tractor pull, I suggest you get your bib overalls on and get out and go to one sometime. It's something to experience, a part of rural America that is unique. You will not believe the dedication and the NASCARization (is that a word?) of some of these tractors.

I mean these guys (and gals) are S.E.R.I.O.U.S. You know they're serious when they put on their helmets and the roar of the modified tractors is so loud you wish you'd brought your earplugs that sit at home all year except for the NASCAR race.

Some of them are just GORGEOUS. I like watching the pride they display for their tractors, the expressions on the faces of the drivers as they wait for the green light and the determination they have to pull the weight farther than the last guy. There are generations of families involved, and there are some impressive pulls made, my favorite are the loud (and fast!) customized and modified tractors that make a huge roar when they pull and throw huge plumes of dirt up behind them, and I do secretly wish I could be out there pulling. (But the most I can do is use my zero turn mower on our yard. No plumes, no glory, no trophies, just rows of green grass.)

I'll be out there watching in August, wanna come?

I'll buy you a sasparilla! (And an elephant ear.)