Last weekend Steve and I took the dogs and RVed to Bird City, KS to meet up with his brother and father at the Antique Tractor and Engine Show. My BIL is in charge of getting a 1909 Avery steam powered engine tractor up and running for the show. He and my FIL worked all through the night fixing it up since it sits all year in an outbuilding just waiting for this one weekend every year. It was pretty amazing to see.
The Levin men in front of the 1909 Avery
I loved the bulldog mascot on the front of the engine:
My BIL stoking the engine. Apparently it has to have wood burning to get the engine hot enough to burn the coal.
During the tractor pull Steve helped my BIL drive it. The engine is so tall that you need one person on each side of it to see ahead. Of course one drawback to a steam engine is that the drivers get coated in coal dust. Steve's hat will never be quite as clean as it once was.
The Levin family riding the Avery (I jumped on after they finished the tractor pull ... it was a bouncy ride)
We saw a steam powered calliope during the parade, pulled by a John Deere tractor:
Sometimes you just need more power ... a double engined tractor:
And my favorite tractor of the show simply because it was small and turquoise:
There were lots of activities ... a demonstration of a tractor powered sawmill (quite dangerous since it was an open saw blade, not OSHA compliant that's for sure), a museum of antiques, a quilt exhibit (pics later), tractor pulls complete with a sled that the audience were encouraged to jump on to add weight to the tractors, a horse drawn stagecoach, and of course the company of family (our niece and her boyfriend drove in the same day that we did). As always that was the best part. The dogs weren't as thrilled since they couldn't run around. Fiona did catch a frog and tried to shake it and eat it. Apparently the frog must have tasted funny because she spit it out and stuck her tongue out.
We stayed one night and left the next evening. It was only a six hour drive in the RV and definitely worth checking it out. My BIL and FIL have been going for years and I've heard about it for a long time. If you're ever in the area you should make a detour and marvel at what farmers drove throughout the decades.
