The WMT Tractorcade came to Maquoketa yesterday afternoon.  Around 3:00 pm I could hear the tractors going by our office, which is on one of the main roads to the Jackson County Fair grounds.   Well honestly I could not hear them but other people in the office kept commenting about all the tractors that were going by.  🙂

After work I decided to go over to the fair grounds to take a look.  I knew the lighting conditions would be difficult and I figured it would be hard to get any good images of the tractors.  I was right.

The tractor above is an old COOP tractor.  They were made in Canada and my Dad use to sell these tractors out of his garage.  If memory serves I believe they later merged or were bought by another company and the name was changed to Cockshutt.  I can remember a picture my Uncle took of me sitting on a tractor in Dad’s garage.  I use to stop up there after school and play farmer.  🙂

There were over 500 tractors parked side by side many rows deep.  It was hard to walk between the tractors without brushing up against the tractor that was parked next to it.  I never saw one Cockshutt tractor.  Lots of John Deere tractors, IH, Farmall, Case, and other assorted flavors.

Most of the tractors had a box of some kind on the back (to carry clothes and tools.)  A few had car bench seats mounted on a frame for passengers and others simply had large coolers of adult beverages.   Some of the tractors looked like they just rolled off the assembly line, others were “home” modified  and still others looked like they were just saved from the salvage pile.

The older I get the more I think that most activities are simply a facade for the real purpose and that is for people to get together and drink beer. 🙂  I don’t remember seeing more than a hand full of people last evening that didn’t have a beer in their hand.  🙂

I only stayed about 30 minutes.  Like I said the sun was really bright and reflective off the well polished tractors.  Too many people in the mix and with a suit on it was too hard to stay away from the dirt and grease on some of the tractors.

Enjoy your Wednesday and thank you for stopping by.  Be careful.