Duquoin State Fair

We spent the remainder of our time out at the Duquoin State Fair. We have been going to this fair ever since we quit going to the Mid-South Fair in Memphis. We used to just go up for the day and I always was so jealous of the people who were camping there and got to go to the fair for days. Even a lot of the locals park their campers there and take in the fair. They have a beautiful camping area with around 1000 sites. The first year we went we had to camp way out at the end of the camping area. We liked it there and have camped in that area ever since. We always meet such nice people while we are there. This fair still promotes agriculture. There are tons of tractors and equipment on display which is where Tommy spends most of his time. They also still have hogs, cattle(both beef and dairy), and sheep shows. This year they discontinued the mules and draft horses which distressed me, even though we weren't going to be there for those days. In the past I spent a lot of time watching the mules and horses show. While we were there, they were showing beef cattle and hogs. I still have a soft spot for the hogs, since we were involved with them so many years. There is no other animal with the personality of a pig. A lot of people ask me about the food there. I have never been impressed with their fair food. It may taste wonderful(I don't know), but it is in no comparison to the ambience of the Mid-South Fair food. I used to just love to walk around there and enjoy all the different smells of food. And I can't understand the reason that it is not the same at Duquoin. I have a weakness for the petting zoo exhibits too. This year they had a good one. Their free entertainment this year was mainly dealing with motorcycles and cars and trucks doing stupid things. I could have done without seeing that. They also have a lot of campers on display for you to look at.

 They have an opening day parade that runs down through town and ends in the fairgrounds. We have never been there for this and it was a bit disappointing, but seems like the locals come out in full force to watch it. This was a tumbling group from Chicago who would walk along and then pull out their mat and do some acrobatics.

 This pic is for my grandson, Joseph. He is a big fan of Lightning McQueen. I have no idea who these people are in this pic. I could never get one of just Lightning, because there was always somebody getting their picture taken with him.

                     This is one of the food places that is always at the fair.

This is a pic I took while sitting in the grandstands watching the harness racing. We got to go see the races on Friday night and I went back again Saturday. I really do enjoy this event. The only thing is it is over before you know it. The track is called the Magic Mile and has a long history of harness racing.

This is a mural on the lower level of the grandstands. We sat on this bench one night and listened to Billy Currington perform at the grandstands. It was fun to just watch the people who walked by. You see all kinds here.

These are some of the market hogs the young people had there to show. I loved the markings this last pig had.

This little girl was excercising her pig in the barn. This brought back a lot of good memories of Bonny and Julie showing their pigs at the fairs.

This Watusi cow in the first pic had the calf in the next pic on the first day of the fair. I was there when it had just been born and she must have been a first calver, because she didn't seem to know what to do. I felt sorry for her having to calve in front of so many people. The next time I saw them they had it all worked out and were doing fine. This zebra was so beautiful.

These 2 pics are for my grandson, Joseph. I can just hear him saying,  "I could drive that."

                                   This owl cake is for my niece, Bussy      

These polar bear cupcakes were so cute. I also love the ribbon. This fair always has some of the prettiest ribbons.

           I thought this display was so pretty with all the bright colored plates

                                                         Got Milk?      

There's no place like home

Well, this concludes my tour of the fair. Now I can just look forward to going back next year. For now, I am just glad to be home for awhile.

Ollie heads back north

On August 21st we headed back north with Ollie. We went to the fairgrounds at Duquoin and spent the night at the camper. Got up the next morning around 4:30 and headed up to Rantoul, Illinois to the Half Century of Progress Farm Show. It is held on the Chanute Air Force base. This show is held every other year now. During the 4 day show there are demonstrations of antique farm equipment doing different kinds of field work. Nearly 400 acres of crops were planted in the spring to be harvested here. When we got there we were both totally overwhelmed. It was ginormous!! We had to sign Ollie up in a huge hangar building. Every where you looked there was someone on a tractor or golf cart or a UTV. You almost have to have a golf cart or UTV to get around the show. Of course, we had Ollie, our redneck golf cart. Again he was our ticket to ride, getting us in the gate and then providing us with a way to get around. After we got signed up we headed out to see what we could find with neither one of us knowing where to go.

It didn't take Ollie long to find some of his family here. They had 2 long rows of Oliver tractors in this area. We parked him and went to look at the flea market.

This was one of my favorite vendors. They made all this yard art out of metal.

This was a grill. I can almost picture this in our backyard, but it would need to be black and lose the horns :)

There were rows and rows of vendors with all kinds of things. Tommy got an Oliver sign and an Oliver banner. We saw a lot of items that we have never seen anywhere else.

This was a display of Farmall tractors that was very impressive. He even had his trailer behind his semi painted to match.

This was so attractive sitting out in front of the Minneapolis Moline collectors tent. There were so many tents set up that featured certain makes of tractors. I really enjoyed seeing all the different colored tents.

The above pics are just a few of the tractors there. Of course there were more than just Olivers there, but HEY!- I didn't take a lot of pictures of them.

Most everyone that comes has some form of transportation to go from one place to the to other. It is so hard to get around unless you do. There were golf carts and UTVs and every kind of homemade rigs you could imagine. Of course we had our trusty Ollie to get us around. A lot of the time you would be driving on runways like this one.

I took this pic trying to show the swarm of golf carts and UTVs as people go from one demonstration to another. It reminded me of some type of insects as they moved around.

We watched the corn pickers and shellers for a little while. Tommy had seem them run before, but I have never seen it done that way. It was pretty amazing.

As you can see, it was hard to get complete pictures of the ones picking and shelling the corn. The golf carts got in the way (dang golf carts). I took a bunch of pics like these while we were watching.

This flag is the largest flying flag in the USA. It was beautiful. This pic doesn't do it justice. It was 120X65 feet and they raised it every morning. We didn't see it raised, but I am so glad I got to see it flying. This flag travels all over the country and is dedicated to all who has or is still serving in the Armed Forces of the United States of America.

This is the featured exhibit for this year. I took this from a long distance away. It is the Rite 750 "Earthquake" tractor pulling a plow. It is a custom built tractor that has 750 horsepower from a Detroit Diesel 12V engine. This is the only Rite 750 in the USA. There are two more like it in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Finally it was time to head back south. It was a day full of so many sights that it made my eyes hurt. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not a big fan of long distance traveling. I always say if it is so far that I can't be back in time to feed the animals, it is too far. But I do make exceptions once in a blue moon. This trip was well worth being away from home for a few nights.

It was only fitting that we parked the truck by this Oliver 66. That way we could find our way back when we got ready to load back up.

Tommy is getting Ollie all strapped in so we can head back to Duquoin. It was a good day and we took a lot of memories back with us.

Ollie Goes to Pville

We have been on the road off and on for the past ten days covering over 1000 miles. We carried Ollie to Pinckneyville, Illinois Friday the 16th of August. We took the camper and left it at the fairgrounds at Duquoin. We decided to just park it and leave it for when we came back to the fair the next week. We got up early and loaded Ollie and headed north. Got to the campground and got the camper set up in our favorite spot and then headed to Pville to the Threshermans show. This is an annual show they have and it is quite a big deal. We took Ollie there in 2011 when they were featuring Oliver tractors. It is so nice to have an exhibit that is also a way to get around the show. They have a big flea market with all kinds of old wonderful treasures. You can look and look and still never see it all. I also love this show, because they have a lot of horses and mules doing different things. Their big thing and I do mean big thing is all the giant steam engines. There are also a lot of demonstrations like sawmills run by old tractors or steam engines and hay baling, plowing threshing, etc. This year they had a new thing that I really enjoyed watching-they had timed obstacle courses using the horses and mules. We spent 2 days at the show and here are some pics I took while there.

It didn't take us long to find some Oliver tractors. The 2 smaller ones in this pic were home made by a fellow Oliver enthusiast from Claremont, Illinois. He had an 1850 and 1950. Tommy was very impressed with them and spent a lot of time bending his ear about how he made them. Now he wants to find a cub cadet lawn mower and make one of his own.

We like it that there are so many Oliver tractors at the shows in Illinois. Around here, there are never many and sometimes Tommy is the only one there with an Oliver.

 Of course my eyes are drawn to the horses and mules. There are always a bunch of horse and mule drawn wagons riding around the grounds plus using them for different kinds of field work.

This was one of my favorite things I saw at the flea market. A fellow and his wife make these benches. They are made using an old iron bed frame and then his wife paints and decorates them in certain themes. This Oliver one was so pretty. He has some tractor signs he makes for wall hangings sitting on each end. Of course, I was already pinning it in my mind for Tommy to make sometime :) It would look so grand on our front porch.

                                        Here's an old Farmall on steel.

They were featuring Minneapolis Moline tractors this year. There were some real sharp ones there. I like how colorful and happy looking the Molines are. They remind me so much of sunflowers.

These are some of the giant steam engines. I thought this little girl standing next to the wheel of one was so cute and kind of showed how monstrous these are.

This was my favorite pair of mules. This was when they were hooking them to a sled with weights on it to see how much they could pull. This is not my favorite thing to watch. It seems like it is so hard on them when the weights get heavier. I can't believe how strong their harness must be to withstand the pulling.

This was the event that I loved the most. It was a timed event for pairs of horses or mules hooked to a very long pole. They had to weave in between about 12 cones spread out in a line and then turn and weave back through them. If the pole touched a cone or knocked it over, they had time added. Some of these men seemed to drive the teams through the cones effortless although I know it took a lot of experience and knowledge of their animals to get this done. There was one fellow who was doing so well until he got back halfway and all the steam engines blew their whistles(they do this at noon everyday), and the mules got so flustered they messed up. They gave him another run, but by then the mules were not able to concentrate. The bigger horses like the ones above, took so much room to get in between the cones. The winning time was a little over 3 minutes and was won with a team of mules.

 As you can see the mules and horses have my heart, not the tractors. I get goose pimples watching a pair of heavy draft horses move so lightly on their feet. They  definitely are Gentle Giants. One of the things that concerned me was that most of the people working the horses and mules were older folks. I sure would hate to see this part of history fade away.

This is only a fraction of the things we saw at Pville. I sure did enjoy myself and hope to go back again sometime.