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.
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