Well, here are the results of my epic Tractor Trek-stalking:
That’s right. I was very far away. I was shy. I felt it would be nice to keep a good pond’s distance away from the tractors. I dragged my brother, my mom, and my nieces and nephew out to the countryside to watch the tractors trek their way towards coffee time in Randolph. And you can barely see the tractors in the photo.
But let me tell you about how I felt. It felt like I was right there, close up. The cheerful Trekkers waved to us all, across the ridiculous pond that I put between us.
I think I wanted that space for a reason, though. Watching as the tractors drove down the gravel road made me strangely emotional. Being a born-and-raised farm-girl, tractors and fields and gravel roads were some of the first things I knew of life. I’ve never mentioned it on this blog before, but my dad passed away in 2006. And stuff like the Tractor Trek makes me feel like a little girl again, and I miss him a lot. I saw some Massey Fergusons and some Internationals and, were there even some Allis-Chalmers in there too? Dad had all three kinds of tractors on our farm, and he tinkered with all of them to keep ’em running. I think he would’ve loved to join in the Tractor Trek. I’m glad for those that are lucky enough to participate.
And then we waited for a while before showing up in Randolph, where I now was avoiding the other people all trying to take photos of the epic trek…and so I took this photo from behind, as the tractors were about to leave, on their way to Unger Meats for lunch. I like it. I hope the trekkers captured in this photo are okay with being on this blog. #fingerscrossed
Stalking the Tractor Trek was a lot of fun. I’m just sorry we didn’t go to meet them at the afternoon faspa location. I hear there were a tonne of miniature trains there! Lesson learned. Next year, I’m following MUCH more closely.