~Tractors and Tillers~

What a day, Hot as it was, it was fun. Larry, Mom, Dad and I all went to the Purple Hull Pea Festival in Emerson, AR, population 385.. Yeap a very small town and all of them were at the Fesival.. We saw tractor races, tiller races, pea shelling contests, arts crafts, and any type of food you could imagine. We ate home made vanilla ice cream as we watched the Tractor SLOW race, yes I did say Slow and Race in the same sentence. They have to see how slow they can make their tractor go and still keep it running. Once they start moving, they cannot touch the clutch or brake, they have to use the throttle and choke to slow it down. The track is 100 feet and one guy did it in 3 minutes 20 seconds, I am not sure I can walk that slow. It is cool to watch them. Then they have a barrel race and see who can push a barrel down the track the fastest without it going off the track.


They had small kids 5-10 years old out there with Mantis tillers and they were racing down a 200 ft track to see who could win. It was neat watching them. Those kids gave it all they had..

One little girls tiller died at the beginning of the race and she was so upset.. Then they ran again and she ended up winning the entire competetion...



We went to the shelling contest. The lady that won, shelled 7 5/8 oz in 5 minutes. Then they auctioned off all the peas that were shelled in the competetions. There was a little over 4 lbs and I think it went for $27.00 That is kinda high in my book. But it was going for a good cause..



Then we found a shady spot and parked our chairs for the parade, that lasted all of about 6 minutes, then over to the track again for the suped up tiller races. They had 2 tillers that had between 750 and 900cc motorcycle engines in them. The first race was 2 women (SMALL women, about 100-125 lbs). The lady in lane 1 finished in 6.5 seconds (200 ft track), the lady in lane 2 was drug about 100 ft and then let go and the tiller turned over. She was fine, but the tiller needed some welding, so that was the end of the tiller races. So then on to the WEDDING, yes they had an actual wedding performed there. At that point we were hot and tired, so we opted to head for home. They were having a Larry the Cable Guy look alike contest and a Street Dance later, but we headed for home.



On the way down we saw a junk shop in Camden. But decided not to stop. But, on the way back, we did stop. They had a trailer with iron wheels on it parked out front. Mom has this thing for iron wheels. they had a matching pair of smaller wheels she was interested in. They guy came down $10 on the pair, so I bought them for her Birthday, that was Yesterday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM.. I LOVE YOU... Then we went inside, no A/C so it was suffocatingly hot in there. We did find a couple pots that were Miracle Maid, we got them for $7.00 so now I am going to see about getting them replaced, Aunt Sue, can you tell me how you did this?? Could not pass that up.. One of them is in usable shape, the other has alot of stains inside, I may can scrub them out, I will try that..



Then on home. Mom and dad headed back to the lake for a few more days of camping. Just speaking for myself, I thoroughly enjoyed the Day, even in the heat.. Now Larry wants to find a Lawn Mower Race. So I am searching the I-net for that. Found some, but they were in May, may have to flag the calendar for that next year..



God Bless all... with cooler weather...