Red Power Round Up

We arrived at the Boone Country Fair grounds for the 19th annual Red Power Round Up in Columbia Missouri by 9:30. In case you don't know... that translates into a really big Tractor show.

It was one of the largest collection of International Harvester Equipment. Over 1,000 tractors, 300 plus trucks & scouts, 300 plus Cub Cadets, 300 plus Hit & miss Engine working displays and 100 plus part vendors, would be on display. As we were taken from the parking lot by tractor and wagon to the gates, it was a sea of RED. We paid the daily fee of $7.00 and walked into the first building. There we found all the different state Chapters, each were selling their wares. There was a museum section which included things I never realized the International Harvester Company made, including Guns and deep freezers. There were plenty of small things, the usual calendars, lapel pins, matchbook covers, rain gauges, key chains and the list goes on and on.

A tractor built for two?

The back part of the building was full of any T-shirt you could imagine with tractors only of the red kind. There were also trailers of used and some new tractor parts. There was a milking station with a life size cow, to get yur picture with. It had plastic teats and you could even milk it, but we passed on that.

By the time we got out of the first building we needed food since we had left home without breakfast. We found the pork producers building and the beef producers. We choose pork. It was smoked tenderloin on bun for both of us. The ice tea was refreshing as a hot breeze was blowing all day. After lunch I saw that one of the food booths across the way was selling fried bologna. WOW Hollyhocks had just talked about that last week. I told her it brought up childhood memories as my Dad use to make it for me.

A pedal tractor?

After our early lunch we walked the fields forever looking at tractor after tractor. I forgot to mention that you could have rented a golf cart to get around too, at $50 a day! Thank goodness I wore my Toby Keith cowboy hat, or I would have been sunburned to a crisp. We watch several of the old threshing machines in operation and had just missed the antique dragline working. Just shy of 2:00 we stopped for another tea and lemonade break and then found our seats in the grand stands for the Tractor parade. From high on the bleachers we watched them all drive by. Sitting next to us was a man and his brother from North Dakota, they really found the heat and humidity to be miserable.

The show was over an hour later and it was back for more liquid refreshment. They were making and selling homemade ice cream using a gasoline engine, but we passed for now on it. Back inside the air conditioned building I found a $5.00 walking cane stamped "Farmall", to go in my cane rack I bought at the family reunion last year. (Thanks, Jim M.). It was there that I saw this sign...so Nancy you could go see RED in your hometown too!

We took a seat and waited for the bluegrass music to start at 4:00. The band "Easy Tunes Band", from just down the road in Booneville Missouri was playing. The featured singer was Stanley who was 87 years young. He played the mandolin and never missed a beat. Here is a clip to show Tipper that we have bluegrass music too. (Be sure to stop the music bar on the left side before playing the video so you can hear it.)

Before we left the grounds we stopped for a bag of Kettlecorn and BT has a cup of homemade ice cream. We stopped and looked at a few more tractors on our way to the gate and the tractor ride back to the parking lot.

It was a beautiful sunshiny day with a breeze blowing all day. We stopped at Bass Pro for a gallon of boat oil and then went to Jefferson City for dinner at Lee's Fried Chicken. We made Brady's T-Ball game just 5 minutes before it started.

When we finally arrived at home, Bentley was so glad to see us, even at 8:10 in the evening.