Parade

Today I made the trip to my hometown for our annual fair and fair parade. The fair is 105 years old this year and I drove the 105 year old tractor in my Avatar through the parade. I did a preservation rebuild on that tractor three years ago and this is the second time I ran it in the parade. 
The parade route is 8 blocks long and the tractor only does 2.9 MPH in high gear. Ends up being just about perfect as the floats ahead of me were going faster but we all had to stop at three announcer stands and I could catch up when everyone stopped. Only down side was I was herding this thing down the road with only three short breaks. 

Anyway, it ran great for three hours, restarted to be loaded back up on the trailer, and made it back into its barn at the museum with zero issues. My arms are sore from steering it and I pulled my hamstring a tad more the last time I spun the engine over to get it on the trailer. All in all a good day....I have not had many here lately so it was welcome. 

I'm glad you enjoyed yourself! That almost looks like a steam punk contraption. Interesting to see the old stuff in this age of air conditioning and GPS controlled steering!

Now this is cool, would love to see a small hometown parade

Now this is cool, would love to see a small hometown parade

It is a fun parade for sure. The full parade route from start to finish is eleven blocks long. Six blocks are lined with onlookers on both sides. A block and a half is inside the fair grounds and the rest out on the main highway and side roads. They actually shut down a state highway and route traffic around us during the parade. The parade moves about 3 mph and this year the lead of the parade caught the tail on the way back around to the starting point. At one point we had a full 8 blocks worth of parade entrants moving along. 

I have participated in this parade for many years. I have ran many tractors, cars, trucks, tow trucks, and other odd ball stuff like a 1920 fire truck. In the last 35 years I might have missed two parades. 

It is one of the last really good fairs in the state. I have to go back up and run the tractor again this Saturday and then winterize it for the year.