In my last post on this blog were a couple of pictures and an indication that there was a story behind them. This is the story.
Last Saturday, our friends here in Madison (Kori and James) came over. We had big plans for a Saturday night: attend a tractor pull at Madison International Motor Speedway.
Yes, there is an "International Motor Speedway" here. It's not actually in Madison; it's officially in the town of Oregon, which is the next town over from Stoughton- where we live. The Speedway is just a couple miles from our house.
Why, you ask, would we want to go to a tractor pull? My reply: why not? Seems like something one should see and experience at least once in lifetime. And, having gone, I'm pretty sure it will be something that I see and experience
only once.
Kori and James are so cute. Earlier in the day they had gone to Blaine's Farm & Fleet (one of Scott's favorite stores) and gotten geared up for the event. I busted out laughing when I opened the door and saw them dressed like this.
Not only was Kori in a John Deere t-shirt and James in a Farmall Country shirt, James also had himself on a pair of Dickie's jeans. A black man in a pair of Dickie's jeans? Of course I had to get a picture of his ass.
Alright, so I took 2 pictures of his ass. Who's counting?
What drink goes best with John Deere and Farmall Country shirts and Dickie's jeans? Busch Light of course.
We had a couple drinks at our house and then headed over to the track. We knew they served beer there, but we weren't sure about other drink options. James doesn't drink beer. He's a Captain's and diet man. Because we were pretty sure consuming alcohol is a big part of the tractor pull experience, we decided contraband would be necessary in order for James to keep his 'drink on' at the tractor pull. We stopped at a liquor store here in Stoughton to get a fit-in-your-Dickie's-pocket size bottle of Captain's. In the liquor store was a life-size cut-out of Snoop Dog. Of course I had to get a picture of James with it. James has a great personality and is a lot of fun. He was more than willing to, not only get his picture taken with Snoop, but to pose for it too-- complete with the Captain's just slightly pulled out of the brown paper bag.
Snoop looks almost real in the picture. Every time I look at this, I laugh. It's a classic. Farmall Country shirt? $12.99. Bottle of Captain's? $17.99. Picture with Snoop Dog? Priceless. Actually, it would be even funnier if Snoop had on the Farmall Country shirt.
After securing the contraband, off to Madison International Motor Speedway we went. It's a small track. Nothing fancy. Not really what comes to mind when I think "international". It's more like what comes to mind when I think "county fair". Here is the what we saw as we approached.
Are the words "country" or "hillbilly" coming to mind yet? If not, they will.
Now, it ain't cheap to get into the tractor pull. This is considered a "special event", so admission was $15- 25. Um, yeah, the $15 seats will be good enough for us.
We also saw this sign as we entered.
Thankfully we had our shoes on. Oh. Yeah. And thankfully Dickie's jeans have good enough pockets to hide a bottle of Captain's. Although, I never actually saw the bottle once we were in the track and James didn't drink anything while we were there, so I'm thinking the bottle never actually made its way in.
The speedway has just basic stadium style seating.
It's located out in the country. Like just about everything up here, the setting was pretty-- surrounded by trees and under the vast Wisconsin sky.
Immediately upon entering, we got drinks and then played a game set up by the Wisconsin lottery.
When I played the game, I won a Wisconsin lottery t-shirt. I'm fairly certain a Wisconsin lottery t-shirt makes me an official fashionista.
I thought a tractor pull involved tractors competing against each other to see which tractor could pull the load the farthest. That is, indeed, what happens but they go one at a time. I thought 2 or more would go at the same time. I'm pretty competitive and I think I would have found that more exciting. Oh well. No one put me in charge, so one at a time they went.
This is the trailer they hook up to the back of the tractors. The weight starts at the back and then moves forward. The farther forward it is, the heavier it is to pull. After the tractor pulls the load down the track as far as it can, they unhook the trailer and the dude in the back of it drives it back down the track to the starting point and they hook it up to the next tractor.
There are many things I could say about tractor pulls, including this: they are loud as hell. Those tractors really gear up to pull that weighted trailer down the track. In addition to being loud as the motors grind, I'm sure we inhaled an unhealthy amount of carcinogens while we were there, as you can see below.
This next tractor was a fancy one. It was so fancy, it didn't even drive itself to the track. An ATV pulled it. Now that's quite a set of rims for a tractor....all chromed out.
You think chrome wheels on a tractor are fancy? How about this? A flame thrower....
(Did I just write "flame thrower"? I'm not even sure I can finish this post. I can't stop laughing....)
Are the words "country" or "hillbilly" coming to mind yet? If not, they will.
Not only were tractors in the competition, so were pick-up trucks. Here are a few lined up, waiting their turn.
And a close up of one of them.
Scott says they have these trucks "geared down so low" (
what??) that you can't even drive these things on the street because they can't go very fast. It's kind of cute...and country....and hillbilly....that my husband knows that. "Geared down so low." I had never used that phrase until I went to the tractor pull. Clearly the experience has expanded my repertoire. See that thing on the front of the truck in the photo above? It's a counter-weight. Without a counter-weight, this is what happens:
Yup. Without a counter-weight, you pop a wheelie. (At my age, I just don't get to talk that often about popping wheelies.)
Are the words "country" or "hillbilly" coming to mind yet? If not, they will.
Check out this thing. The whole body of the thing lifted up so people could check out the engine.
I'm not really sure what it is. It's not a tractor. I don't think it's a truck. It's not a car. Maybe it's a hot-rod.
OK, so that's 2 things I don't get to talk much about at my age:
#1 Popping wheelies
#2 Hot rods
Anyhow, there is an announcer at these kinds of events who tells you various things about the vehicles in the competition, exactly how far they pulled the load, etc. The announcer said the hot-rod above was 2500 horse-power.
Now, I'm not related to the Magliozzi brothers or the Pep Boys, but I do know that 2500 horse-power is one hell of a lot. My personal vehicle has a bit of zip to it, and it's only about 260 horse-power.
Everyone at the track was excited to see what 2500 horse-power could do. We expected that thing to pull the weighted trailer all the way down the track and maybe even bust the gate down. Here it is, getting ready to go.
Do you know what 2500 horse-power did at the tractor pull?
Nothin'. He blew his engine out about 20 feet down the track. Talk about anti-climactic.
So, that about sums up our night out at the tractor pull at Madison International Motor Speedway. Let's re-cap.
Motor speedway
Tractor pull
Lottery
Flame thrower
Pick-up trucks
Geared down
Popping wheelies
Hot rods
Are the words "country" or "hillbilly" coming to mind yet???? If not, you might be a..........
Actually, the evening was kind of fun. I'm not going to lie. I like country-folk and good old boys. Not the racist, redneck kind, but the down-home, dirt-under-the-fingernails, salt-of-the-earth kind. Plus, Kori and James are great company. They are go-anywhere, do-anything kind of people. And, really, a tractor pull is something to be experienced at least once. I guess now I can mark that one off my bucket list.
