Country as Cornbread

This weekend we went country. Very country. Cotton pickin country. Collards country. We went to a tractor pull. Some friends of ours told us about this a while ago, so Tony's been wanting to go for quite some time. It became imperative that we attend when we found out they have a pedal tractor race for the kids. As you know, Jacob got a tractor not that long ago. Click here to read about it.

We packed a cooler, put on some sunscreen, loaded the tractor and headed out.

A tractor pull is, for those city-folks in the crowd, an event where people hook their tractors to a sled type trailer that they then drag as far as they can as the weight gets heavier and heavier. The tractor that goes the farthest wins. I think. I'm a novice, so I could be wrong.

There were red tractors. . .

 There were green tractors . . .

And there were tractors with roll bars. . . what?!?

Neither gender nor age is discriminated against at a tractor pull. There were ladies . . .

There were kids . . .

(this is really cute, proud grandpa is holding the kill switch

while the even prouder young man drives the tractor. 

 And there were ear pickers. He picked his ear the whole way down the track.

My favorite tractors were these guys . . .

Jacob, Tony and Mr. Buster gave the tractor a pre-race tune up. 

 Tony gives some racing advice to Jacob.

 And they are off!

 Jacob did not heed Tony's advice and caused a 4 tractor pile up.

A little help from the crowd and Jacob was free to pedal his heart out down the track.

 Which he did.

 I think he was last, but he still got a trophy! Atta boy!

I have to say that I had a great time. There is something about going out to the country, sitting back in an easy chair, eating watermelon and homemade chicken salad, chatting with the girls while the little boys play and the men talk trucks that felt almost restful. Almost like I went back in time a little bit. Or maybe it was that time stopped for a lazy summer afternoon. It was hot, it was dusty, it was country. Country as cornbread.