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AUGUST 4,
2016
Beyond the
Valley
I suppose it’s just
human nature, but we all have
an instinct to exercise our curiosity when time permits. There’s
always a new direction to look, a stone unturned, somewhere, an urge
to get out of our familiar surroundings. Life is short, summer even
shorter, for those of us here in Michigan. With such motivation in
mind, a couple of our intrepid members recently took advantage of an
opportunity to expand our horizons just a bit, and visit some of our
contemporaries in a very different part of the State. As most of you
know, there are “tractor clubs” all around our Magnificent
Mitten, some small and local, others large and well-known. It is
always informative to see how different people, in different places,
go about doing some of the same stuff we do at home. We all have the
common interest in old tractors, farm machinery, and vintage rural
life, but each group puts its own signature on how they choose to
recreate and/or memorialize it. The various individual shows are
also naturally influenced by whatever local demographics are in
place, as well as agricultural variables, such as crops, climate, and
topography. There is a considerable diversity to our pursuit of a
common goal, and that’s what makes it so interesting to visit other
shows and groups, to see how they have done it. With this as a
backdrop, we recently pointed the company car north…waay north, to
catch up with our friends at the Walloon Lake show, near Boyne Falls.
To be specific, the group is known as the Northern Michigan Antique
Flywheelers Ass’n. A more accommodating group of people would be
hard to find, and we thank them for their hard work, and their
welcoming, friendly nature. Being in the far northern parts of our
State, and very near the shores of Lake Michigan, they have a unique
local perspective on things that is very different than what can be
found here in the flatlands of the Saginaw Valley. I don’t think
there are 10 square yards of level ground on their entire
showgrounds, and while that seems alien to us, it is certainly part
of the charm of the place. Other local influences would include
maritime interests, remote perspectives, orchard specialty crops, and
large volumes of seasonal tourist traffic. The place is largely
built on the side of a mountain (Michigan scale, not Colorado scale),
and, while they don’t offer multiple tractor pulling events like we
do, they do make good use of their landscape with the parade and
Tractor Safari events. There were easily a dozen or more full sized
people mover units, full of people, and numerous individual tractors
etc., that made the climb up the mountain, where they could all
disembark and take in a majestic view of Lake Charlexoix in the
distance. On a day when the Saginaw Valley was enduring a muggy,
cloudy day, the north country enjoyed blue skies and sunshine for the
time that we were there. We thank them all for their hospitality,
and we leave you with a few random photos from another day on the
road.
Click individual photos to enlarge:
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