American Tractor- Rantoul or Bust!

Old Pete had a long winter…watching old tractor show reruns on RFD TV all winter (when nothing happens at American -Tractor except blow snow) and listening to Max Armstrong talk about the the century rust show Rantoul burnt a new program into Pete's EPROM. The final straw was when the The Ford/Fordson Collectors Association Inc announced they would their hold National show at Penfield IL.

The trip was on! Load up the Fargo and make a pilgrimage to the motherland of American Tractors…Dearborn Michigan, and then onto Penfield to the Ford tractor show. If all goes maybe squeeze in a Sprint car car at some little dirt track.

My first stop was to tour the Plant were my fabulous Jubilee and 650 were built; I had map and the tour brochure

But, this what I found when I arrived at Highland Park…nobody home

I carried on the next best thing "The Henry Ford Museum" in Dearborn and tour the Rouge Complex ( Birth place of the Fordson and 9N)

I took a tour of Henry Ford Museum… a few tractors on a nice display. It seems they want forget that Ford even made tractors.

The tour of the Rouge Plant was fabulous; I loved every second of it!

The visitor center on the rouge was very well done, 1st class effort! The display in the center has one of every model built at the "Rouge"…..except the Fordson and "N" tractor…sad.

It was nice to see Ford hasn't forgot the history of the "Rouge", and new F150 plant was world class, almost as nice as a Honda factory!

Nice to visit Detroit, nicer to leave and head to Rantoul!

Have you ever seen the TV footage of idiots in the Midwest driving into a tornado, you might say the trip was off to whirlwind start. At Gary Indiana I drove through my first Midwest tornado, not knowing the area I just followed the tractor trailers on the interstate directly into a wall of black death. The teeming rain obscured my view of the "lemmings-only" lane I was driving in.

Was I happy to get out of that storm and into the "Land of Corn"

Old Pete arrived at Rantoul first thing the next morning, and what a greeting with the 100'F temperature and 100% humidity .