Editor’s note: Matt Lillpop of the Whiteside County Farm Bureau submitted the photographs.
Did you happen to see a caravan of 70 tractors on Monday, August 13, 2018? Each year on the day before the Whiteside County Fair begins, area farmers meet at the fairgrounds and begin a journey through Whiteside County. The Tractor Ride is organized by the Whiteside County Farm Bureau and Ron Shank.
Shank reported that 70 drivers was “about the same as past years. The numbers usually range from 70-to-75.”
He stated the group left the fairgrounds at 8:15 a.m. They stopped for a morning break and light refreshments, at the home of Jeff Vandereide. A noon lunch was served at Newton Church in rural Newton Township. The home of Randy Dornbush was the location of an afternoon break.
The tractors returned to the fairgrounds at 3:45 p.m. and parked on the grounds–ready for visitors who would view them during the next five days.
“They covered 47 miles,” stated Shank.
