The Farm Progress Show 2013

Brad, Vincent, Bob, Craig and I headed down to the Farm Progress Show on Monday August 27^th.  We left right after school and took Craig’s motorhome down there.  Craig and Bob had a Claas combine dinner and talk to go to that night and the Farm Progress Show started on Tuesday.  It is a 3 day trade show for those in agriculture and it rotates each year between IL and IA.  This year while we were there is was about 95 degrees out.  It is an outdoor event, although some companies have their displays in air conditioned tents.  Those tents are always quite popular!

Brad and I.  Vincent took our picture.

Vincent

Monday night while Bob and Craig were at their talk Vincent, Brad and I went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  Vincent had fun having a date night with us and we even let him have pop which he thought was awesome!  Afterwards we parked the motorhome in the camping area at the Farm Progress Show and we walked into the show to look for Bob and Craig.  We eventually found them after wandering around a little bit checking out other booths.  Vincent thought it was so cool that we were sneaking in.  When we found the Claas booth Vincent was introduced to the man that drives the combine in the Claas record corn harvest video.  Vincent was so excited to meet a “movie star” and told him he has watched his movie all of the days!  I wasn’t around during this introduction and heard about it later.  I pointed out that Daddy, Uncle Bob and Grandpa were also in the movie and that makes them “movie stars” too.  Vincent was so excited to be staying in a motor home full of movie stars!  He informed all of us that he wants to be in a planting and spraying video when he grows up.

Vincent and a fancy tractor

Vincent and the monster truck semi.

Vincent and 4 wheeler he is in love with.

The Farm Progress show is huge!  We approach it in a very systematic manner in order to see everything in one day.  We walked through the gates close to opening and stayed until almost closing.  We started at one ended and went up and down the streets (all 12 of them) until we hit them all.  Well, full disclosure Brad made it to all of them.  Vincent and I hit about 70% of the show.  Almost halfway through we met up with our friends Barney and Katie and their 3 kids.  Their oldest and youngest are girls and their middle child is a boy.  They are all roughly a year younger than our kids and Vincent was having a lot of fun telling Teddy (who is 2) all about farm stuff.  Being the big-know-it-all kid is something Vincent enjoys.  Plus Teddy actually appeared to be listening to Vincent and enjoying his “lessons.”

I loved this sign!  Best advertisement all day!

Vincent and Teddy

Vincent, Claire and Teddy checking out a John Deere combine.

Vincent was having fun checking everything out and loved the augers and cattle equipment.  Many of the salesman were nice enough to let him try out the cattle chutes and catch gates.  At one point he even made me weigh myself on one of the scales.  He also had some pretty great questions for many of the salesman.  He was able to sit in a “Monster Truck Semi”, an airplane, almost every sprayer at the show and many tractors.  He also found a 4wheeler he just had to have!

Another group picture.

A cute picture of Claire.

Vincent and Teddy wanted to sit in the plane.  They loved it.

Sometime in the middle of the day Katie and I lost the guys.  Actually we left them talking to a college friend at the John Deere booth because the kids wanted to climb in equipment.  Then we found the Claas bouncy house and lost the guys.  The cell service was bad there and after many attempts of phone calls and text messages Barney was able to find us.  They left shortly after and Vincent and I went to check out a few more things.  After many attempts to get a hold of Brad failed before my phone died (Brad’s phone was dead too), Vincent and I finished checking out the booths we wanted to see and headed to the motor home to find some air conditioning!  30-45 minutes later Brad appeared and a little while later Bob and Craig arrived.

Vincent in the plane.

It was a long, fun, hot day followed by a nice dinner and for Vincent a shower going down the interstate!  Not my idea but it was nice when we got home after 10pm and he was already for bed.  While we were all gone Diane was watching Joel and Cecilia.  She was texting me adorable pictures of them all day!