Tractor Cruise celebrates agriculture

Good weather and a gentle breeze sent flags fluttering Sunday as tractor enthusiasts cruised through the Pettis County countryside.

The annual Sedalia Tractor Cruise rolled out of the Missouri State Fairgrounds over the weekend for two days of agricultural celebration.
For many, it was a family affair.

“I love it,” said 5-year-old Josh Sampson during a Sunday afternoon lunch at Bothwell Lodge. “My most favorite thing about it is that one of my grandpa’s tractors has two seats.”

Josh, of Lathrop, took turns with brothers Andy, 11, and Nick, 8, riding shotgun in grandfather Dave Maddux’s 1945 Allis Chalmers tractor.

Maddux and wife Christa came to the cruise from Holt, he said.

Drivers covered almost 90 miles of countryside over the weekend.  Sunrise Optimist Club President Robert Bond said 41 tractors cruised to Otterville on Saturday, while 28 made Sunday’s trip to Bothwell Lodge.

Although many of the riders hail from Missouri, Bond said the cruise saw participants from as far away as Kentucky.

This year’s event had a tractor celebrity riding along. Dennis Miesner, owner and editor of the tractor enthusiast publication “Red Power Magazine,” rode a borrowed 1945 International Harvester over the weekend.

“I think this has been absolutely fabulous,” Miesner said. “We have gone out in the countryside and seen some absolutely wonderful scenery.”

Miesner, of Ida Grove, Iowa, stopped by Pettis County before joining his wife Sallie later this week at the International Red Power Roundup in Columbia, where more then 700 tractors are expected.

He said the cruise was a “kind of a celebration for the farming community, farming tractors, farming in general.”

Enthusiasm for the agricultural life was in no danger, Miesner said.

“It’s sort of evolving,” he said. “Obviously the smaller farmer is fading away, but the farm life in these people’s personalities will never fade away.”
John Theis, of Perry, returned for his third year, bringing his daughter and two grandchildren along for the ride.

Theis said he came for “many things. Just the good fellowship, good people, scenery, food, fun.”

Organizer Annette Ray estimated the event raised between $3,500 and $4,000 before bills for the Optimist Club. Proceeds from the annual event go to benefit Sunrise Optimist youth activities.

Bond said the club plans to bring the cruise back again next year.

“It’s really turned into a community project,” he said. “The riders and the drivers, you know, they’re really the ones that make it happen.”