Forty hours prior to today's fest a new yoke was obtained for the broken p.t.o. joint at a cost of $10.49. The next day Mr. Baylis, owner of Main st. Automotive Center in Clinton, began to repair the joint. Apparently he wanted to fest at his house so much that he was willing to fix the tractor himself. First he cut the broken p.t.o. yoke off of the transmission yoke, probably with a torch. Then while he was grinding out the old weld some metal got in his eye and prevented him from completing the repair; so my dad and I finished the job the next morning with an hour to spare. The fest began at noon when the tractor was started and loaded onto Mr. Baylis' ramp truck. John, Shannon, and I followed behind to our first destination, Main st. Automotive, for sponsor photos. Then we went to the Baylis residence and unloaded the tractor in the driveway. Today featured clear skies, temperatures in the thirties, and no wind. Several attempts were necessary to get over the snow bank at the edge of the road to reach the narrow bridge that passes over the brook. We chipped snow and ice off the edges of the bridge with our feet for "optimal" traction. The bridge was crossed with great caution because the rear tires hung over the edge three inches on each side. After some pedestrians passed by, we continued along the trail to the field. The doubled snow chains provided enough traction to travel through the six inch deep snow, which would be impossible before this recent modification. The tractor even managed to ascend steep grades although forward progress was extremely slow. We followed snowmobile tracks through some fields to the power lines. Chris and his eight year old sister, Cheryl, did some tractor sledding on the way. Ascending the first two steep sections on the power lines was not a problem, but the last (and longest) section proved to be difficult. After lots of pushing with Cheryl driving, we came to a stop two thirds of the way up. We were not going to give up after coming so far, so over the next hour we managed to proceed the last ten yards by pushing, pulling, lifting, driving, and using the come-along on various trees. It was quite hard and time consuming, but we were able to do some sledding during the come-along set up time. Once we reached the top, we continued along the power lines and followed the trails to the sand pits. (see Tractorfest '96 on tour day three for geographical description) Along the way we did a neutral drop and crossed through the shallow river. At the sand pits we met some rednecks. The tractor impressed them and we chatted briefly. Then we ascended a large sand dune for a steep neutral drop through the snow. Two guys on four wheelers stopped to check out the tractor. They were also quite impressed. Then we journeyed directly into the sun to the other side of the sand pits, tractor sledding along the way. John sledded through a section of icy ruts and managed to stay in his sled during an exciting neutral drop down a sand dune. Then we took a break and I ate lunch. Meanwhile John, Cheryl, and Chris went sledding on the dunes. The sun was getting low in the sky, so we journeyed back to the entrance of the sand pits. On the way Chris bailed from his sled inches from being dragged through a big puddle. At one point Cheryl sledded under the dump body for a few seconds. We arrived at the access road to the pits, loaded up the sleds, and jetted for the Baylis residence via the road. At this point John noticed that his hand was bleeding. While on the road we encountered about sixty ducks and geese, so we stopped and took pictures. The ducks seemed to like the tractor and they approached it, but stopped about twelve feet away. By this time we were freezing, so we returned to the Baylis' and did a neutral drop down their road to conclude the fest.
12/31Chris Baylis, Brian Jones, Shannon Paul
location: Baylis residence
Chris had not returned from his haircut by the time Shannon, Brian, and I had arrived, so we went for a spin on the road. We came upon a cul de sac and managed to get the tractor stuck on a snow bank in the middle of it. Attempts to back out of the mess were unsuccessful and the situation was quite amusing because many houses were within fifty meters of the scene. We returned to the Baylis' by foot, met Chris, and got Brian's nissan (the one with the big dent). Then we drove to the tractor, pulled it out with the nissan, and returned to the Baylis' again. After a brief break we departed for un-fested territory. We tractored to the power lines via the road and followed snowmobile tracks to a steep downhill. Chris, who was tractor sledding at the time, insisted that we neutral drop it; so we did. After a thrilling trip down the incline, we found ourselves at the bottom of another hill. The ascent was very slow due to the combination of four inches of snow and loose V Belts, but eventually the tractor clawed it's way to the top. A less exciting neutral drop brought us to another ascent which we were not able to complete. Some baja brought us to the top, but on the way the tractor ran out of gas. There was very little gas in the spare tank, so we put that in the tractor and jetted for the nearest road at full speed with Brian tractor sledding. While returning to Chris' on the road, we recieved the usual looks of curiosity from passing motorists. We made it without running out of gas and went to a mobil in Brian's nissan to get more. Then we returned to Chris', filled up the tractor, and took the road to some more un-fested territory. The trail began next to the train tracks and wound it's way through the woods to some moguls next to a pond. A dried up river bed provided us with some bumpy excitement as we ascended into the thick shade of some big fir trees. Then we tractored down a peninsula, through some shallow water, and along another peninsula. The V Belts were becoming very loose and the tractor had to be pushed through some snow. After crossing a couple of logs, we arrived at the trail and jetted back to Chris' to warm up. A chilling neutral drop down Chris' road into a headwind concluded Tractorfest '97. The thermometer showed only eighteen degrees making today the coldest fest on record.