5463 Pawson Road, Tipton, Michigan 49287
We left on Saturday, February 24, 1990 in snow, freezing rain
and high winds. The first 300 miles took some time and we saw a lot
of cars and trucks in ditches by the road. Finally we drove out of
all that bad weather and Mother Nature gave us good weather the
rest of the trip.
On the third day we stopped at Ed Larson’s in Milan, Kansas
and saw his Minneapolis tractor collection and a very nice 18 HP
Advance Rumely (universal). I took a lot of ‘picking on’
about a Fordson at Ed’s because Ed used his Fordson for his
mailbox.
After leaving Ed’s we went to Ken Kelley’s in Pawnee,
Oklahoma. Ken has a big collection of Case steamers and cars. He
took us to the Pawnee show grounds to look at that building. And to
top that off, when we got back to his house, Mrs. Kelley had a big
home cooked dinner for us.
The next day we stopped at Lyman Knapp’s in Blackwell,
Oklahoma. Lyman showed us his steam engines and Oil Pulls. We had a
very nice visit with Lyman and his daughter, Evelyn.
After leaving Lyman we went to the Martens in Fairview,
Oklahoma. I would recommend stopping at Martens and have a good
camera and time to talk. After spending the afternoon with them, we
started for Hays, Kansas. But before we got to Kansas, Jim Schrock
was stopped for speeding by the Oklahoma State Police! The
policeman was nice enough to let Jim go with just a warning. This
saved Jim some money.
Going to Hays, Kansas was the reason for making this trip. Chris
Johnson bought a G Minneapolis Moline and a U Minneapolis Moline; I
can’t recall the name of the man who sold it. After we loaded
the M-M’s we started for home. We had two blowouts on the
trailer in Kansas, one in Salina and the other in Topeka.
From Hays, Kansas to McClure, Ohio is 1150 miles and the whole
trip 2660 miles. To everybody’s surprise only two tires went
flat! The truck, trailer and tractors weighed 24,000 lbs. We got
home Friday, March 2nd about dark.
Hopefully we will be able to go back to the Oklahoma Steam &
Gas Engine Show in Pawnee to see everybody and their equipment in
action!
