Old Settlers Day

We decided to take in Smith Center's Old Settlers' Day. The festivities started with a parade at 10 a.m. on Main Street.


We couldn't believe the size of the crowd that turned out for the parade.









Most of the entries in the parade were tractors--different brands, different colors, different ages, different sizes, but all tractors. Here are some of the John Deere entries.






Of course, since building Excel fifth-wheel RVs is the major industry here (other than farming), there was an Excel in the parade.







The celebration included a free BBQ lunch in a parking lot off Main Street. We enjoyed live music while chowing down on BBQ beef sandwiches. After doing some laundry, we went to the fairgrounds for the afternoon activities of Old Settlers' Day. We drove up wondering how hard it would be to find a place to park--and found a spot right across the street from the fairgrounds. We may have been the only people there who weren't entered in an event. We spent most of our time walking past the rows and rows of tractors on display. After a while we sat down in the bleachers (the only people there) to watch some horseback riding events. The first was an equestrian version of musical chairs, in which the riders had to dismount and lead their horses with them to the chairs. That was about as exciting as the afternoon got. Another event was the lead-back race. The riders had to ride their horses the length of the arena, dismount, and lead their horses back to the starting line.















In the evening we went to the high school for the last activity of the day--a concert by The Skirtlifters. According to their web site, "The Skirtlifters authentically recreate the music of the 19th century riverboat, stage and parlor." The name comes from the way ladies' skirts spin up when the ladies whirl around to the group's dance music.



















Tomorrow we will be "on the road again" at last. We'll be heading for Branson, Missouri. We plan to stop along the way to visit the Eisenhower and Truman presidential libraries.