Nebraska Antique
Farming Association
TRAN 2015 REVIEW
Friday May, 29, 2015:
Harrison Nebraska – It was a cold rainy day and a lot of TRAN 2015 registered people were showing up for the drive. A local radio station was coming into Harrison and providing the community lunch and TRAN drivers were invited. The Harrison Community Club had a BBQ for us in the evening and those in town were able to come out and see the tractors. Because we were only 9 miles from the Wyoming border, there were a few of the drivers that wanted to “cross the line”. Fourteen 14 drivers left around 7:30 p.m. with our tractors pointed towards the Wyoming line and fortunately, it stopped raining long enough for us to have a nice drive.
Day Two: Sunday, May 31, 2015
Chadron to Gordon, 50 miles; Segment leaders Mary Ann Schleicher & Dave Tiensvold
Those shuttling ahead left at 5:30 a.m. mountain time. We had a breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls, muffins, coffee and orange juice provided by John & Mary Ann Schleicher at 7:30. It was a beautiful morning (79 degrees) and thirty three tractors left Chadron and headed to Boudreaux Road which was a beautiful scenic drive. We toured Obermiller’s Gibson tractor collection on our way to Rushville and lunch was provided by the Hwy 20 tractor club in the Rushville City Park. We received a donation of $700 from the Rushville Legion Post which they had raised at the weekly Sunday Morning breakfast.
After lunch, we stopped at Ken Hood’s tractor collection and we viewed Gordon Greenamyer’s tractor collection located along Hwy 20 as we rolled into Gordon around 5:00 p.m. for supper.
Day Three: Monday, June 1, 2015
Gordon to Cody, 55 miles, Segment leaders Mary Ann Schleicher & Dave Tiensvold
It was another early morning for those shuttling as they left at 5:30 to move ahead to Cody. In Gordon, Randy Edson and Mike West from Kentucky had a spot on KSDZ 95.5 Radio station at 8:06 a.m. While they were interviewing we all were eating breakfast at Antelope Café. During that time the owner of the Café went to the radio station and donated $250 to OCW.
We left around 9:30 and traveled along Hwy 20 stopping at the historical marker “Opening the Sandhills”. At lunch time we stopped at Maggies’ Café in Merriman for either pork sandwich or chicken Alfredo and homemade pies! Maggie normally isn’t open on Monday so she opened especially for our group.
In the afternoon we stopped at a little “ghost” town of Eli. There is a vacant house, post office, town hall, general store, bakery, and church, however no ghost were sighted while we were there.
We arrived in Cody around 4:30. A few of us toured the George Paul Vinegary. Supper was eaten at the Husker Hub and sponsored by Steiner Tractor Parts. During supper were received two donations, one from a local rancher Barnes Angus of $500.00 and the second from the Rieke Meidl Post 319 in Cody for $150.00. That brings our total to $3220 and we have only been on the road for 3 days.
Day Four: Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Cody to Valentine, 37.6 miles, Segment leaders Chad Tetherow, Jeff Garwood, and Dick Stiefel
We had breakfast burritos served by the community of Cody around 8:30 in the morning. We left Cody around 9:30 a.m. and drove to Kilgore for our morning break. We arrived at Crookston around 11:45 for a lunch of sloppy joes, cheesy potatoes, cole slaw and cookies sponsored by Danielski Farms. We also viewed Danielski Farms JD collection while at the church.
After lunch we made a trip out to Dick Stiefel’s ranch to view his collection which was mostly IH. Unfortunately, Dick had a little mishap with his 1206 (back wheel fell off) as he headed out before us, but he was just a little shaken and welcomed us to his place.
We left Stiefel’s ranch around 2:45 and traveled to Valentine arriving around 4:00 p.m. where we parked at the fairgrounds for the evening. The Valentine American Legion sponsored supper for the drivers and donated $434 to OCW. We got to hear a little history about the “outlaw trail” that we will begin driving on tomorrow. After supper a silent pie auction and ice cream social at the fairgrounds raised $329.85 for OCW. Representatives from the Kilgore Methodist Church came to Valentine in the evening and presented us with a check for $2000. The total at this point was $6083.85.
Day Five: Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Valentine to Springview, 49 miles, Segment leaders Chad Tetherow, Jeff Garwood, and Dick Stiefel
We arrived in Springview around 5:00 p.m. where greetings abound from the locals. We visited the Keya Paha County Historical Society Museum and then headed to the Activity Center where the Burton Assembly of God ladies provided a smorgasbord of homemade goodies. The Assembly of God members raffled off a small F20 Farmall toy tractor that was part of the collection from the late Howard Titus, donated by his wife Kathy. The raffle proceeds of $215 were donated to OCW.
Day Six: Thursday, June 4, 2015
Springview to Spencer, 65 miles, Segment Leader Doug Hrbek
A breakfast buffet was served at the Activity Center hosted by the American Legion Post #98 and Auxiliary Unit #98. Rod Gierau presented us with a $300 check for OCW that were donations from breakfast. We left Springview around 8:00 along Highway 12 until we reached Tall Tails Taxidermy owned by the Carr family in Burton. We enjoyed looking at all their handywork. When we left to travel towards Mills, the clouds started accumulating and we ended up in pretty good rain and wind storm. We arrived at the Sylvester Historical Museum in Mills, where Larry & Carol Shepperd and Linda Stolcpart provided us with a buffet lunch. They were even so kind as to dry some of the drivers gloves, coveralls, and jackets. As we left the museum the sun came out and the afternoon was beautiful. We received $200.00 from the Anderson Ranch in Mills for OCW.
We arrived in Naper around 2:30 and took a short break at the Main Street Café. We continued our drive to Butte arriving around 4:15, drove past the nursing home and stopped at the Butte Implement who provided water and cookies for our break. We left Butte around 4:45 and arrived in Spencer about an hour later. We drove past the Highland House as we came into town. We were served a meal of roast beef sandwiches, salads, chips, baked beans, and desert provided by the Legion Auxiliary. Cost of the meal was $8.00. The American Legion donated $100.00 to OCW.
McDonalds provided a BOGO coupon to all the participants for breakfast. Thirty-three tractors left Valentine around 8:30 headed towards the Wildlife Refuge where we saw buffalo and elk. We stopped at the Fort Niobrara Visitor Center and a country school along Hwy 12. We traveled on to Sparks to have lunch at Lillie’s Café. For $7.00 we had a hamburger or hot dog, macaroni salad, potato salad, and brownies.
In the afternoon we traveled to Norden and stopped at Cub Creek Recreation Area. We pulled into the picnic area, enjoyed the shade, the water, and took some awesome pictures. The Managing Editor, Amy Johnson, of the Springview Herald met us at the picnic area and visited with the group and took pictures.
Around 4:00 p.m. we arrived in Lindy and took a short break at the Lindy Country Club. Some of the Freedom Riders met us at Lindy and escorted us into Crofton. As we drove into town there were signs along the highway welcoming us to “the friendliest town by a dam site”. We had Shish Kebobs grilled to perfection at the new Lewis & Clark Pulley Museum on Main Street. The meal was sponsored by the Crofton Community Club and the museum for a free will offering.
After supper the American Legion had a double header baseball game between Crofton and Creighton. We presented a check to the Nebraska Department Commander between the two games. At this time we had not finished collecting monies but that evening we had $9503.00 collected.
Day Seven: Friday, June 5, 2015
Spencer to Crofton, 65.7 miles, Segment Leader Doug Hrbek
Those that needed to move vehicles ahead were up and on their way by 5:00 a.m. Thirty-eight tractors headed out to Bristow around 7:30. We arrived at the Legion Hall around 8:00 a.m. where the Auxiliary ladies made us a delicious breakfast! We received a generous donation from the American Legion Auxiliary Unit #76 for $500.00 along with the donations for breakfast of $454.
We arrived in Lynch around 9:30 and took a short break. From Lynch we traveled onto Monowi, population of 1. Monowi and it’s only resident, Elsie Eiler, has been featured in many news stories as being the smallest incorporated village in the US. Monowi consists of Elsie’s house, her tavern, many abandoned buildings and the town’s public library, which was a dream of Elsie’s late husband, Rudy, who was an avid reader. It consists of Rudy’s personal collection and books are checked out on the honor system. Elsie and her friends provided us with a delicious lunch and some lively chatter.
We left Monowi around 12:15 and arrived at Niobrara around 2:00 and toured the local museum and the Sage Brothers Memorial. The three Sage brothers were all killed on 6-2-69 when their destroyer, the USS Frank E. Evans, collided with the Australian carrier, the Melbourne, off the coast of Vietnam. Niobrara has been moved (twice) due to flooding from the Missouri River.
Day Eight: Saturday, June 6, 2015
Crofton to Yankton, 15 miles, Segment Leaders Ron & Donelle Moormeier with help of Gerald Fischer family!
Vehicles were moved forward to Yankton at 6:30 in the morning – most vehicles were left at Gerald Fischer’s lake house along Hwy 121, and some of the semi-trailers went to Koletzky Implement along Hwy 50. At 7:15 breakfast was sponsored by Tucker-Everton-Brown Post #128 in Crofton, including Crofton Cakes, scrambled eggs, Mick’s homemade pork sausage and drink. Free will offering was taken.
We headed out of Crofton around 8:15 a.m. and arrived at the Lewis Clark Visitor Center at 9:30. One half of the group toured the Power House at 10:00 and the other half toured the Visitor Center, at 11:00 we switched so everyone could get a tour of the Power House! Around 11:30 we left the visitor center and headed across Gavin’s Point Dam to JoDean’s Steakhouse where the Tri-State Antique Club was holding a tractor show. There were free hot dogs, chips and a drink available. The tractor show ended around 3:00 p.m. so TRAN members loaded up and headed out to Gerald Fischer’s lake house. Moormeier Trucking and the Fischer family served up buffalo burgers, BBQ ribs, BBQ chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, and chips. Jolene Fischer made some delicious desserts, and some pies that had been bought at the silent auction in Valentine made their appearance.
Day Nine: Sunday, June 7, 2015
Yankton drive to breakfast, Segment Leaders Ron & Donelle Moomeier
Those that had campers stayed at the Fischer Lakehouse overnight. The rest of us joined them in the morning around 6:30 a.m. to have a beautiful sunrise drive to CJ’s restaurant for a delicious buffet breakfast for $7.49 each! We drew for the IH book that we had raffled along the way and the winner was Ryan Hrbek. However Ryan did not know about, nor receive the book until Red Power Round Up. The author of the book signed and presented the book to Ryan at the show. We handed out certificates to those that had driven the whole distance and were in attendance, said our goodbyes, and loaded up our tractors to head home.
We didn’t receive all off the monies that had been collected in Crofton until a couple of weeks later, once we did receive it the total monies we collected for OCW was $10,766. The people on our trip across northern Nebraska were more than generous with their time, food, and money! We will be possibly be seeing some of them again in 2016 as we make our National Monument trip. So long…..till we meet again!
Picture collage from our Kentucky Drivers!
Day One: Saturday, May 30, 2015
Harrison to Chadron; 50 miles; Segment leaders Mary Ann Schleicher and Dave Tiensvold
The plan for 2015 was to shuttle vehicles ahead in the morning so when we arrived at our destination in the evening we did not need to go back and get our trailers, campers, pickups etc. Those that needed to shuttle vehicles ahead left at 6:00 a.m. mountain time. When they returned breakfast of pancakes, sausage, and eggs was hosted by the Harrison Fire Department in their new fire hall!
We got on the road around 8:30 a.m. We enjoyed a drive through Fort Robinson State Park at Crawford. This historic outpost served from the days of the Indian Wars until after World War II. Lunch of beef sandwiches, salads, relishes, cookies and cake was provided by the Hwy 20 Tractor Club and John & Mary Ann Schleicher at the Crawford City Park. The sun was shining for our drive from Crawford to Chadron in the afternoon on Nebraska Byway Hwy 20 “Bridges to Buttes”.
We arrived in Chadron around 5:30 p.m. where the American Legion had a wonderful supper of turkey breast, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad and dessert prepared for us at $10.00 a person. We had bags of giveaways for every driver registered, including items from Steiner Tractor Parts, Farmall 2015 calendar, and information on some of our stops along the way. We also hats and t-shirts from Steiner Tractor Parts, however we had a limited number of these items so we decided to have a little “tractor trivia” for participants to win the prizes. Each night we had 6-8 items that we gave away. Everyone headed off to bed rather early because shuttling ahead in the morning makes for some early mornings this year!