We were staying near Waterloo Iowa for a few days this week, on a bike trip with friends.We’ve never been to Waterloo. While we enjoyed Cedar Falls (a neighboring town) better, Waterloo boasted a John Deere Tractor Museum.
Because it was raining, we decided to visit this tractor museum, since we couldn’t ride our bicycles. The museum was well done. It was sizeable. And it was free!
My husband grew up on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania. His family never owned a John Deere tractor. They had Farmall and International Harvesters. There seems to be a lot of rivalry, and friendly banter, between tractor owners…but Gary found this museum – focusing on these green tractors – very interesting. As did we all.
Tractors have come a long way…from the walking plow to the modern, gigantic tractors that have several steps to get up into the cab…
…and, that cab has air conditioning, cushioned seats, wrap-around windows and a state-of-the-art computer system. I know we’ve all seen these big machines in the fields. At night they look like space aliens out there.
John Deere also manufactures the riding lawn mowers that are popular, and they used to make bicycles. In fact, a guy in our group used to own a John Deere bicycle…he was lamenting the fact that he got rid of it.
The museum was informative, and we all enjoyed it. It is definitely worth a visit…we would go to visit it again, given the chance.
When we were through the museum, the rain had stopped, the sun came out, and we were able to get back to biking.
Thanks for this tour. I didn’t know John Deere made bikes either so that was an interesting tidbit to learn.
My dad owned every brand– John Deere, IH, Farmall and, later, Ford. It is the John Deere and the B-Farmall (which I drove) that I remember with the deepest fondness.
The smaller tractors seem operable…
We assume government subsidies enable farmers to buy the humungous machines, on the large farms.