GRAYSON —
Connie Harris doesn’t know how they’ve managed five straight years of great weather on the days hundreds have gathered for an annual tractor drive through rural Carter County on Sept. 15.
“We are blessed. That’s just about all I can say about that,” Harris said, adding cloudy conditions threatened to bring rain last year, but the day turned out to be beautiful. “All I know is God likes clean family fun.”
In addition to a passion for farm machines, Harris said family is the point of the yearly parade of tractors and wagons. Her own family’s tractor and wagon will have five generations aboard, she explained, with additional members at the start and finish lines as well as along the route.
“We’ve got a big family,” she said, listing relatives including her own children who will participate in this year’s event.
Her mother-in-law, Betty Ruth Harris, is a major motivation for this year’s drive, Harris said. Explaining her mother-in-law is recuperating after a health challenge, Harris said she hopes to see her piloting the family’s John Deere at the head of the procession.
“I’m praying she’s going to be able to make it,” she said.
Harris is also quick to point out she isn’t the only one with a big family participating in the drive, citing large parties with the Horne family of Rush, the Evermans from Iron Hill, the Wolfe family from along Ky. 7 and John Lynch, who brings “a humongous wagon” filled with friends.
With 30 of 60 tractors pulling wagons in last year’s drive, Harris said they expect to see “just all kinds” of tractors ranging from refurbished antiques to working machines fresh from working the field for this year’s event. At the lead will be the early 1960s model John Deere rebuilt by her husband, Dewey Harris, which got their family into the tractor drive game.
“It was Dewey’s dad’s ... Papaw Jack’s tractor,” she said. “It always runs the lead and Granny’s always in it.”
Harris said Jim Bob Bonzo’s Farmall tractor, complete with working train whistles, is also among crowd favorites along the route from near Grayson to Carter Caves and back as they watch the tractors and wagons roll by.
“You can hear him for miles,” she said.
The tractor drive will leave the Harris residence 11 miles from Grayson at the Chicken Coop on the A-A Highway, travel to Carter Caves State Resort Park for lunch catered by Little Piggy Bar-B-Que and return along a different route through the scenic county, departing at 10 a.m. and wrapping up around 4 p.m.
For more information, call the Harrises at (606) 474-5233 or (606) 922-3118.
Local News
Annual tractor ride to Carter Caves set for Sept. 15
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