Tractor run, slow speed ahead

HARRAH -- It was a date which will live in infamy for certain members of the Central Washington Antique Farm Equipment Club.

Right there in the middle of a tractor run to Harrah, an old International Harvester broke down on the side of the road and had to be towed the rest of the way by -- wait for it, wait for it -- a John Deere!

"It's a scandal, a scandal," the genial Ruthardt brothers Ken, Erick and Joe joked at the halfway point of Saturday's run, which epi-centered on the Farm House Cafe.

The Ruthhardt boys are the heart and soul of the tractor club, whose members like to mass every so often like outlaw bikers for a big (but s-lo-w) flag-flying run to wherever.

"We're just driving because we like to drive," explained Ken Ruthardt, who ran Smitty's Outdoor Power Equipment for nearly three decades before he retired a few years back.

Saturday's shindig began at the usual starting place, the Agricultural Museum in Union Gap, and from there made the round-trip to Harrah and back.

Topping out at 10 mph, it's a four- or five-hour event, counting lunch and lots of time at the beginning, middle and end talking tractors. And manure spreaders.

There was a 620, at least three 60s, a couple Bs, an A and a G, maybe two 430s and a 70. And that was just the John Deeres. A bunch of International Harvesters (aka McCormick Farmalls) rounded out the herd, along with a few Fords and a handful of esoteric names, including Ferguson, Massey-Harris and Oliver.

Among those who stopped by for a look-see was Wayne Lotspeich, a Central Pre-Mix mechanic from Selah who owns a tractor of his own, a 1960s-era Ford 600. He's also proud of an equally old Husky riding lawnmower he still uses to cut the grass.

"I saw they were going on a run and I thought, 'I just gotta go look at them,'" he explained, which pretty well summed it up.

Among the participants was John Wornell, a retired aerospace engineer from Los Alamitos, Calif., who grew up in Toppenish with the Ruthardt brothers.

Wornell has a shiny red Farmall "Super A" that he inherited from an uncle a few years ago and keeps stored at his sister's place in Toppenish. He comes up now and then for a run. The next one's in September, up the Yakima River Canyon to Ellensburg.

"It's just fun," he said. "These tractors, they just deserve some fresh air now and then."

* Chris Bristol can be reached at 509-577-7748 or cbristol@yakimaherald.com.