This story begins with a parade. Not any ordinary parade though. This one is a Harvest Season Parade. It was time to move the tractors up the road to Rebecca. In the front was the farmer on his tractor, next was my father in law on his tractor, next was me in my car and behind me was my sister in law and her man in Kevin’s truck. But behind them was the real parade. At least 50 vehicles of possibly cussing and fussing lovelies. We couldn’t pull over because on both sides of the highway was complete drop-offs into the river and no one could pass because of the people in the other lane.
We drove along until we finally got to an area with a turning lane and we let everyone pass and then we continued on. We had to go 20 mph so it was a long drive. I turned up the radio and sang along with every song that came on. Then a big truck passed us and I started smelling something. I thought it was that truck but then I saw smoke. I squinted my eyes. The smoke was coming from my father in laws tractor. I grabbed my phone and tried to call him but no answer. My sister in law was already telling him. So I called Kevin and let him know to turn back and so he did. When the tractor stopped, we all jumped out of our vehicles to go see what the issue was. Smoke was rolling and hydraulic fluid gushed out underneath the tractor.
The farmer went to searching and cleaning up the tractor to get a better look at what he was dealing with. He finally found it a short time later, the hydraulic hose had busted. So we jumped in my car and raced to find somewhere that sold the hose we needed.
We traveled to Fitzgerald first, after going to three or four different stores that sold parts the farmer told me to call an after hours number to John Deere. I couldn’t find one so we drove to Ocilla to the closest John Deere store. The farmer jumped out of the car and ran to the guy who was closing up the shop. I watched from the car as they walked back in and he got the hydraulic hose and fluid. I got out and helped carry the stuff back to the car. When we got back in and headed out we made a call to the farmer’s father, sister and her man who had all stayed with the tractor. There was a cop there now! We raced back to the tractor and when we got there sure enough, blue lights were lighting up the entire stretch. The cop helped shine his light along with me and my sister in law and the guys all got greasy and dirty while trying to fix the tractor. We finally got everything fixed on the tractor and headed down the road to put both tractors by each other in a safe place. When I got in my car to drive it to the next spot I felt the slick feeling of hydraulic fluid on my steering wheel, the hydraulic fluid was also on the gear shift and in the seat. (The car stunk of hydraulic fluid for three days after this!!) We headed down the road and the peanut digger slowly crept its way down. I gasped as it hit the road and created sparks. "It needs more fluid" the farmer mumbled under his breath. It was quickly pulled back up and we pulled into the parking lot of the peanut place.
The cop pulled in behind us and gave me some paper towels to clean my car interior up and we all went our separate ways. On the way home I looked over at my husband. He was so quiet, so stressed. I put my hand on his leg, “It’s all okay. Everything is fixed and it’s all okay.” He smiled at me and I smiled back. We rode in silence a few minutes until I said with a smirk, “At least it’ll make a good story for Lady of the Farm…”
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