This was a last minute decision Sunday morning. After eating a disappointing breakfast burrito and finding a lake too cold to swim in at 10:30am, for some. A decision to switch gears was made.
We ended up in Brooks, OR just in time to hear the noon whistles of many vehicles, which was impressive to hear even at 200 feet from the entrance gate. What we found was a fun and informative festival of thousands of machines, vehicles, equipment, and people.
Entrance fee is $17 per adult plus a $5 parking fee per car. Outside food and nonalcoholic beverages is allowed. Since I had planned on staying at the waterside most of the day I had packed a picnic of lunch and snack foods. We found a covered gazebo to eat under, thank goodness. It was 83° F this day. We each had a full 32oz hydro flask of iced water, this was not enough for the 3.5 hours we spent there. We ended purchasing another 500 ml water bottle per person and a delicious fresh lemonade.
Shade was limited, most machines, heavy equipment, and trains were outside, wear a hat and sunscreen. I came across a TriMet Max train that was running as a cooling station. It was nice to get out of the heat and was probably the cleanest Max train I’ve ever seen.
There were also so many buildings full of vehicles and all sorts that we didn’t make it to all of them. I did find a semi-truck from a company my grandfather drove for when my mother was a child.
We caught part of a tractor and equipment parade, probably ran for at least 45 minutes.
Some of the vehicles we found were unexpected; for example the hearse. A Chevy body sent to Spain in the early 1900’s where the hearse body was added, made of hand-carved olive wood.
A fun project for kids to keep them busy is the youth passport. Kids collected stamps, or a burning if it is from the blacksmith, and wooden pins to attach to a lanyard. After collecting enough they receive a medallion for the lanyard, a rubber duck, and a temporary tattoo (the last two may vary).
All in all a good time had by all. I wish we could have made it to the double-decker train ride, the trains run periodically from the train station. Tickets can be purchased from the train station for other trains as well. We also missed the logging demonstrations and a miniature train ride (hubby was not interested, le sigh). There is one more weekend this summer, August 2-3rd.
Borrowed a screen shot from antiquepowerland.com
Here are a few more pictures I took from our day.
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