Kansas State Fair - State Pedal Pull Championship

Nathan qualified at the Smith County Fair competition to participate in the Kansas State Pedal Pull Championship in Hutchinson.  So Saturday we headed off toward Hutchinson and our trip to the State Fair.

Before we headed to Marion's brother Marvin's house, we bypassed Hutchinson and went 15 miles south to Yoder, Kansas.  We visited around town and went to the Yoder Hardware store and Demelia's Quilt shop. Then we went to Carriage Crossing and ate lunch.  After lunch, we stopped by an Amish farm which was having a bake sale by the highway.  We picked up several cinnamon rolls, a strawberry rhubarb pie, a peach pie, and a small jar of zucchini/strawberry jelly (I thought it sounded interesting and wanted to try it).

After that, we headed to Marvin's and prepared for the big event on Sunday.  After attending church with Marvin's family we headed to the fair to get Nathan registered and have some lunch.  

Nathan proudly registered for the Pedal Pull
(he got a hat and button that signified he was legit)

Nathan was entry #48
There were 55 boys registered in the 5 year old class.

After we had lunch, it was time to line up at the Bretz Law Arena.  Marion took the other kids while Nathan and I got in line.  We then proceeded to stand under and around a tented area for 45 minutes while they organized and ushered in the kids.

Nathan got pretty tired, hot, and thirsty.  At one point he just sat down at my feet!
(note:  this was towards the beginning of the waiting...once they called us to line up, there was not this much room around us...we were like sardines!)

 The girls went first, and then they ushered the boys onto the stage to wait their turn.  Interestingly enough, they had 4 lanes going at one time.  From 1-2pm the 4, 5, 6, and 7 year olds competed and then from 2-3pm the 8, 9, 10, and 11 year olds went.  Each lane had a person with a dry erase board that would write the pull total and show it to the crowds.  The only way to know if you were even close to being a runner for the first 3 places was to keep track of all of the pull totals.  AND, the awards were only given at the end of the entire thing, so you'd have to stay for nearly 3 hours from beginning to end if you were fortunate enough to place.

Nathan sitting on stage waiting for his turn.

Almost to the big event

I have to say here that Nathan said his favorite part of the whole event was that the boy next to him would always say, "Skootch" when the time came to move up one more closer to their turn.

At the starting point....go...go...go....

And at the end...good run buddy boy!

Nathan pulled a 16'10" total.  And honestly, that was about the average for his age range.  The one kicker to the way they break things up by age here is that a boy could turn 6 the next day and still compete with the 5 year olds because it is the AGE YOU ARE THE DAY OF.  There were only a handful of kids that pulled more than 18" and you could tell they were on the bigger/older side of the ranges.

It was definitely an experience and both Nathan and I were VERY grateful for water afterwards. ;0)


I'll do another post with pictures of our fun the next day on Monday - dollar days!