Calling All Combines!

Last weekend I experienced a first that I just had to tell... well, anybody who will listen about. It was my first ever combine demolition derby! I've been to regular demo derbies for cars, but never with these Monstrous Machines! I'm such a sucker for these quirky home town events and I sure wasn't disappointed.

Little Lind, Washington grew from about 500 people to a couple thousand last Saturday. The event started out fairly unorganized, but it really just added to the humor of the situation. A man who sounded just like Larry the Cable Guy (and I am not exaggerating and I don't think he was either) began the announcing. First they gave out prizes for the best decor (thanks to David for a bunch of these great photos!):

Some of the best names were Prison Break, Tater Salad, Stacks and Cracks, and The Flusher.

Here is Prison Break showing off a little:

Finally they started the actually Demolition Derby:

It didn't have the speed and action that the cars do, but it is crazy to see such huge machines just ram into each other. Occasionally we would hear a loud *POP* which meant one of the huge front tires had popped like a balloon.


After the first round of heats, the combines headed back to be fixed for the final heat (by fixed I mean basically completely rebuilt). At this point they had grain truck and regular farm truck races:

Then they had more grain truck and farm truck races. Then they had still more grain truck races. At this point in the day everybody had something stuck in their eye, a layer of dust covering every exposed area of skin and families with small children were leaving in droves. There was one heart stopping moment when one of the trucks rolled over and another literally drove right on top of it. Not all the trucks had roll bars, but I'm pretty sure this driver is alive because he did:

Finally, hours after the event started, the final heat came. By the end there were only a few combines limping toward each other trying to do any damage possible, one with only one wheel for quite some time. A local boy won, which I'm sure was well deserving. The combine, Free Beer Tomorrow, is in the front of this photo looking pretty much like a crumpled up beer can itself by the final round:

After Larry the Announcer Guy thanked us for coming we went home sweaty, sunburned and dusty, a sure sign of a great day.

~Deanna~