Sharks Awards Ceremony

Beth's swim team came 3rd in the league (they narrowly missed second by only 30 points!). The entire team was invited to an awards ceremony where each team member received a trophy & those who completed in the finals also received their medals. Well done Beth for your excellent performance this season!

Fords Unlimited car show

Since I particularly like Ford cars (especially the late 1960's musclecars) I thought that I would pop along to the 22nd Annual 'Fords unlimited' Car Show. This is held at the 131-acre J S McDonnell Park in St Louis County & is open to all factory Ford-powered vehicles, vehicles that were originally Ford powered, currently Ford powered vehicles, & vehicles with Ford or Ford replica bodies. There is no vehicle age limit so as well as classic cars there were also brand new vehicles such as Mustangs (including a few Shelby GT500s). The park is located close to I-270 in St Ann (St Louis County) & is fairly picturesque with fairly hilly terrain & lots of trees. The park has a circular access road which was completely full with parked show vehicles.

After finding a parking space away from the main show area I walked around the park a few times checking out the vehicles. Vehicles were grouped by class which made it really easy to compare different vehicles of the same model. The weather was sunny & very, very, hot. The organising club provided a 'cooling booth' at the main shelter but it looked like the heat was too much for some people & the emergency services were called. When I left there were still cars arriving (I had looked at over 200 cars) & earlier on during the morning the host club announced that the previous attendance record for the show had been broken. There was a great variety of vehicles present (even though they were all Ford related) with some really obscure, rare vehicles (e.g. a 1965 Ford Mustang T5 fastback export model - one of 30 worldwide), modified & custom cars, replicas, & concours restored musclecars.

Tractor pulling at the Monroe County Fair

One of the main events that provides evening entertainment at the various rural county fairs around the region is the truck & tractor pulling competition. Monroe County, Illinois is just across the river from us & so we thought that we would go & watch a competition held by the Illinois Tractor Pulling Association (which is one of the oldest sanctioning bodies for truck & tractor pulling in the US) at the County Fair in Waterloo.

Truck & tractor pulling is, as the name implies, a competition using tractors & large trucks to pull a heavy 'sled' along a prepared dirt track. The sled can be loaded with different weights (up to 65,000 lbs depending upon the pulling category). At the start of the pull the weights are positioned over the sled's rear axles & as the tractor travels the course the weights are moved forward along the sled increasing the effective weight until the tractor is no longer able to overcome the force of friction generated by the sled. At the end of the run, the pull vehicle is unhitched from the sled, the weights are moved back & the sled front axle is hydraulically lowered (so that the sled nose is lifted clear from the ground) to enable the sled to be driven back down the course ready for the next run.

There were a number of different classes pulling at this event including 8,200 lbs. Super Stock, 8,200 lbs. Limited Pro Stock, 10,000 lbs. Pro Stock, 7,500 lbs. Modified Tractor, 6,200 lbs. 2-Wheel Drive Truck, & 9,300 lbs. Super Farm Stock. One of the most popular makes of tractor is John Deere (always painted green & yellow) & this brand seemed to be the most popular at the event, although there were also a number of International & Ford tractors. The types of pull vehicles varied from stock looking diesel tractors (which accompanied their pulls with a massive plume of sooty smoke), multiple turbocharged, alcohol fueled tractors, & 2-wheel drive 'trucks' (which included a number of pickup trucks, a 1930s van, & '34 ford hot rod) powered by the same type of supercharged v-8 engine typically found in top fuel dragsters.

We arrived for the start of the competition at 6:00pm & left at 10:30pm before the racing had finished. Typically, these events can go on well past midnight. The 2-wheel drive trucks seemed to be somewhat more fragile than the tractors (probably due to their highly-strung, very high horsepower engines) but it was actually the last tractor that we saw pull that provided the most excitement of the night. Just as it came to the end of it's pull (just past where we were seated) the alcohol powered engine blew up & sent a huge ball of fire skyward. The driver jumped (literally) off the tractor through the flames, but the emergency services soon had the fire extinguished.

Swimming with the Sharks!

Our local recreational center has a swim team (The Sharks) that competes in the local swimming league during the summer vacation. Since Beth loves swimming so much & is really good at all the different competition strokes, she joined the team. Practices were on a daily basis during the week with 'swim meets' typically held on a Tuesday night against various local teams including: Shrewsbury, Kirkwood, Ballwin, Sunset Hills, & Chesterfield. Beth usually swam in the following races: 25 yds breaststroke, 25 yds freestyle, 25 yds backstroke, & 100 yds relay. Although she only placed in a few of the races (she was one of the youngest swimmers in her age range & so was at a disadvantage), Beth swam every race without getting disqualified at all throughout the entire season. Good job Beth!

School day at the ballpark

Beth's school district organized a day at the ballpark to watch the St Louis Cardinals play baseball (against the Pittsburgh Pirates). We were sat at the very top row of the ballpark very close to 'home plate' which meant that we had a great view of the entire stadium. The weather was great for watching baseball (warm & sunny) & our tickets also included a free hot dog & soda each (which otherwise would have cost almost $30 for the three of us) so we were well fed & watered during the game as well. Unfortunately, The Cards were unable to continue their winning form against the Pirates & ended up losing 14 to 4 :(