Western Pennsylvania Garden Tractor Association Spring Plow Day - Renfrew, PA 4/30/22

Credits for the awesome photos go to Larry Sipe, and for the drive-by video clips to Cory Hilliard, his father, and Jonathan Smith.

After three years of PA Plow Day being cancelled, I felt it was time to take a road trip to new territory to participate in another plow day and meet some new people. Evan (1990johndeere318) and Cory (Cory's Garden Tractors) had invited me out to their local plow day the last couple years and I finally had the chance to make it happen. The plow day was hosted by the WPGTA and held at the Beacon Hotel in Renfrew, PA, which is north of Pittsburgh and not far from the Ohio line (about 300 miles from my place). I brought out the custom 782 (now sporting a Super Steer front axle after a slight mishap at the Kutztown plow day the week before), the 2072 (for an escort), and the 318, which I had recently cleaned up and fixed up for Cory to take ownership of - sad to see it go, but I'm glad it's at a good home and getting used.

I arrived at Evan's the night before the event and we headed out to the Beacon Hotel first thing the next morning. There I was introduced to Cory with his Allis 912 and his custom Ukraine tank-pulling tractor, Michael with his JD 318, 430, and Wheel Horse, and Jonathan with his custom Cub Cadet 1572 diesel (mini IH 5088), along with several others and some PA Plow Day veterans as well. Overall there were probably 25-30 tractors in the field and it was a mostly uneventful day, aside from a loose heim joint on the power steering cylinder of the 782 and having to pull a few people out of the mud. Lunch was provided by the Beacon Hotel. We knocked out 3 separate fields over the course of the day, and turned quite a few heads as we passed the busy soccer fields across the street - the spectators must have thought we were crazy, but it brought a lot of attention to the club.

The event ended with an auction and a garden tractor stoneboat pull, and then we loaded up and headed south to Cory's for pizza and a tour of his garden tractor and equipment collection. I also bid farewell to the 318 at this time, glad that it went to a good home. Special thanks to Cory and Evan for the invite and the hospitality, and the WPGTA for hosting a great event!