The day began with everyone coming to Kubota of Council Bluffs on McPherson Avenue. The tractors were unloaded, and people started coming into the building at 7:45 A.M! Registration didn’t quite start until about 7:55, so some stood and talked while I helped set up. We were able to get everyone registered soon. They each received meal tickets for the meal as well! My good friends, Dallas and Marg, volunteered to help with registration again this year!
At about 8:55 A.M, (I was a little late this year), I switched on a microphone and welcomed everyone to the 8th Annual Ride into Sight Tractor Ride! I then spoke about the history of the ride, how the ride came to be, and thanked my committee and volunteers for all their help! Most importantly, though, I mentioned that three extremely important guests were present; Hailey Kroll from the University of Iowa Center for Advancement, Dr. Culver Boldt, (my eye doctor), and Dr. Richard Smith, a doctor who works with people with hearing loss and genetics. He is nationally known. Everybody clapped and cheered with delight!
After all this, I then thanked all the tremendous sponsors for the year. There are many of them! Along with talking a bit about the route, I then recognized our three newest angel riders (individuals of whom had either come on the ride each year, or contributed monetarily each year): Bill Darrington, Sr., Tom Schnepel, and Tom Rihner. After sharing some wonderful memories about each, I then read a poem of which I had written that focuses on the relationship I had with my late Grandpa Juranek, though it also was intended to portray the importance Grandpas and Grandmas play in one’s life, along with our angel riders. A moment of silence was then observed for the angel riders.
Another special guest, and a special person in my life, was also in attendance this year. Fr. Jacob from my church, St. Peters in Council Bluffs! As tradition holds at the ride, I always like to pray at the beginning of the ride. This year, Fr. Jacob lead the prayer, and then he made an announcement. “I brought two containers of Holy Water today, so you can all have your tractors blessed! If you don’t want to do that, just tell me you don’t want it blessed and I won’t.” He said the blessing, and handed the microphone back to me. I then proceeded to recognize all the veterans of whom were in attendance. Everyone clapped and cheered! With the recommendation of Mel Hursey, I asked if one of the veterans could lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance! It turns out that my neighbor, Kent, did so! It was beautiful! After all this, I said “Load them up and get outta here!” The ride departed at 9:26 AM.
Before we departed, Fr. Jacob went through the line of tractors, blessing all who wanted it. You better believe I wanted my tractor blessed! Fr. Jacob came to me and said, “Ok Tyler, I’m gunna bless your tractor… and bless you to!” He blessed the tractor, and put Holy Water over my head as well! We then departed.
After winding through the countryside, we all ended up at Bomgaars in Council Bluffs. When we arrived, riders enjoyed cookies and water, sponsored by Kubota of Council Bluffs and Unleashed Relief. While folks ate, drank, and visited, a touching moment occurred for me. Jacob and Molly, a young couple from my church family, recently had a little girl named Lucy. They thought it important to bring Lucy to the tractor ride, and wanted a picture with me! So Jacob stood on the drawbar/axle, and Molly sat down next to me on the buddy seat, enjoying the feel of being upon my Oliver 770 diesel. She then laid Lucy in my lap and I held her close. It was a special time! It is important to note also that since we had more miles in the morning, I cut the break to 25 minutes instead of 30 or 35 minutes. I then said, “Load them up!” The ride departed about two minutes later.
As in years past, I have always trained people, (usually my mother, Kim, and a good family friend, Jackie), to play sheriff for us at the intersection by Bomgaars. This year, my buddy, Dallas, stepped in in Jackie’s absence. Furthermore, we also needed more traffic control on Birdsley Road, about a half mile from Bomgaars. So Haley from Iowa City, and Mel took that job. I remember telling Mel at Bomgaars, “Ok Mel, you know what you’re doin’, so you two work it out and I won’t babysit!” Hahaha. They did a wonderful job! We crossed, then headed up around Crescent, then made our way to McClelland for lunch!
When I got to McClelland at about 12:30 PM, it was clear to me that something was definitely wrong. Only ten out of many dozen tractors were behind me! I told Bennett, “Uh oh! Somebody must have had a bad breakdown or something!” To make a long story short, there was such a gap that many, many, many tractors fell behind. By the time everybody got to McClelland, it was 1:00 PM. Keith at the Dew Drop served us lunch with sloppy joes, chips, and beans on the menu, with water to drink! My mother, Kim, made some wonderful desserts as well!
After about a half an hour or so, I switched on a microphone and thanked everyone once again for coming! I then said, “Ladies and gentlemen, normally I would give an update about what’s going on in the research, but today we have an even better presentation! Put your hands together for Dr. Culver Boldt, and Dr. Richard Smith!” The crowd roared! Dr. Boldt, (my eye doctor), spoke for a while. He talked about the new developments in the research. He explained how the research has progressed to being able to grow a whole new eye, implant it, and make blood flow, to now playing with gene therapy to figure out how to turn on the good genes, leaving the bad genes like cancer off. Thus far, they have figured out how to turn on one good gene, and turn off one bad gene, but much more progress needs to be made before they can actually try it on a human. Dr. Smith then talked about how hearing loss, visual impairments, and genetics go hand-in-hand, and how my situation applies. It was a good presentation and was well received! After the microphone was handed back to me, I then said, “ok friends, remember; I am visually impaired and cannot see hands. So show me with applause, how many of you think I should do the ride again next year?” Everybody roared! I elaborated just a bit and said, “And how many of you think Dr. Boldt and Dr. Smith should return again next year?” Everybody roared! They clapped, they cheered, they pounded on the tables! The two doctors pulled out their phones and put the ride on their calendars, August 1, 2026!
When I took the microphone once again, I drew names out of a bucket for a chance to win one of six $25 gift cards, donated by Bomgaars! I then chatted about the afternoon, only about 10 miles or so, on a simple road called Hickory Road. I also explained there would be no QCS this year, (quick cookie stop). Instead, I called it Cookies on the Hill. Since there isn’t a good place to stop along Hickory Road, I decided that when we returned to Kubota, I would have Hailey and Phyllis, (another volunteer), stand on the hill by the loading dock and hand out cookies and water to folks as they went home. I then announced that we would depart at about 2:00 PM, so it gave all in attendance about 15 minutes to talk and use the restroom. We did just that, departed promptly at 2:00 PM.
In the afternoon, we took 270th Street out of McClelland, and continued to the second corner, Hickory Road. If you truly want to know how mechanically good your tractor is, take it on Hickory Road. It’ll get good and hot, and if something isn’t right with it, you’ll know it in a hurry. It is a continuous stretch of non-stop steep hills, whichever way you go, either coming or going to McClelland. My 770 diesel made some noise when I throttled down, all in a good way. The feeling of going down each hill was like the feeling you get riding a wooden rollercoaster. Push in your clutch and let gravity do the work, and you’d go 0 to 50 MPH in less than 50 feet! Hahahaha. We then turned onto 245th Street, stopped at the stop sign, and crossed the highway, back onto the paved portion of 245th Street. A couple minutes later, we turned the corner and headed back to Kubota of Council Bluffs. The ride finished at about 2:49 PM.
The statistics are as follows: 46 tractors were there that day. There were 6 Olivers, 3 John Deere, 9 Ford, 2 Ferguson, 1 Case-IH, 1 Massey, 2 Allis Chalmers, and 22 International.
