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Cross Country Tour Beefed Up Extensive Antique Collection
An Oregon couple recently turned a winter-long internet buying spree into a memory-making tour across the country to collect their purchases.
  As draft horse enthusiasts, John and Jan Phillips wanted to buy a full line of antique horse-drawn equipment. They started shopping on eBay last year and continued for several months.
  Each time they were the high bidder, they arranged for the seller to hold the equipment until they could come pick it up.
  "We recently spent two weeks gathering up all of our purchases which were spread out around the country," John explains. "It was an extremely enjoyable and interesting adventure. We drove over 7,200 miles through 26 states, pulling a 33-ft. double-decker gooseneck flatbed trailer. We were often invited to stay overnight at the homes that we visited, and we truly enjoyed all of the people we met."
  The couple traveled first to Tennessee where they picked up an antique horse-drawn plow. In Kentucky, they picked up a New Idea steel-wheeled, wooden-sided manure spreader with a horse-drawn draw bar. In Maryland they purchased a cultivator and corn seeder.
  Next, it was on to Ohio, where they bought two draft horse-shoeing stocks (one assembled and one not) from an Amish couple.  "They invited us to stay the night with them, and we got a glimpse into the Amish lifestyle. It was the most interesting part of our trip," Jan says.
  They picked up a restored Deere single bottom plow in Wisconsin, before heading to Michigan and loading up an antique Van Brundt grain drill, complete with owner's manual.
  The couple traveled next to Nebraska and took possession of an antique road grader, which was the last piece of equipment on their list.
  "We had the trailer tied down so tight it wouldn't even wiggle. We were so heavy coming out of Nebraska through the Rocky Mountains that we could only go 45 mph," says John."
  They made it home in one piece and are now enjoying their new-old equipment, adding it to a lot of other horse-powered equipment they already owned.
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Sun Eagle Farms, John and Jan Phillips, 485 Stanton Blvd, Ontario, Oregon 97914 (ph 541 889-2661; Suneagle2@srvinet.com;
www.suneaglefarms.net).


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2007 - Volume #31, Issue #4