Today in 1994, the start of a very unusual road trip: 240 miles by lawn mower!
The driver of this riding mower was Alvin Straight.
The 73 year old had gotten word that his 80 year old brother Henry had suffered a stroke.
He wanted to go to his brother in his time of need.
Alvin lived in the community of Laurens, in northwestern Iowa.
His brother lived near Blue River, in southwestern Wisconsin.
It’s roughly a five hour drive in a car, but Alvin Straight couldn’t just hop in the car.
He had a number of his own health issues, and his eyesight wasn’t good enough to qualify for a drivers license.
He apparently didn’t want anyone to drive him, either, so he came up with a different plan: he bought an old John Deere riding mower, hooked up a trailer on the back to carry gas, food and other supplies, and hit the road.
Or, technically, the roadside, since riding mowers don’t exactly keep up with highway speeds.
They’re also not really meant to be driven all day long for days on end.
Maybe that’s why Alvin Straight’s mower broke down on day four of the trip, after he’d driven a whopping 21 miles.
But this brother would not be denied!
He made a few hundred bucks worth of repairs and got moving again.
After 90 miles of driving, he ran out of cash, but he had a plan for that too: he’d brought camping gear, so he just stayed put until his Social Security check came through on direct deposit.
Then he resupplied and headed east again.
Alvin’s mower gave out one more time just down the road from his destination, so a nearby farmer helped him push it the last two miles.
All of this was quite a surprise to Henry Straight.
While TV stations and newspapers had been paying attention to Alvin’s ride, his brother hadn’t gotten word that Alvin was riding a lawn mower from Iowa to see him.
Not that he minded.
He told the New York Times,”All I could do was unhitch his mower. It ain’t hard to unhitch.”
The brothers’ story ended up as the subject of the David Lynch movie The Straight Story.
In real life, Alvin Straight planned to ride his mower all the way back home, but his nephew ended up giving him a (much shorter) ride.
Starting next week in Wausau, Wisconsin, it’s the Taste ‘N Glow Balloon Fest.
The “taste” part of the name comes from the gourmet food that they have on hand for the two day event.
The “glow” part is because they have a nighttime balloon launch; they glow in the sky.
And then there’s going to be lumberjack demonstrations, a synchronized drone show, and amateur log rolling.
Brotherly Love Powers a Lawn Mower Trek (New York Times)
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Photo by Ken via Flickr/Creative Commons