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For impatient drivers, it might have been their worst nightmare: coming up behind a line of tractors two miles long on a two-lane country road. But for members of the Tri-State Two Cylinder Club and others, it was sheer bliss, taking two days to ride the back roads of La Crosse, Trempealeau and Jackson County on their tractors.

“It’s a chance to see the countryside at a different pace,” said Jim Bardeen of Norwalk, one of the organizers of the sixth annual Great Wisconsin Tractor Ride.

This year’s event did a 110-mile figure eight Friday and Saturday, with the Ettrick Rod and Gun Club at the center. The ride drew 54 tractors, who all stopped for lunch Friday at Ray Miedema’s place on Highway W east of Holmen.

Miedema is used to having tractors around — his collection includes about 80 tractors — but the spectacle of all those tractors lined up in his yard caused many a motorist to slow down and turn their heads.

“Its kind of neat if you like old tractors,” Miedema said.

You wouldn’t find many farmers among the ride participants. Former farmers, maybe, but most farmers spend too much time on tractors working to want to spend two days driving through the countryside on one. And who has the time?

Each year the Great Wisconsin Tractor Ride, the granddaddy of state tractor rides, takes a different route, and it’s led by Arvid Bryhn of Ettrick, a former truck driver with an encyclopedic knowledge of the area roads.

Bob Olson, who lives between Melrose and Black River Falls and is president of the Tri-State Two Cylinder Club, brings up the rear of the line of tractors, which can stretch up to two miles. He brought three tractors from his John Deere collection for this year’s ride, one for him, one for his grandson, Tracey Olson, and one for a neighbor, Dale Timm.

The tractors travel at 10 to 15 mph and try to keep 75 to 100 feet between them to make passing easier for motorists.

“Most people are pretty patient,” Bardeen said.

To join the ride next year, contact Olson at (715) 284-9877 or e-mail Bardeen at deerecountry@msn.com.

Contact Randy Erickson at randy.erickson@lee.net. or (608) 786-6812.