John Deere Day.

Our John Deere industrial dealer (Honnen Equipment) held a grand opening, open house yesterday to celebrate their new building and location.  I gotta say, it was impressive!  My good friend Ken met us at our house and the three of us headed out.  Upon arrival, we were handed a goodie bag that consisted of, a genuine licensed JD hat with dealer imprint, a JD keychain, JD pen, and JD a sticker.  We registered our names, and got a punch card that if we got 6 punches at various locations, we were eligible to win a flatscreen TV!  We got to see a backstage tour of the parts room (unbelievable!) and it was off to lunch.  Lunch was fresh grilled hotdogs or hamburgers and included macaroni and potato salads and drinks.  Skyler was on his best behavior the entire time because he knew if he was good, he would get to pick out a toy.  And he did.  A 764 high speed dozer toy to be exact.  :)

There were dozens of these beautiful white Deere flags on display as we drove up.

This was pretty cool, an old oil drum in the parts warehouse now used to store shipping materials. 

This Deere 310SK backhoe was much nicer than the rental backhoe we played in last week.

Massive shop.  Note the overhead cranes and central lube and coolant rack.

Looking West in the shop.  Not shown because I forgot to take pics, the overhaul shop and indoor heated wash bay at the far end.  Amazing!

A poor pic of Skyler playing in the backhoe.

The scraper tractor had 36, 100 pound weights!  I've never seen so many weights on one machine! 

Skyler pretending to "fix" the scraper tractor.  Note the tire wear!

Sitting in a giant 844K 8 cubic yard bucket.  Staker Parsons had their loader in for pins and bushings.  Honnen even has their own hydraulic repair shop in house.

Demonstration area where we got to learn about various features on the machines.

Half million dollar 772GP road grader.  Deere factory rep at the rear.

Equipment display along the North side of the shop.

Skyler got to "drive" a new 320E skid steer.