The Day I Rode My First ATV Big Air Tour Show

I got my first ATV after school one day when I was in kindergarten. My dad picked my up from school, we drove off to the only dealership in small-town Greenbush, and when we left, there was a brand new 2004 Arctic Cat 90. Today the little quad doesn’t get much use but it sparked movement in my mind that helped lead me to where I am today: an employee(intern) for the ATV Big Air Tour

I started working for the ATV Big Air Tour on June 14th when we left to perform at the Wapello County Fair in Eldon, Iowa. Since that show I have worked at five other shows and I got to ride in my first show at the Lake of the Woods County Fair! Leading up to my first performance, we had a very busy week of shows across the midwest. Our busy week started on Tuesday, July 10th, when Derek left the farm with the mobile landing to drive to Caliber in Burnsville to pick up some our crew. I left the farm shortly driving the tour bus and Caliber trailer loaded front to pack with ATVs, bikes, a UTV and a very large amount of show supplies. Even though the drive was about 6 hours to Manchester, Iowa it went by very quickly with some upbeat conversations with most of the crew in the RV.

We performed at two shows in Manchester and they both went great! We stayed Wednesday night in Iowa then as soon as the sun came up Thursday we headed up to Baudette, Minnesota. The drive from Manchester to Baudette is only about nine and a half hours straight through, but with the rigs we were able to travel across the state in just under 12 hours. Almost immediately when we pulled into the Lake of the Woods County Fair we were greeted with the classic “Minnesota Nice” atmosphere that can be expected from most small-town communities.

Friday morning some of the crew got up early to set up, some slept in, and some of them even took a boat ride on the beautiful Rainy River. I was lucky enough to be on the crew that got to set up early. It took us about one and a half hours to set up and as soon we finished the motors started up and practice was under way. Mike “Lord” Johnson hopped in the Caliber RZR and started hitting the ramp. I was lucky enough to get to ride in the RZR with Mike over the ramp about 30 times and every 30 times my adrenaline spiked way up. Good job Mike. The local horse arena was also having practice right behind the grandstands that we were riding in front of, they didn’t seem to mind the crackling exhausts.