MUSCATINE, Iowa — The members of Tractor Cruise U.S.A. enjoy every second on the open road.

And Thursday they enjoyed the parking lot of Comfort Inn in Muscatine, which was filled with nearly 30 tractors as the group rolled through town on one of its four annual treks.

Sharon Hurt, 60, and Jim Fell, 62, have been together for 18 years, and said after participating in large tractor cruises, they decided to start their own seven years ago.

“Everybody knows everybody. We enjoy each other’s company,” Hurt said. Rides go beyond Iowa, too, and into Minnesota, Wisconsin and near Missouri.

Fell and Hurt put out a classified in newspapers around Iowa, hoping to gain interest.

They did.

Doug Schultz, 64, of Grand Mound, was one of the first to answer the couple’s call for interested riders. He drove his Farmall to pull “The Crisco Wagon,” a makeshift covered wagon for wives and children to ride in during the cruise.

“I’m a wanna-be farmer but a funeral director by trade,” said Schultz, who owns Schultz Funeral Homes in Grand Mound and DeWitt.

To make up for lost time as the farmer he’s always wanted to be, Schultz rides along with his Tractor Cruise U.S.A. friends.

The camaraderie, Schultz said, is one thing that keeps participants coming back. Dean Bellinger, 66, of Waterloo, couldn’t agree more.

“You get to talkin’ and shootin’ the bull,” Bellinger said. “You get to

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know one another and it’s a really good time.”

But with any outdoor activity like a tractor cruise, bad weather is always a possibility. Bellinger said a rainstorm near Marshalltown three years ago put a damper on the festivities.

“It rained about six inches in four days,” he said. “It was like someone turned the fire hose on us.”

Bellinger’s 1959 Farmall 460 is a family heirloom, a tractor that he used working alongside his grandfather when Bellinger was 23.

“My son and I spent a summer sandblasting and repainting it two years ago,” Bellinger said. “Now my grandson (Cole, 6) always asks where I’m going with it and when I’m bringing it home.”

Bellinger said he hopes he can keep the tractor running so he can pass it on to his son, Tony, and later to Cole.

Hurt’s grandchildren ride along on “The Crisco Wagon” and are all smiles seeing the scenery.

“They love it,” Hurt said of Taylor, 7, and Karsyn, 8. “The youngest has been riding since he was 6 months old.”

Gale Stickley, 82, of Maquoketa, has been riding this cruise for five years. A retired electrician, he’s always had an interest in vintage cars and tractors.

“It’s a great time,” Stickley said. “You meet a lot of nice people — everyone’s nice.”