Dozer Day

We made the trip up to Sussex, WI to go to Dozer Day, an annual event hosted by Halquist Stone. While there we all got to experience some things that we never had the chance before. The event is housed at a functioning stone quarry with all of the equipment you would expect to find at a quarry: super large trucks, backhoes, lifts, bulldozers, etc. Plus, there was a large contingent of emergency vehicles from neighboring towns, along with a helicopter that we never did find, except when it flew overhead.

One of the extra fun activities we did was to ride in the back of one of the giant dump trucks. They had filled the truck with crushed limestone (pretty abundant at a quarry) and we fit about 20-30 people sitting in the back. Then they drove us around a portion of the pit. Pretty bouncy ride, even with all the weight. We also got to ride in a scissor lift.

One activity we opted to skip this time was the "backhoe alley". They had 5 or 6 (check the pictures) backhoes with operators doing their thing, and the kids (not sure if adults were allowed :) got to go and sit on the operators lap and "help" do some digging. Pretty cool!

There was also a bus tour that went to farther parts of the quarry, but we didn't do that either.

We know some people who spend the night before up in the area to be able to get there right at the beginning. We'll probably see about doing that next time. All in all, a pretty fun experience. Highly recommended to anyone with a child who likes construction stuff.