Classic tractors hummed through Clarks Grove, Freeborn, Hartland, Alden and Albert Lea Saturday as part of the first Shinefest tractor ride.

“It allows you to literally stop and smell the roses. That’s what it’s all about to me,” said Paul Smith, who came from Shakopee to participate in the ride with his brother Mark.

Paul rode a 1955 John Deere 60, and he described the ride as a relaxing change of scenery from life in Shakopee.

There had been another tractor ride in the area called Grandpa’s Tractor Ride, but that is no longer taking place. The tractor ride is now put on by Shinefest, which is a group of 16 churches in the Albert Lea area with a focus on volunteering.

“I just saw an opportunity for Shinefest and the tractor ride to kind of do some good things,” said Dale Grotsun, who helped organize the ride.

Grotsun said the tractor ride was an opportunity to work with churches outside Albert Lea.

The group left the Freeborn County Fair around 9 a.m. Saturday morning, after a breakfast there from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. The group traveled around Thorne Crest Retirement Center, and then past Good Samaritan Society to Manchester and Alden, where they stopped for coffee.

The group continued on to Freeborn, where they stopped to eat lunch. They then pulled their tractors into Hartland for another coffee break, before having their final coffee break of the trip in Clarks Grove around 2:30 p.m. They then returned to the Freeborn County Fair to eat dinner around 5 p.m.

It took about an hour between stops, and the group stopped for about 30 minutes at each church for coffee and cookies. At each stop, the riders chatted about their tractors and joked about the best tractor model.

Bill Jacobson said the best part of the ride was meeting with the other riders about the tractors, and Elwood Tukua said his favorite part was getting to watch the crops, which Jacobson said is much easier at 15 mph than 55 mph.

There were 37 tractors in the ride, and Grotsun said the organizers tried to keep the tractor ride smaller for the first year. He said he hopes the ride becomes a yearly event. Expanding the tractor ride to a two-day event in the future is also possible, he said.

The ride was open to any tractor make and model made before 1974, and brands included Minneapolis-Moline, John Deere and Farmall.

The tractors made the trip in two groups: a fast group at about 14 mph and a slow group at about 10 mph. Grotsun said the majority of the tractors were from the 1950s.

“You don’t buy an old tractor, you rescue it,” said Chuck Virgil.

Chuck and his brothers Merle Virgil and Dave Virgil also were on the ride, and the brothers said you you give it the love it needs to get back to working condition.

The three brothers all rode Minneapolis-Moline Tractors from the 1950s.

“The people are pretty much the same everywhere you go on these rides. It’s more about the tractors than it is about the people. It’s about the old iron,” said Dave Virgil, who is from Albert Lea and who helped plan the ride.