All aboard?: Willard Sutherlin and his grandson Jody Davies will drive two of the shuttle tractors that haul visitors back and forth to the Covered Bridge Festival. (Tribune-Star photo/Jim Avelis)

Using two old-in-years but young-in-horsepower tractors, a Parke County grandfather and grandson shuttle Covered Bridge Festival visitors between Billie Creek Village and the Parke County Courthouse square in Rockville.

Willard Sutherlin and his grandson, Jody Davies, use a 1963 806 International tractor and a 1975 966 International to pull the shuttles. Each tractor pulls two shuttles. The shuttles seat 40 to 45 people each.

"The weekends are busy," Sutherlin said.

"Oh, yeah," Davies agreed. "You pull up and stop and one load gets off and the next load gets on right away. We'll make 20 to 25 round trips a day on weekends. And that's for each of us."

Of course, the weather is an important factor. The shuttles are open to the fall breezes as well as the fall rains.

"We had one year, I don't remember which year, but we had 10 days that were just beautiful, and that was our biggest year," Davies said.

People will still come to the festival on weekends regardless of weather, he added, but "if you get a Tuesday or Wednesday where the weather's not very nice, we're not very busy."

Sutherlin estimated the trip "is two miles -- one way" -- and "when we're busy, we'll run a round [trip] in about 20 minutes."

Davies said they try to have one shuttle at the courthouse square when one is at the back exit of Billie Creek Village, so "there is usually a shuttle at one place or the other."

The pick-up and drop-off station at the square is in front of the old Parke County Jail at Jefferson and High streets.

"We come up to town from Billie Creek's back exit, come up the hill on High Street and park in front of the Billie Creek ticket booth. When we go back to the village, we go up Jefferson to U.S. 36, turn right to go east on 36 to Billie Creek's front entrance, where we unload. Then we pull on around to the covered bridge at the back entrance and do it all over again," Davies said.

Both grandfather and grandson "get a big kick" out of the job.

"One reason I like it is I like to talk to people. While you're waiting to load up you can go back and talk to them. I've talked to so many interesting people," Sutherlin said.

The drivers are not hooked up with a public address system so they can't act as guides during the trips.

They do get a lot of questions, however, between trips.

They agreed that the most common question concerns the fact that they both have license plates on their tractors as part of the insurance covering the trips.

"It seems that everyone from out-of-state asks why we have license plates on tractors here," Davies said.

One of the most amazing questions (and answers) Davies remembers was from an Indianapolis woman who kept looking at his Siberian husky, Yukon, as the dog rode in the tractor cab with him.

"She came up to me and said her dog looked just like mine. She asked how old Yuke was and when he was born. When I told her the date, she said that was the same date her dog was born.

"When I asked her where she got her dog, it turned out we both got them from a trainer in Indianapolis and she had one of the litter [in which Yukon was born]," Davies recalled.

Sutherlin and Davies began driving the shuttles in 1988, a year after Davies graduated from Purdue University.

Sutherlin said his grandson was the one who got them interested in driving the shuttles.

One of the Billie Creek board members asked Davies if they would be interested in doing it and introduced him to Doug Weisheit, Billie Creek's director.

"We're the only drivers who work the whole time (of the festival). On occasions they will hire an extra driver for a weekend," Davies said.

Because they pick up passengers at both ends of the trip, one of their biggest concerns is to make certain all passengers get back to the place where they parked their cars -- either Billie Creek Village or Rockville.

"We try to stay around until we think we've got them all back," Sutherlin said, although ruefully adding, "I suppose we've missed some."

They also drive the shuttles during Billie Creek's annual Civil War Days event.

The festival comes at a good time for Davies. He can take time from his "main job" as superintendent of the Turkey Run Golf Course and as tennis coach at Turkey Run High School.

Sutherlin retired from farming nearly 600 acres three years ago. The two old International tractors were kept out of the sale, which took place when he quit farming.

His farming partner was Dale Davies, Jody's father, who died shortly after they quit farming.