For most people entering retirement, it typically means slowing down and taking their golden years slowly. However, for Mike and Mary Kehl, it was the opposite — they hit the gas and sped off to accomplish their goals at full speed.

For Mary Kehl, the yearning to simply drive the tractor on her family’s farm in Strykersville, New York when she was younger turned her retirement into a lifelong dream.

“I always felt that I could drive the tractor just as good as my brothers, and I told my father that,” Mary said in a press release. “Eventually, he gave me a chance, and I became the best tractor driver in the family.”

Fast forward a few decades later and the Kehl’s story began with the belief that the couple should spend their inheritance and enjoy life. However, as Mike and Mary traveled from tractor pull to tractor pull, they seemed to find themselves changing from attending the pulls to actually competing in the tractor pulls.

“I didn’t understand why there were no woman drivers, especially since I thought I could be just as good,” she said.

That motto took fruition as Mary’s story is shared in her upcoming children’s book, “Just as Good.”

Mary’s husband of 41 years, Mike, wrote the book. He said he got the idea from reading children’s books to his four granddaughters growing up.

“You know, you get to that one book, and you read it, and it’s really kind of dumb, and I jokingly said to my wife for years, ‘Anybody can write a children’s book,’ and I said, ‘I could probably do it myself.’ We joked about it,” Mike said in a phone interview with BG Falcon Media.

Though Mike didn’t reveal too much about the book before publication, he said its storyline is quite similar to his wife’s childhood.

“She was in a family of seven, the oldest, and so kind of the start of the book centers around that. Always wanting to run the big red tractor, and Dad always said, ‘Well, you know, you got more important stuff in the house with your mom and the girls.’ And then finally one day, she was able to run it,” said Mike.

He also said the book shares Mary’s journey doing what she loves.

“Clawing her way to the top and being able to do anything in the highly dominated man’s world of tractor pull,” he said.

Mary has proved she’s ‘just as good’ as any of the other drivers. In 2023, she was invited to compete at the largest tractor-pulling competition in all of Europe, Mades Power Weekend in the Netherlands.

Now that the Kehl Family has the book completed, the couple said they plan to soft launch the book in their hometown first, but said they will launch the book nationwide right here in Bowling Green at the 57^th National Tractor Pulling Championship.

The Bowling Green event, known as the largest tractor pull in the world, expects to draw more than 65,000 people this year.

Mike said Bowling Green holds a special place in his and Mary’s hearts, which is why they chose BG as the spot to launch their book.

“We travel 12 to 14,000 miles a year. We’ve been everywhere from Florida to New York, from New York to Iowa, and at Bowling Green we just go out, we spend a week there, we know so many people there, and we just said, ‘What a great place to get a lot of people together that, you know, Bowling Green and everybody out there helped Make-A-Wish for years.’ So, we couldn’t think of a better place to launch it, majorly,” he said.

Make-A-Wish also has a sincere meaning to him and Mary, so they are donating 100% of the proceeds from their book to the foundation.

Their connection to the organization started years ago.

“Make-A-Wish came to me and Mary one year asking if it would be possible that we could put one of their candidates in the tractor. And of course, we jumped at it, and so with a little trial- and-tribulation from the parents, we ended up getting that little boy in the tractor. I’ll tell you, it was a defining moment for us — it really was,” Mike said.

When the book publishes in August, Mike said he hopes readers will take away the idea that with determination, you too can be just as good.

He also said the book has been well-received by test-readers.

Additionally, Mike said the book was a small, family effort.

“We have a little team from Western New York. We’re not funded by deep pockets, like a lot of them. Money is an object to us. There’s a lot of them in motorsports that just have a bottomless pit,” he said.

Mike and Mary said they’ll be atthe National Tractor Pulling Championships, which will take place a the Wood County Fairgrounds August 14, 15 and 16.

“Just as Good” is available for preorder on the Kehl’s website.