A Bust Day

I should have listened to Drake's intuition.  (Don't tell him I said that; I'll NEVER hear the end of it.)  Everyone knows how much I love Fairs.  Some of our best days of vagabonding have been spent at both little and big fairs.  Who can forget eight year olds herding pigs around a ring with a long stick?  Is there anything more entertaining than llama packing?  There's something totally satisfying watching the longhorn cattle competition and trying to pick winners in each class.  Why, that's almost as fun as guessing the correct evaluation on Antiques Roadshow.  Lumberjack competitions are fast, furious, and involve quite a bit of cheering.  We both love seeing tiny children all dressed up in cowboy garb leading a massive animal around a ring.  Don't forget the 'costume' parade on top of big horses.  

I had high hopes for the Virginia State Fair.  Drake was less than lukewarm.  I convinced him on the basis of anecdotal information from our hairdresser about how fun the fair was, as well as the $8 admission and the free parking.  Finally, Drake capitulated saying, "OK, we're not doing anything else."  Part of going was also influenced by the cancellation of our Washington D.C. trip.  (Oh, please, don't get me started on those idiots in the House of Representatives.)  It was a bad trade-off.

Things started out pretty good, other than we are having a heatwave here, and it was almost 90 degrees the day we chose to go to the fair.  We started at the sheepdog trials which were fun for about 15 minutes, but they just didn't capture our interest.  We moved onto the miniature horse show which was better, but both of these competitions would have been a lot better if they hadn't been held outdoors with the sun beating down.  There was no shade either for the competitors or the spectators.  In retrospect both these events turned out to be the high points of the day.

Still, I was heartened by this fun little photo opportunity involving my used to be favorite fair food - more of 'why' later. I thought, "Okie, Dokie - this is great."  Then I saw the tunnel...and the trek.  A big quirk of the Virginia State Fair is that it's laid out in two sections, and the sections are divided by a four lane divided highway.  There's a tunnel like walkway under the highway.  It's a loooooong way from one side to the other.  Since I never saw the mythical shuttle service between the sides, it meant with my foot difficulties we really couldn't go 'back and forth'.  OK.....first strike.

 

Now a big part of fair time is the food, of course.  I've had some amazing fair food over the past four years, and some of it hasn't even been bad for you. Well, OK, a very small percentage of it hasn't been a visit to Heart Attack City nestled in the heart of Grease and Fat County.  I'm specifically thinking of the fresh salmon and home grown blueberry crepes we had at the Skagit County Fair.  Oh, those were so unexpected, and so delicious. Usually it's hot dogs, hamburgers, funnel cakes, Icee's - the blah of Fair Food.  I'm always on the look out for my personal favorites:  Texas State Fair Corndogs, Maple Cotton Candy, Apple Fritters, homemade ice cream, Fried Butter.  The Virginia State Fair food was SOOOOO forgettable - the usual blah stuff plus foot long corn dogs, regular cotton candy, soft serve ice cream, one type of funnel cake, and, do you know what their 'fried food' was?  Oreos.  Oh, please, so boring, so done by everyone else forever.  It was all so unappealing that I only ate the substandard corn dog, with a $.75 cent ice tea.  I do love cotton candy, well, make that I DID love cotton candy - but the spun maple sugar version in New Hampshire has totally ruined the pink stuff for me.  Virginia Fair Food:  second strike.

We love to look at the animals, and if we're lucky, we get the bonus of talking to the kids who raised them.  At the Virginia STATE Fair, two out of the big three animal barns were empty even though we went mid-fair.  What's up with that?  It didn't tell me anywhere in the fair promotion ads that the majority of the fair animals would be taking a sabbatical this year.  There were no cows, no horses, no oxen, no sheep, no goats.  Here's what we saw:  miniature horses, pigeons, chickens, and rabbits, and that's it.  There was one animal I've never seen at a Fair before.  Yes, that's a real live giraffe.  You could buy carrots for $1 and feed them to the giraffe.  I had to laugh, though, when I saw this sign:  "DO NOT FEED THE GIRAFFE FROM YOUR MOUTH".  Never overlook the possibility of stupid people tricks.  Lack of farm animals....BIG MINUS, but the up close giraffe viewing saved this from being the third strike.  

The third strike and you're out for this Fair wound up being the Arts and Handicrafts barn.  Because of my embroidery hobby, this part of any Fair is always what I look forward to the most.  I love looking at real experts' work.  The Virginia State Fair handicrafts were terrible.  Mostly, it was like looking at the elementary school walls on Parents' Night.  I was hoping the quilts would save the day.  Nope.  Here's the "Best in Show" Blue Ribbon Quilt.  Yes, some skill involved, but can we all say it together:  UGLY.  I did see one beautiful item, but one was not enough to save the entire exhibit.

All I can say is:  "Virginia State Fair, all I got from you is a pair of very sore feet, and a husband with I told you so rights.  How galling!