County Fair time

I thought good things were to come when I saw the size of the fairgrounds earlier in the summer due to the go-Kart club having races there. I was right...at least mostly. WAY better than the county fairs in Kansas.. not *quite* as good as the Monroe County Fair...but then again.. that was labled "Michigans finest county fair".. and thats a hard bill to follow.

I leafed through the schedule of events: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (hmm... I like some of their stuff...but do I want to pay 25 dollars that I don't really have to see them...)Jr Bull riding/ Donkey Polo (this has my interest.. I like rodeos.. and donkey polo HAS to be good.. right?) Free concert: Johnny Lee (Hey.. I like him... or at least used to! and its FREE!) There were some other events, such as the Demo Derby, but most either didn't interest me much, or I didn't think Sierra would enjoy them.

Sierra and I walked to the fairgrounds to see the animals, and check things out on the night of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band concert. She enjoyed seeing the lady walking around on stilts who juggled, and was mesmerized by the bunjee jumping ride (ack!!). She loved the animals...at least until one of the goats scared her by popping his head over his gate. :) It was kinda funny, but she wanted no part of the goats after that the rest of the way, and was skiddish about them the rest of the week as well. The bad part was, there were some 4 day old goats just down from the one that scared her, and she wasn't interested in them anymore either. One of the 4-H kids let her pet a cow... she wasn't sure about that either.

We settled down in a nice grassy spot just outside the grandstands and listened to the concert for free. It was a good concert, from what I could tell. Sierra was more interested in the mechanical bull behind us. If I would have had a spare 5 dollars I probably would have seen if he would have let us ride it, since he was letting 2 and 3 year olds ride a really gentle ride. I enjoyed watching the older boys (20ish) think they were tough and get tossed off like a rag doll hahaha.. sadly I wanted to try my luck too. Maybe next year, huh.. lol.
We stayed long enough to hear "Fishing in the Dark" my favorite song of theirs. It was getting dark after that, and it's a fair walk, so I wanted to get home.. before the mountain lions come out.. yanno.

The next day we went at lunchtime with Randal, since there was an office pool to see who could eat the most fair food. I wanted so many different things, but was suffering severely from morning sickness. I settled for my first Indian Taco.. mmmmm.. The elephant ear was a huge treat as well, since no one in Kansas knew what one was. I paid for the grease.. but it was worth it! Sierra and I parted ways after lunch with Randal and saw the animals again. We headed back after that, since it was hot, and I was tired, and knew teh grease wouldn't settle for long.

The junior bull rodeo and the donkey polo wasn't quite what I expected. Randal had to cover it for the paper. I enjoyed the rodeo...mostly. It was a little scary when the one boy got stomped, and I realized for the first time I'd be scared to death if my kids wanted to rodeo it. Funny how parenthood changes your outlook on some sports, huh. The donkey polo...well, it wasn't what I expected.. and in fact, I ended up hating it. I watched a guy break a broom on a donkey, and quickly found myself wanting to break a broom over him. The animal lover in me is starting to be much more alive these days.

The free Johnny Lee concert was pretty cool. ...except for the thunderstorm that blew in. Johnny was pretty funny... although I found some of his jokes to be offcolor...and in bad taste. Guess thats to be expected.. but I don't have to like it. Sierra was dancing as much as she could at her age, and seemed to love it. After the concert I took her up to get her pic with him... she decided to get stranger danger for the very first time, and screamed bloody murder when I handed her to him. ...so, the three of us had our pic taken. Not such a bad deal I guess. Johnny also gave me a discount on his signed pic since I'm a loser and only had 3 dollars with me. I appreciated it greatly, since I wanted Sierra to have a momento of the occassion. It's signed to her. Some day she's gonna look at it and go "whoooooooo????" lol.

We went to teh fair every day for lunch. I had some of the best food, and some of hte worst lol. It was fun though. I had a week pass to get in the fair that cost me 10 dollars, versus the 5 a day.. I think I got my moneys worth :)
We also watched a bit of this one other sport as well. I can't think of the name of it now.. it's rather weird though. Two people on horses, a bunch of cows with numbers.. the riders have certain numbers they have to get.. those are teh only cows they can put on the other side of the line. The team that does it in the fastest time win. Probably won't watch it again, unless Randal has to cover it again.