State Fair

There's not much going on in NK right now. Yes, this is the time of year that everything in the small rural town shuts down because everyone is either at the county fair or the state fair. We chose the state fair option because of the many, many options available (whereas the county fair looked a little paltry as far as what might interest a two year old).

So we packed up some food and drink stuffs and the jogging stroller and headed down for the fair. We got a good parking spot and headed in (after buying our discount tickets at Kroger, always a good deal), armed with our pared-down list of events that might interest the boy.

We headed for the dog agility contest and got there right as the contest was to start. Unfortunately in state fair parlance, that means it was time for them to register and get their rules and so forth, not for the dogs to run. By the time the dogs were going through the agility course, the boy had lost all interest.

We found something to eat (surprise, surprise) in an air-conditioned building (I could have done better than the ribs I ate, but I don't get that much chance to eat them, Tara got a gyro that was very tasty, and the boy had a hot dog that he found OK - only OK as it was a pure beef one instead of one of those delicious ones made of beaks, snouts, tails, claws, and whatever else).

We got to see the Purina Incredible Dog show, which was fun (the boy loves watching dogs), we spent some time in the sheep barn (the sheep were friendly and the boy liked petting them and waving HI to them), we spent a long time in the natural resources area (especially playing on the train that had been made from recycled milk cartons), and we spent a lot of time in the (air conditioned) expo center, where we got to see a real police car. My highlight of that was getting to wear the "impairment goggles" and performing sobriety tests. I thought I did a pretty good job of walking the line... when Tara tried, she almost fell down, and when she gave the goggles back, the trooper said, "I'd consider that as 'refused assesment' and would take her downtown."

Around 4:00, the wind began to pick up and the clouds looked very menacing, so we decided to make our way back to the car. We stopped at a rest stop on the way home for a picnic dinner (and to clean out the captain crunch cereal that somebody had poured all over his car seat and was beginning to throw on his parents) and got home in time for a reasonable bed time.

It was a great day, even though we didn't get to