It's that time of the year again...

And by that time of the year, I mean, the North Carolina State Fair time of the year. This year, as opposed to last year, we decided (we meaning the fiance and myself) to go on Friday morning/afternoon of the opening day instead of the night of the closing day. This was a much better idea. Much less crowded for certain, and we were actually able to walk around, see lots of things that we didn't see last year, and in general had a pretty damn good time at the State Fair. Of course, within the fair, there was some good food. We didn't go hog wild though this time, just a few good things, which included, but was not limited to the following items:

1. Corn dog with mustard for me.
2. Country ham biscuit from a local church group.


3. Italian sausage with peppers and onions (for me).
4. One roasted ear of corn dunked in butter (for the fiance).

So really, when there were delicacies around such as deep fried Twinkies, deep fried candy bars, deep fried cheeseburgers, deep fried cheese curds, and many other things battered and dunked in extremely hot oil and then mostly served on a stick, we got off pretty easy actually. We did get a 1/2 pound of fudge though, which we're currently, as I am writing this, working our way through right now. Rocky Road, and just plain old peanut butter on the fudge front, which ain't too damn shabby I must say.

When we first got there, we did spend a lot of time wandering around the botanical gardens at the fair. Lots of flowers, and displays, and things like that. All very nice, and kind of interesting really. We spent actually the first hour walking around there checking things out. Many many different plants, many many different flowers, and other such things probably grown by all very nice North Carolinians and then entered for the fair. Of course, the big topper was for me, the big pumpkin (600+ pounds), and the big sweet potato (8+ pounds). That pumpkin, that was one large assed gourd. Now, the sweet potato, doesn't sound all that impressive, but at 8 pounds plus, that's a damn big sweet potato that's for sure. There was no venturing onto the rides this year, nothing there looked super interesting, but there was a carnival freakshow, but we didn't go in there either, but the signs looked good for it. I'm betting there were some weird things in there, probably most of them were dead, or pegged together from other dead things, and then sewn together to make something that looks weird, or strange, and then they pass it off as something that once existed. I'm thinking probably not. It's always a big attraction though. People love a good freak show. Of course we had to go and see the livestock, it's a State Fair for crying out loud. I'm always interested in seeing the kids raising and showing large cattle animals. And I did see something that I had never seen before. Yes indeed, a kid was grooming his cow, getting ready to head into the show ring, and he was hitting up said cow with some hair spray. Yeah, I said it. Hair spray. He was working on the heifer's coif. I can't make this stuff up I swear to God. Sometimes, OK, most of the time, I do love living in North Carolina.

Since it is a State Fair, and is centered around agricultural things (livestock, large vegetables, flowers, and things like that), there was an awful lot of Real Tree and or Mossy Oak camouflage walking around the fair site as well as a lot of sharply peaked baseball hats, oh, and Carharts, lots of Carharts. And just a lot of "cow pokes" in general, or farm folks. It appears that this might their time of the year to come into town for the big gathering. Don't get me wrong, I'm by no means some city slicker, but these folks are straight outta Johnston County North Carolina, I shit you not. What they did have in the house though that was really interesting was Lord Stanley's Cup. Yes, THAT Stanley Cup, you know, the one the Carolina Hurricanes won this year. It's smaller than I thought it would be actually. I pictured it, in my head, as being much bigger than it really was, but there it was. First time I had seen it in the flesh.

Another year, another fair. I'm always glad to have gone, but I'm always glad to leave as well, and being that we were there on opening day, the going and the leaving was nice and easy this year. We might have to do the same thing again next year. I do recommend going, it's definitely good cheap entertainment (only $6.00 for entry). Hell, even if you only went and watched the people walking by, it would be worth the price of admission.