It's Fair Time!

Who needs baseball and apple pie when one can eat fried dough and watch cars smash into each other? While I am a fan of the great American past-time and sweet slabs of apple yumminess with a helping of ice cream on the side, seriously, how could I say no to this?

Just in case you missed what Funnel Cakes are, they spell it out for you in electric beauty - Fried Dough. Mmm, mmm...good! While this location offered cinnamon sugar as a topping, we go with the traditional powdered sugar, and lots of it please. But it's not just the fried dough that brings me back to the fair year after year, it's things like this...

Yes, that is a camouflage casket. Now don't get excited, I'm sure they have enough for everyone. I can just hear it now, can't you?

"I sure am going to miss Billy Bob. Why didn't they put him in the coffin?"

"He's in there, they just dressed him in camo so he blends right in."

Trust me when I tell you that it was all Peter could do to keep me from slapping down a $25 deposit on this little beauty. I was always an advocate of the plain pine box - cheap and it does the job - but now that I've seen the camo casket I'm not sure I'll be happy in anything else. Oh yes, this makes me happy in ways I didn't think a casket could. The reality is, if Peter stuck me in something like this you would probably see a Lazarus-esqe display as I popped up to exclaim, "What in the world were you thinking?!?!"

But least you think the tour ends here, oh no, there's more. In my humble opinion there are only two reasons for going to the fair and paying exorbitant prices for parking and entrance...funnel cakes and the Demolition Derby.

The opening feature of the evening was a 20 lap race where ramming into one another was encouraged. Check out that smoke and dust - it was a beautiful thing. I swear that I felt my neck turning a little pinkish red as I screamed and cheered for car number 26 - better known as "Orange Crush", or OC for short. Sadly, OC lost, though the idea of becoming OC groupies remains an option.

Although Peter would have liked to get on the track and show off his mad driving skills, he was limited by the fact that our car was out in the parking lot. Sad loss for the evening entertainment, but maybe next year. Between the "race" and the derby, the local volunteer fire department sent out a man to hose down the demolition area. I'd just like to say that I don't personally know Mr. Volunteer Fireman and I'm sure he's a very nice person, but the sheer irony of the fireman/cigarette forces me to post it...

And so we come to the end of another year at the fair. As much as I might mock various aspects of it, I really do look forward to going each year and experiencing more "culture" that I don't normally see. As cheesy as it might be, I appreciate that they open the Demolition Derby with prayer - safety for the drivers, the spectators, and our military serving overseas - and the National Anthem. It's part of what makes America...well, America, and I love every bit of it.