Fair day

Yesterday morning it was overcast, and even sprinkling a little; I suggested to Cliff that we go to Sedalia to the Missouri State Fair.  He quickly agreed, since such weather conditions limit what he can do around here.  As we wended our way south and east, the sprinkles turned into gentle rain, and at one point Cliff was going to turn around.  Then we decided to just go for it; Sedalia isn't all that far, and we were in the car, not on the motorcycle.  
Unfortunately, when I go to the fair without a plan, I don't usually see many of the free events, because it's all about timing.  I really wanted to take in the conservation department's program about "Feral hogs in Missouri".   (No, I am not kidding.)
I had fair food on my mind, and both Cliff and I had a corn dog and a pineapple whip cone; we also shared a funnel cake, and on the way out I had a less-than-perfect caramel apple with nuts.  I say less-than-perfect because it was a half-green red delicious apple, and the peanuts were a little stale.  Caramel apples should be made with a tart variety of apple!  Boy, that fair food gets expensive.  Anyway, we satisfied my cravings in that department.  My Dave Ramsey envelopes were empty, but I had four rolls of quarters I'd been hiding away.  Let me just say that I'm glad Cliff's payday is tomorrow.   The only envelopes that have any money left in them are the "doctors", "clothes" and the "critters" (cows, dogs, and cats) envelope.  All grocery money, fun money, and "misc." money is gone.  However, we did stick to budget and put a tiny bit in savings.

When we first entered the fairgrounds, we went to the cattle barns where we saw several steers with a weight problem.  

I say "problem" because when you see a steer this fat, you know he is probably going to end up as prime beef in an expensive restaurant.  So whether he knows it or not, he has a problem.  
Cliff and I were walking along a sidewalk in search of a funnel cake when he looked down and said, offhandedly, "Oh, a poodle."  
Huh?  
He pointed at an oil stain on the sidewalk that, indeed, resembled a poodle.  This just goes to prove that Cliff is an oil-stain expert, having worked on various kinds of old farm equipment for years.  He knows oil-stain art when he sees it.  

We won't talk about the strange looks I got from other fair-goers when I took a picture of an oil stain in the sidewalk.  Listen, art is where you find it.
Most of the rest of our day at the fair was spent watching the super-farmer competition, which I found to be great fun.  

These big ole' farmer guys compete to see who can toss a forty-two-pound hay bale the highest.  At the end, the winner made it over thirteen feet.  Meanwhile on the sidelines, the ladies tossed thirty-eight-pound bales for distance, not height.   I didn't get a video of that competition.  However, there was the egg-gathering contest.  The guy sits on a hay bale while the lady runs to another bale and gathers six eggs; one of them is hard-boiled:  She has to crack them on the man's head until she finds the hard-boiled egg.  It's a timed event, and the couple with the least time, wins. 

Everybody in the contest seemed to be having a blast.  

In this event, the couple had to stack the hay exactly like it was at the other end.  


I was disappointed that there weren't any horses in the barns; the society horse show was over for this year.  I asked the lady at an information tent about this, and she said on Friday there will be draft horses there for competition.  That's also the day the dairy cattle, including Jerseys, will be there.  
If we go back then, we'll pack a lunch, stay away from the expensive fair food, and hopefully get an earlier start.  And I'll have a schedule made up of the free events I want to watch.  
When we left the fair, we made a stop at Menard's, a store that almost always has Walmart prices beat; I keep hoping they'll put a Menard's in this area.  We picked up a few bargains, then headed home where we had the adventure I told about in the previous entry.