Derbies and Shake-Ups and Carnies, Oh my!

Yesterday I experienced my first county fair. To be more precise, I attended the longest running country fair in the state of Indiana! Here is a list of my accomplishments (and yes, I'm calling them accomplishments) for the night:

1) Rode ghetto carnival rides. I went with Christine, and she was telling me about how usually she sees duct tape on the rides. This year there was no duct tape, so I decided to "man-up" and go on three rides. She wouldn't let me go on the dinosaur ride though...probably because I would intimidate all the little kids on it. But I did ride two rides that went really fast in a circle and a Ferris Wheel.

2) Drank a Lemon Shake-Up. Do you like lemon when you order water at restaurants? Well, I do not. However, it seems that most of the time when I order a water, the waiter/waitress shows up to the table with a lemon in my drink. Last night though, I tried this drink where they shake up freshly squeezed lemon with some water and sugar. It tasted more like lemonade than lemon water, and it was really refreshing!

3) Watched a Demolition Car Derby. Nothing can really beat bumper cars...except bumper cars with no bumpers! I never thought I could get so excited about seeing cars run into each other time and time again until their car quits working. There were people above me that were having so much fun that four policemen had to come settle them down.

4) Watched People. Okay, I know this sounds a tad creepy, but everyone does it! People watching is America's 2nd Pastime (next to Baseball, of course). I'm going to try and not sound mean...but there were some interesting people out at the fair! There were three categories of "The Fair People": 1) People who live for the Fair; 2) People who live and go to the Fair; 3) People who make a living at the Fair (a.k.a. carnies). My personal favorite group of people to watch is group number one. These people wait all year long in anticipation for the week-long festivities. As Christine pointed out, these people probably pick out their outfit for the night in the dark with their eyes closed. I would like to think i fit into group number two. Now I would like to point out that there is no hierarchy of "The Fair People." So just because I am in group number two, it does not make me better than #1 or #3 people. With that said, I can move onto the last group...The Carnies. There was a vast array of people working at the fair. For instance, there was a cranky old man who was in charge of the Ferris Wheel. He almost bit off Christine's head because she was being to "slow" getting into her seat. There was another man sitting at a booth that was selling swords that lit up. He kept yelling at people to move away from his tent because they were blocking his customers...I didn't see one person buy one of the swords all night. Then there was the skee-ball man, who unfortunately, had a microphone. He would try to encourage people to try his game so that they could win a prize, but his voice was a little different. The best I can describe it is the voice of Jim Varney, who played Ernest (i.e. Ernest Scared Stupid, Ernest Goes to Camp), but in a higher pitched voice. All in all, the people watching was stupendous

5) Watching a Lawn Mower Derby. Earlier i said that there is nothing better than bumper cars without bumpers. Well, I would like to recant my earlier statement and replace it with watching guys in a lawn mower demolition derby is the best. And by guys, I actually mean girl, because the lone female entry in the derby won! Basically, the point of the derby was to disengage people off of their lawn mower, and the last person standing (I mean sitting) wins! One lawn mower even caught on fire, and a bunch of firemen rushed into the arena and put it out. It was amazing!


So as you can see, Going to the fair is probably one of the smartest decisions I have ever made. And if you have never been to a county fair, I strongly suggest you get up out of your seat and drive to the nearest fair. It is that awesome.