Same old Fair

The York Fair is America's oldest running fair.  It's something that my family has been going to for decades.  My grandmother used to enter some of the contests/showings they have.  She had quite a few ribbons on her wall.  My parents wanted to go this year so my sister and I were their escorts.

It was a cloudy, drizzly day but at least the rain held off so we could move around outside.  This also kept the crowd size down.  The fair has all sorts of entertainment depending on the day as well as the regular fair stuff.  I am like my father with respect to wanting all the junk food I see.  But who doesn't?

My first victim was a red devil's food whoopie pie.  I already have an addiction to regular whoopie pies but these I cannot resist.  The name sounds like evil fun and they leave your mouth stained blood red.  We'll call this my second breakfast.

Sure you can go to the stand which sells fries, dogs, burgers, sausage, steaks, etc for lunch.  But why do that when you can get BBQ beef from a stand which specializes in it?  I added some horseradish and sauce to my sandwich and thoroughly enjoyed lunch.  Beasts like to eat meat.

We found a display celebrating Ringling Bros circus.  These modelers had collected or created figures relating to the circus and put them on display.  The display pictured above had moving characters as well.  There were some very threatening senior citizens in the room to make sure no one touched the models.  I'm sure I could have handled them separately but not if they ganged up on me so I kept my claws to myself.

Right next door was an actual circus!  It only had one ring and eight people total but it was a circus.  I don't have pictures because those same senior citizens were there making sure no one took any.  The show was fun and campy.

The fair is great for people watching too.  You can consider York county as the gateway to Pennsyltucky and it doesn't disappoint.  I enjoyed seeing the skinny father of two with a spider web tattoo under one eye and his round, multi-pierced baby momma following behind.  Then there was the girl with whisker implants in her upper lip, the bored teenie boppers and assorted other 'rural' folks who probably don't get out much other than for tractor pulls.  Don't get me wrong, I love to see all these people because it keeps things interesting.  And I freely admit to hanging a pair of handcuffs from the rear view mirror of my first car.  I also had a nude air freshner hanging as well.... which I bought at the York fair!  Ah the mammaries.

There were too many temptations.  How could I pass up a s'more on a stick?  I didn't!  It was tasty and I'm pretty sure it was nutritious.

They say size doesn't matter but don't believe it.  The big ones get the ribbons.  If it's green and wrinkly as well then it gets a ribbon too.  This room was like a vegetable freak show.

Just as my sugar high was wearing off, we stopped for a funnel cake.  I didn't get a picture of that because it went fast between the four of us.  Don't worry, we stopped for real food on the way home.

All is Fair

Since moving to the area, I had yet to go to any of the local fairs which occur this time of year.  I used to go as a kid and even worked at the bottle toss stand.  Let the tosser jokes commence...

Kimberton Fire Company puts on a good fair and is right down the road.  No fireworks this year however.  I guess they ran out of cash.  The area is a bit 'rural' and the crowd reflects that nicely.  I'm being nice here but others might say they are hicks or rednecks.  I'm not going to poke fun because it's too easy and I might be a redneck.

So games were played and food was eaten but you really need to know about these....

Those are deep fried Oreo cookies people.  Yes, they are as good as they look.  Piping hot, full of sugar and dripping with fat.  Then they top it with more sugar.  Served up with an 'I could care less' attitude from some teenager stuck inside a hot trailer surrounded by boiling oil.  Did I mention the sugar?

Next up was the Great Lakes Timber Show.  Real live lumberjacks!!

Here you see a wood chopping demonstration.  He got through that log in 21 seconds.  But there was also simple chainsaw carving, crosscut sawing and log rolling.  Then he threw that axe at a wood target quite accurately.  Now I could provide him with a couple addresses of targets I'd prefer to see get the axe.  Or perhaps he could train me?

Here's the crosscut saw versus chainsaw race.  The chainsaw lost this round.  The modified chainsaw he used for round two however cut that log like butter.  I want one!  It was probably all the sugar but I found myself cheering them on.  I didn't take shots of the log roll but that woman in the picture above rocked it.  She's a pro at spinning around on a wet piece of wood. (I couldn't resist)