Family Week Day 4

Wednesday morning was all business meetings so we will speed through that. Though there was a really cute dog worth mentioning at the accountant's office, and I left that meeting feeling less scared of taxes than before which is a good thing. 

Wednesday afternoon was when the real fun began. A little background first. Every fall we have a county fair that comes to town for the first week of October. I think most places in the US have something like this, at least in the south (do you have them other places?). There are the carnival rides, huge amounts of fried everything, variety acts of various sorts, craft shows and displays, large vegitables and animals.  As a kid we went to the fair every year and the highlight was going on the rides. After middle school or highschool the rides started seeming less fun and a bit more rickity and scary and my focus switched more to the fried food (things I would never allow myself to eat otherwise) and the animals. Well, I always loved the animals. For the last several years my mom, grandma and aunt have made a point to spend an evening together at the fair and when I've been able to I've joined them. Well it just so happened that I was in town during fair week this year so of course I agreed to go. 

Our plan of attack is usually something like this: first, find

food. Everyone wants something different so we strategically visit food booths to make sure no one goes hungry or has to wait too long. Then while we are eating we spread out the event sheet and come up with a schedule for our evening. Often shows overlap so sometimes we have to make difficult choices but luckily we are family so we are able to work it out in the end. We decided to first check out the Great American Frontier Show but on our way there we were distracted by the Winston Salem City Kickers and the Nifty over Fifty dancers.

Thats right, a senior citizen dance group. They were great. Mom and I could barely get a picture taken we were laughing so had. Not laughing at them- they really were quite good for older people. But, you know, just laughing. Once we were able to pry ourselves away from the dancers we grabbed a bag of kettle corn and headed off in search of Michelle's Magical Poodles. In my opinion, dog trick shows are best when the dogs run the show and based on that criteria this was one heck of a show. The poor girl was up there cracking awful jokes in a worn out spandex costume while her dogs jumped all over the place. The four of us sat down in the front on the ground with the little kids. My grandma had her knee replaced years ago so getting up and down off the ground isn't easy but she refused to let me do more than hold her purse and drink for her. Nope, two hands on the ground in front of her, butt up in the air, one big push and she was up. I hope I've got those genes. 

After the magical poodles we were feeling a bit skeptical and very silly, but decided to try one more show. This one promised to be good. After all, it was called the Rhinestone Ropers. With a name like that how could it not be fabulous? For all my laughing, I have to admit that this one was pretty good. I mean, that cowboy really knew how to twirl his rope. And they had this horse. My aunt thinks it was drugged. I hate to think that, but, well. Lets just pretend it wasn't, ok? It was like a big dog-- it would steal the guys hat and bow to the audience and put its front feet up on a podium...ok ok, cute, but no big deal. We've all seen trick ponies do things like that before. But then he gets this horse to lay down, head first in the cutest way imaginable and roll over on its back with its feet in the air and just lay there!

 Like a dog. I've never seen anything like it. So, I don't know how I feel about that. Maybe it was drugged, if so thats not good, but I choose to think that it was just a really docile horse. That could be true, right? By the way, it was getting dark at this point so my pictures are awful. Sorry.

By the time the Rhinestone Ropers (and in my head I keep reading that as "Rhinestone Rompers") was over we were done with shows and it was on to the animal barns. This is always my favorite part. Oh, and did I mention that mom was carrying around an apple in her pocket all night trying to identify it? A friend in the mountains gave her a bunch of apples that he grew and she really liked them but doesn't know what type it is. She wants to plant some apple trees of her own, and of course wants to choose good ones to grow. Surprisingly, we were unable to find an apple expert. You'd think that at a county fair there would be an apple expert. Maybe we just came on the wrong night. 

This post is getting long and is already image heavy, and I'm afraid my browser is going to crash and I'll lose it all or something, so I'm going to finish up in a second post...