Indiana State Fair

Last night we were at a motel where the internet was hopeless so this is the second of two posts I've done today.  The other one is about our day in Indiana's Amish country.  Likewise, I'm posting twice today on www.crocusquiltguild.blogspot.com

This fair is really, really impressive.  It's laid out over a huge area so you never feel like you are in a crush of people.
What's so great about it?

#1:  those crazy fair foods

Our voyage into bravery had us trying the deep fried mac & cheese.  It doesn't compare to that icon of fair foods ... elephant ears.

I really, really wanted to get the other employee in this photo buy failed.  He weighs 350 - 400 pounds so I can't decide whether he's a really good ad for pork rinds or a really bad ad for pork rinds.

 Didn't think this was too great a way to sell fattening foods either.



Lemon shake-ups are the big seller at this fair.  There is concession after concession selling them.  Unlike the shake-ups at the Weyburn fair, you don't even get a piece of lemon in these.

 

#2:  the world's largest popcorn ball

It's made with 976 pounds of popped corn and 5533 pounds of the syrup which is made from water, sugar, and corn syrup.

 

#3:  the midway

No more waiting for a "human" to help you ... automated machine to buy your ride wristbands and tickets.

Rob and Elizabeth, there just isn't any way to improve on Skeeball.  Same old game, same old fun,

 

#4:  cheese sculpture

 

1. #5:  roughly a 1000 cute chickens in the poultry barn
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#6:  good things in the produce pavilion

 

#7:  harness racing

 

#8:  the world's largest grand champion boar:

I'm sure we've all met the world's biggest grand champion bore, but this is something different.  A 4H kid standing next to me, apropos to nothing, said, "Ma'am this might not be the world's biggest boar; it's just the world's biggest grand champion boar."  He seemed like the type of kid I should like but who would probably drive me crazy if I ever had him in a classroom.

This maybe-not-the-biggest-boar-but-the-biggest-grand-champion-boar weighs in at 1205 pounds.  He's so big that he didn't fit completely into my photo.

 

#9:  the lactation station

I wonder how many men charged into this tent with their sons, keen to show them kittens and puppies and piglets suckling, only to find moms breastfeeding their babies.  That's what the tent was for.

 

#10:  all the good "other stuff" in the building which housed quilts:

...photography, Lego, rug-hooking (lots of rug hooking!), sewing, cross stitch, scrap booking, and much more...

 

This fair rates right up there with Iowa's in my opinion.