The State Fair of Texas

On Saturday Joey and I went to the State Fair of Texas with our youth group.  Thanks to Kati Kauffman, we scored free tickets and, since we drove some people in our (albeit small) car, we also scored free parking.

This made it financially possible for us to actually go to the fair because, under normal circumstances, just getting in the door would have set us back $34.  (In Iowa we could have gotten in the door for $16, I might add.)

At the State Fair in Iowa, I always like to look at every single cow, sheep, pig and goat I can get my eyes on.  Joey only likes to look at the prize winning bull and maybe, if he feels like it, the prize winning boar.

I like to look at them, talk to them, and poke them.

We walked in the door and I grabbed a map.  "Here's the livestock barns," I pointed.

"OK.  We'll go see those later."  Joey said.  (Read: Maybe if I stall long enough you'll forget about them.)

So we went to the auto show.  I had been expecting concept cars, but they were all just 2008 models of your average Honda, Toyota and BMW.  While we were standing around waiting for someone, can't remember who, I got fingerprints all over a CRV (it was soft!) and some lackey came over immediately to spray and wipe down the car's hood. 

I sort of felt bad, but really not all that bad at the same time.

We then tried to go find Mike's picture of a cute little Peruvian pig that won Honorable Mention but were misdirected to the Women's Museum.

At this point we girls split off from the boys and left them to fend for themselves and get money from an ATM, once they found one.

We girls all headed to the L'Oreal tent where we got makeovers.  I was informed that, while I do have some sun damage, it's not nearly as bad as some of the high schoolers and junior highers I was with.  This was reassuring.

I exited the L'Oreal tent with a lot of makeup on.  A lot.

"Wow.  You look...different."  Joey said when he saw me.  Later he confessed that he thought I looked like a raccoon.  And, unfortunately, by the time I saw myself in the mirror I had to agree that he was right.  (For some reason the makeup artist had put gray glitter-shadow under my eyes.  Why...)

Even though he said I looked like a raccoon, I I took him to a place where I'd found really cheap, really tasty peanut butter fudge.  Joey really likes peanut butter and chocolate mixed together so this was good for morale.  We were getting tired.

"We can go see the animals now," Joey kindly said to me.

"Wow, really?!"  I gasped.

And so we did.  We found the big bull, who was satisfactorily huge, and watched some Longhorn judging.  We looked over most of the cows and were disappointed to find that almost all of them were the exact same breed.  I'm not sure what it was, but they were all short, stocky, dark and cute.

No Holsteins or Herefords save one Holstein we found.  I was quite homesick for the Iowa State Fair and, when I saw the Holstein, I must admit that I got a little teary eyed.

As we walked out of the cattle barn we were pleasantly surprised to happen upon the big boar.  He was pretty fat and pretty bored looking.  I wanted to poke him so bad, but there was a dumb girl standing in my way and I couldn't get her to move.  Besides, I think the prize winning boar down here really wasn't all that big compared to the ones I've seen up in Iowa.

That done we were on to our next stop: pig races.

I had never seen such a thing.  They have 4 teenager pigs each wearing a different colored bandana all lined up in a starting gate.  They open the gate and the pigs go tearing out of it and around this track.  Whoever wins gets an Oreo cookie and the rest just get pig feed.

Our pig lost every single time.  Lame piglet.

But it was still fun.

Joey, because he's sweet and knows how much I like animals, took me into the children's petting zoo.  (Nobody make any comments.)  He bought me a Dixie cup full of seed and we went from pen to pen.  I can't remember all the animals I fed, but my favorite was probably the ostrich because he'd throw his neck over the fence and peck a beakfull of seed out of my hand.  He was making a huge mess.

We also got to see a kangaroo!  There was a mama and her joey there, so of course we had to find them for Joey.  The mama was sleeping with her joey in her pouch, but we did get to see the joey's tail.  Joey was real pleased.

That done, it was time to find Mike's photo that won honorable mention. But first we needed a Fletcher's Corny Dog because we were both starving and getting grouchy.  I got regular and Joey got jalapeño and cheese.  His was a whole lot better than mine, but at least we know for next year.

Fortunately Joey had seen Mike's picture already, so he knew right where it was.

Our last task of the evening was to find me some fried Oreos (just for kicks) so we walked along the midway with Joey, my fearless leader, looking frantically this way and that to try to spot the one booth that sold them.

"We can go back now, I really don't need them." I said after we'd been searching for 20 minutes.

"No way.  We can't come all this way and not find them!"  He said, appalled.

Almost immediately I shrieked, "There it is!  You found it!"

Joey charged ahead, bought the appropriate number of coupons to get the fried Oreos and slapped them down on the counter.  "One order of fried Oreos," he said.

"Two for you and two for me," I said, handing Joey a fried Oreo.

"No, I only want one, you can have the rest,"  Joey said.

We ate our fried Oreos and wandered back along the pond with the paddle boat Swans.  We were exhausted, it was 8:00 and all the museums were closed, so we decided to call it a night.

"I think the Iowa State Fair was way better."  I said to Joey on our way out.

"Why?"  He's kind of ambivalent about all state fairs since he's not real excited about looking at cows or watching cattle judging.

"Well, I think the Iowa State Fair is cooler because all food is on a stick.  And they have more amazing breeds of cattle.  And they have a lot more displays of prize winning food, photography, etc.  Everything's supposed to be bigger in Texas, but I think the Iowa State Fair is better."

"Yeah, last year in Iowa they had a beer on a stick," Joey said absently.

We enjoyed the State Fair of Texas but, all told, we were exhausted.  Our feet, knees, legs and backs were killing us; are we getting old?!

"Can we go buy root beer and make root beer floats and watch the last MacGuyver episode in Season 2?"  Joey asked as we got into our car.

"Good idea, babe."  I said.  I took my shoes off and sighed.  "That was a fun day."

Next year I am totally poking that boar.