Yesterday (Saturday 8/29/15) , my son, Richard, and I paid our annual visit to The Terryville Lions Country Fair. We've gone to this for a number of years (including last year, 2014). We like it because it seems like a real agricultural fair with animals, food, carnival rides, and fireworks.
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| Some of the rides at the fair. |
We arrived ~1 p.m. and stayed until nearly 5:30 p.m. $9 admission per adult; free parking.
Just as we entered, I had to stop and watch the "Women's Iron Skillet Toss." Wow! Where can you see something like that nowadays? I'd like to see what the winners' husbands look like, if they are still alive.
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| Map of the Fair grounds. |
After a quick tour of the fairgrounds, we grabbed a bit to eat. Richard got chicken on a stick and Mountain Dew soda; I got a hamburger with fruit punch Gatorade. We ate sitting on the bleachers watching the Horse Draw Contest. This consists of pairs of horses trying to pull a sled (boat) containing several tons of concrete weights. We watched the first round where the pull consisted of three (3) tons (3,000#s). The horses have to pull the sled a certain distance within a given time period. When they did, the female announcer would proclaim, "All the way!" There were 10 teams, some from CT and some from MA, RI, VT, and NY.
Since we were sitting in the sun (it seemed hotter than low 80s), we took a break by going inside the nearby Hobby Building. The entries always boggle our minds since it looks like some parent or spouse cleaned up a room by scooping up a doll collection, Matchbox car collection, Pez collection, Lego, etc. and took it to the fair. One girl ("Jazz Albuquerque" -could that be a real name?) even displayed her collection of ribbons she had won over the years at various local fairs.
We continued through another building (aptly named The Commercial Building) where people were selling all kinds of household items and the like. The next building (Home & Garden) was dedicated to amateur photography, baking, veggies, flower arrangements, and quilts.
We briefly watched the Lumberjack show but we've seen it so many times, we practically know the lines by heart. We moved on and peeked in several model RV trailers.
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| Feeding the sheep (or is it the KKK?) |
Then we walked through the different animal barns: swine, cows, goats, chickens/ducks, sheep, goats. Some sheep were wearing a covering that made me think of the KKK. We found a rabbit that reminded us of Richard's cat, Spots (see picture below).
Richard did his annual ride on the The Avalanche. Apparently, the amusement company that does this fair is the only one in the state with this ride. I had a challenging time trying to take a picture with my phone because the sun was shining from directly behind the ride at me (not to mention that the phone has a crummy camera). The good part was that I found two (2) tickets on the ground (so it only cost me $2 more to get the required four tickets).
While sharing a lemon Italian ice, we watched the garden tractor pull (similar to the draft horse pull (see above).but it was set up poorly and we could not see. So after chatting with the man who was at a rebuilt 2 cycle engine from 1902, we moved on. We miss the garden tractor races they had several years ago. We stopped to look at the antique farm tractors and got to vote for our favorites. Richard was a heretic and did not vote for a McCormick Farmall (but I did).
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| A friend for Spots? |
Richard did his annual ride on the The Avalanche. Apparently, the amusement company that does this fair is the only one in the state with this ride. I had a challenging time trying to take a picture with my phone because the sun was shining from directly behind the ride at me (not to mention that the phone has a crummy camera). The good part was that I found two (2) tickets on the ground (so it only cost me $2 more to get the required four tickets).
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| Richard (extreme left wearing orange) on the Avalanche |
While sharing a lemon Italian ice, we watched the garden tractor pull (similar to the draft horse pull (see above).but it was set up poorly and we could not see. So after chatting with the man who was at a rebuilt 2 cycle engine from 1902, we moved on. We miss the garden tractor races they had several years ago. We stopped to look at the antique farm tractors and got to vote for our favorites. Richard was a heretic and did not vote for a McCormick Farmall (but I did).
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| Richard at the antique farm tractors |
While Richard got some onion rings, I bought some kettle corn for his mom. Then we watched some more of the Draft Horse pull (they were up top 8 tons now). "All the way!!!"
Richard got a pickle to munch on during the ride home. My car is going to smell like garlic pickles now (well, in some ways, that may be an improvement).
And so it was enough for one day. Not worth staying until 10 p.m. for fireworks. Anyway, more adventures awaited us on the way home. "All the way!"
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Links:
http://terryvillefair.org
http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2014_08_30_archive.html
http://www.tufanoamusement.com/rides/ridedetail.asp?ID=5
http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2014_08_30_archive.html
http://www.tufanoamusement.com/rides/ridedetail.asp?ID=5
Written Sunday August 30, 2015
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