Fair games

The Howard County Fair was last week.  It was great fun; I got to eat Fried Oreos.  I know, a delectable treat all need to enjoy!  I might not have them again until next year, but so goes life.  Oh, I also enjoyed a great means of roast beef here in Maryland -- Pit Beef.  I think it's what Arby's is based on, but 100 times better.  Yummy.

The fair can be smelled from about 2 miles out -- yeah, cows, pigs, sheep, goats, chicken, bunnies are all at the fair.  And they are some beautiful animals.  Check out this well endowed cow (this farmer told us that just as they make sure girls look pretty in a beauty pageant, so do they deal with cows) and super cute piggy:

I felt so countrified!  And then we hit the rides.  I love roller-coasters.  I love twisty-turny, flip me over rides.  I don't really like fair rides.  I think they are rickety.  So, I decided to go on the high swings.  You know the ones -- those long chains dangling down that have a slight rattan seat and some lame excuse for a security bar.  I go on them with my co-fair-goers.  Once in the air I notice things: 1. we are really high up, 2. we are going really fast, 3. these chains are going to hold me?, 4. we are set right next to the fence that separates the shoulder of US 70 from the fair grounds.  Yep, the main interstate going East-West in Maryland is about 15 yards from the ride.  And as the swings go, we fly over the fence.  Imagine if you can, Debby flying high over a fence certain that the swings are going to detach from the ride and place me in the middle of the interstate.  And then it starts to LIGHTENING.  I start yelling, "Lightening, lightening, lightening, LIGHTENING!!!"  And it seemed like 5 more minutes until we got back on the ground.  I prayed quite a bit in those few minutes -- "Jesus, please protect us, please keep the ride intact, please keep the lightening away, if you want us home, fine, just don't."

My white knuckles and I high-tailed it into the animal areas for about an hour waiting for the rain to stop.  It does and we venture to the safe ride -- the Ferris Wheel.  The last people on the ride, we fly around the circle a couple of turns and then people start to disembark.  Being the last on, we're going to be the last off the ride.  But, we were enjoying the views and I remarked, "Wow, those trees are really getting blown around."  As we start the upward turn of the wheel the wind picks up even more and we start to see people down below head into the nearest building.  And the rain starts, and we're only 1/4 of the way around the wheel.  We try to protect ourselves on the way up and it's not too bad.  But, then we hit the opposite side and the rain is coming in horizontally from that side.  We were soaked.  To the bone.  In t-shirts.  Having a meeting that is to start in 15 minutes.  Seriously.  I could have won a goldfish and let it take up residence in my shoes.

I don't know if I need to attend any more fairs this year.

But I did can plum preserves, hot pepper jam, and green beans.  Might enter them in next year's fair.  Better check the weather report first.