State Fairs & Fried Twinkies

Went to the Iowa State Fair this weekend. This is Fair #2 of 3 for the year, I think I posted a bit about the Missouri one, at least in a comment, if not to sum up:

Too new at it to say if it's great or not. Midway beats out Kansas Midway, and is on par with Iowa's, Hard to find roasted Ear of Corn.

We stayed at the Meskwaki Hotel & Casino in Tama, IA. It was pretty neat. I sat down with 5 bucks at a "Little Green Men" slot, and turned that into 27 bucks. bought a shot glass with some, and then had fun loosing the rest to a Harely Davidson penny slot. Also enjoyed at leasat 3 buffets at that place, my favorite was the breakfast one on Sunday just before we left.


Iowa State Fair - Big and Crowded. I can see why they tout it as World Reknown. however, they claimed the parking was full, and closed off the lot. This annoyed me because we saw a LARGE section of parking still unclaimed. Blessing in disguise however, most of the locals around the fair turn their lawns into parking spots for 5 bucks a car, and we pretty much parked right next to the Fair in someones front lawn.

Ag Building is 150+ years old, and had some really big heads of cabbage. MO's watermelon weighed about 10lbs more than the IA one, but IA had some pumpkins that were around the 300lb mark.

Had my first ever Deep Fried Twinkie there. Had to wait in line for it to. First thing to realize, that, although deep frying most things makes them crispy, it does now with a Twinkie. So once you're used to the texture, it' was actually quite nummy. Next year, I think I'll try a Deep Fried Snickerrs bar or Oreo Cookie.

Midways are EXPENSIVE! Sara's youngest brother wanted to go there, and so we didn, not realizing that it costs an arm and a leg and a few other body organs to ride only 3-4 rides. Armbands weren't being sold anymore so bang went that. I did ride two with Ben, I enjoyed them, but I think he got a bit too dizzy. He went on a centrifuge one (closed container that spun you around) and I'm pretty sure that did him in.

We also got a good "Old Timey" photo of us in Civil War Garb. Didn't know which to take (Union or Confederacy) so we flipped a coin, Confederates wone the toss. I outranked my father in law (They gave me the 1 star General uniform, he just got a standard uniform) so I was happy. Ben was happy he got to hold a gun, but wanted at first a rifle, then two pistols, but was happy enough with the one gun. Mother in Law & Sara got Hoop skirts.. first time I've seen that, they really went out on it.

Mine had a flaw however, looked like a scratch so I asked for a remake. He said yes, but wanted to make sure if I could live with the error. I told him normally I would, but the minute flaw was on me, and I would see it every time i looked at the photo. He laughed and gave us a new copy.

To wind up, I had a good weekend, and today I'm going to have to mow the lawn for the first time in two weeks. The weeds that have taken over my once lush lawn need mowing.