THE FAIR!! ~ Day 4

It was a short day at the Fair today. Meaning only 4 hours instead of the 9 or 10 I’ve been averaging. But, Rob is home!! He had a late afternoon flight so I picked him up at the airport and we went right to the fairgrounds for dinner. It was a great evening of food, friends, and wild bulls. I'm a very happy camper.

The Main Event tonight was deep fried food...I mean bull riding. And it was a great show! Slightly new this year, it was billed as "Pro Bull Riding." We haven’t had the Pro part before. What the Pro added, in addition to a higher entry fee for the riders, was insanity. The bulls were crazy! They bucked and spun and drooled and pawed at the ground. They were stubborn, too, several refusing to leave the ring. I have never before seen people pull on a bull’s tail. It seemed like a bad idea to me, from my vantage point in the grandstands quietly sipping on a lemonade. I guess the tail pulling was intended to get the bull mad enough to charge something or at least move, but this one bull just stood there, all defiant and snorty. He stayed in the ring at least 5 minutes after the ride, taunting cowboys and horses and wranglers and such. There were about 30 riders and only two of them stayed on their bulls long enough (at least 8 seconds) to qualify for a score. The winner stayed on a little more than 9 seconds. So the rides weren’t long, but the bucking bulls and the unpredictable game of tag afterwards more than made up for it. But I think the very best part of the bull riding was Gabriella. She was the 10-year-old friend of a friend who joined us. She had never been to a rodeo before, nor seen anything approximating bull riding. When the first bull came out and started leaping about with a cowboy flailing on its back, Gabriella broke into giggles. Big giggles. Giggles that couldn’t stop and eventually infected several of us around her. “They just look funny!” she explained afterwards. As she did her bull bucking impression, it was hard to argue with her assessment.

And yes, the fried food was also a main attraction tonight. We met up with several friends and we all tried different things from the Deep Fried Heaven food truck. Kayleigh tried her first-ever deep fried Oreo and gave it an “Oooh, that’s good!” review. She also assured us she couldn’t eat all four of them. And she was right. I think Rachel took two bites of one.

Encouraged by my review yesterday, Bonnie tried the deep fried pudding. This time, we watched how it was made. The pudding is a frozen pudding-in-a-cup with a stick rammed into it. When Bonnie placed her order, they took the pudding cup out of the freezer, removed the cup and lid, and dipped it into the dough batter. They then put it in the fryer for several minutes. Bonnie said it was very tasty but it would have been better if it had cooked longer because some of the pudding was still frozen in the middle. So this may be one instance where a freshly made deep fried goodie may not be better than one that has been sitting around for a half-hour or so. Either way, she managed to finish it.

I decided to try the deep fried peanut butter cup. Oh. My. Goodness. What a discovery!! Best deep fried concoction ever!! It was warm and oozy and chocolatey and peanut buttery. Mmmmm! Sometimes peanut butter cups can make my teeth ache but the fried dough actually tamed the sweetness perfectly. Topped with some chocolate sauce, it was pure heaven. My face was smeared with gooeyness and somehow I managed to get some chocolate on my eyebrow. I wore it the rest of the night, as a badge of honor. I will definitely have this again before the week is out. Heaven now has deep fried peanut butter cups in addition to the Slurpees and the llamas.

The Food Parade! I didn’t get to the fairgrounds until about 5:00pm so I didn’t have as much time to get entries for today’s parade. So I have included a picture of today’s lunch at home just for fun.

My best effort at home to keep the Fair Food theme
going.  "Snackers," even with Buffalo Tabasco, are
severely lacking.  Some grease would have helped.

Yakisoba noodles and teriyaki chicken,
delightfully smothered in sweet chili sauce.
The pickles (unfried) were a gift from Rob.  

Crazy about the deep fried
peanut butter cups!!

Bull riding fresh squeezed lemonade

Making up for not having a proper dinner last night,
this was a Chicago dog.  The hot dog itself was good but
Boppin' Bo doesn't know Chicago.  The pickles, peppers,
and tomatoes were diced, and I think it was just salt,
not celery salt.  Overall OK but not worth repeating.
Note the peanut butter cup chocolate on the eyebrow.