It's the Fair!! ~ Day 10

Well, that's that. The end. As much as it exhausted me, I am really sad the Fair is over.

We stayed until pretty much the very end tonight. We saw the hypnotist's final show at 9:00pm and then went on the Ferris wheel even though the Fair supposedly closed at 10:00pm. Afterward, we took a detour through the exhibit hall to pick up Rob's entries and ribbons.

The hall was very active, with push carts and dollies being wheeled about, sounds of shelving and displays being torn down, and 4-H and Open Class participants lining up at various tables to claim their stuff. We left with a mounted photo, 3 blue ribbons, 1 red ribbon, and $3.80 in prize money. We had no idea you got money for plant life entries! Score!! That's like half an elephant ear right there! We will need to find lots more stuff in our garden to enter next year to see if we can fund an entire ear. Or maybe even a couple of corn dogs.

Otherwise our day was perfectly leisurely and random. We ran into friends and chatted. We hung out with the llamas (no clarity on my score from yesterday, by the way, other than the comment that she is one of the very toughest judges around). We watched the finals of the Dock Dogs. We browsed the vendors. I got my rings cleaned. We sweated in the horse arena and then found air conditioned refuge to admire the quilts. We ate whatever sounded good.

THE Best Day to Eat at the Fair While perusing the daily schedule, we noticed a lot of the 4-H groups were having end-of-Fair celebrations today. At least that's I assume they were. But to the food-focused carnivore, today might have actually been quite a feast. Starting at 2:00pm was the Beef Potluck. Then at 3:00pm was the Rabbit Potluck. And then finally, for the adventuresome, at 4:00pm was the Dog Potluck. I am willing to taste almost anything but I think I draw the line at Golden Retriever.

More than just hairspray While having lunch, Rob sat next to Contestant #1 for next year's Fair Court. She encouraged us to attend the speeches later in the day, followed several hours later by the coronation. Since we suddenly had a personal connection and someone to root for, we decided to check it out. That plus the event took place in the shade.

The Fair Court is three young women...two Princesses and a Queen. They are all horse women. "Equestrians" is probably their preferred term. Their primary duty is to promote the Fair during the year by attending various community events and fundraisers and participating in local parades.

Some friends with an interested daughter told us that the being in the Court requires a commitment to attend at least 100 events over the course of the year. This while the young women are in school (they seem to be 16-18 year olds) and actively doing horse stuff like 4-H and saddle clubs and such, not to mention just being teenagers. It sounds like quite a bit of work, both for the Court and their parents. But in return, the girls get to be in the public eye and use lots of hairspray and wear sparkly outfits and be chauffeured around the Fair in a specially decorated golf cart. So for the right disposition, I imagine there is quite an appeal to being a Fair Princess or Queen.

Very logically, a new Fair Court is chosen on the very last day of the Fair. So one court ended today while another was inaugurated. There were six contestants for the 2013 Fair Court. We managed to stay for the first three's speeches.

Actually, contrary to its billing, the event was more than just speeches. Each girl was asked to give her bio, answer a spontaneous question, model her outfit, and then give a 2 minute speech about the Fair. Contestant #1 -- our gal -- had a distinct advantage since she has been a Fair Court Princess for the past year. As she shared at lunch, Princesses are allowed to compete a second time for Queen if they want to. And since she had such a blast as a Princess, she wanted to try to up the ante to Queen. So with a year's experience of public appearances and practice holding a microphone, Contestant #1 was very poised onstage. Her speech was well-rehearsed (we watched her carefully practicing in a grove of trees) and she modeled like a pro. But, her spontaneous question about how she would spend $1 million wasn't as polished as the rest of her. The understandable nerves showed through.

The next two contestants didn't have much experience being in front of the public and quite honestly, it made me very nervous to watch them. I am not a fan of public speaking and I had a lot of painful empathy for them as the nerves and anxiety took over. I finally couldn't stand it any longer and told Rob I was hungry. We left the event feeling pretty confident that Contestant #1 had it in the bag. Insert foreshadowing here.

We arrived several hours later and sat amidst family and friends and Fair Board Members with great anticipation. Several awards were handed out and then the big moment came. The first Princess was a bubbly girl who won several awards...none of which I can remember. The second Princess was sadly Contestant #1. She handled what was certainly intense disappointment like a pro, though. She smiled and waved to the crowed and once again got a "Princess" sash pinned to her cowgirl outfit. Always a princess, never a queen.

The winner was a young gal that Rob overheard talking with some adults prior to the event. They were simply chatting about milkshakes (chocolate raspberry was her favorite) but Rob commented to me that the contestant spoke like an adult, without all the "umms" and "likes" and "you knows" that we had already heard from some of the girls onstage. As the milkshake lover then proceeded to win more awards than any other contestant, including for her speech and for her horse riding, we began to suspect she would be our next Queen. And so it was. I kicked myself for not staying for all of the speeches.

It was quite interesting to see a little of the "behind the scenes" of this aspect of the Fair. Until today, I saw the Fair Court each year as just three young highly coiffed women who showed up at the Bull Riding and Demolition Derby and Chicken Dress-Up Contest to lend some pageantry and bling to the occasions. Now that I've seen a little bit of what they go through to get awarded a place on the court...and have seen them more up close and personal...I suspect next year I will be excited to see how each has grown into her role over the year. Attending the Fair Court speeches (all of them) and Coronation just might be a new tradition for us on the last day of the Fair.

Fair Food Parade Finale I did my best to indulge with abandon today. Sadly, my stomach seemed to know what day it was because it called a truce far too early into last elephant ear. But I do not think I left anything desirable uneaten at the Fair this year. I ate what I wanted and rarely repeated exact items (except for corn). I will be getting on the scale tomorrow morning and will soon be reporting what impact all this fun had on my weight. I will also be sharing some "behind the scenes" commentary about what it was like writing for the newspaper this year. So stay tuned! Oh, and today's walking mileage was an impressive 4.72 miles. I tell you, that Events Center is huge!

Soft Taco Supreme -- and I remembered to keep the sour cream!

One last milkshake.  This one was chocolate-marionberry.  Y.U.M.

One last Hawaiian Shaved Ice.  It was cinnamon and blue raspberry.  The cinnamon I knew was good.  The blue raspberry was simply blue.  When will I learn to stop trying new flavors and just stick to my favorite lime??

I was trying to be rebellious and have an Italian Chopped Salad with lots of meat and cheese and such.  As it ended up, this was sort of healthy.  The dressing was even fat free.  Boo!

Not giving up, I supplemented my healthy salad with a wonderfully crispy onion bloom.

O.M.G.  This Deluxe Elephant Ear has been lurking in a different booth all these years and we only now tried it.  On the very last day of the Fair.  Darn it!!  It is an elephant ear topped with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and strawberries (Rob doesn't like strawberries so we got them on the side).  Did I mention OMG???  This was our last treat at the 2012 Fair and shall be our first treat at the 2013 Fair.  At Boppin' Bo's Malt Shop next to the Dairy Women milkshakes for the curious and hungry.