2014 Fair!! ~ Day 8

We had a bit of a late start today. There were some life things that needed tending, like cats and laundry and bills and hairy legs. We had a noon shift at the Milkshake Barn (yes, I said “we” – more in a minute!) but we left the house without enough time to grab lunch beforehand. Idiots! So by the time 2:00pm rolled around, I mostly inhaled my free shake before I made it to the Get Cheezed booth for a proper lunch.

Pouting at the Green Gate cuz there's no time for lunch.

One notable discovery from the late start was a glimmer of understanding why people like Smartphones so much. As we were driving to the Fairgrounds, I realized that at the rate we were going, I wouldn't be posting a blog for the newspaper until after 2:00pm. That's no good!

A little LED bulb clicked over my head and before we were even half-way to the Fairgrounds, I had flipped open my netbook, hooked my hotspot up to the internet, and uploaded a missive from the passenger seat of our Honda. How super cool is that?? I haven't felt that techy since I figured out how to retrieve my iTunes account after a computer meltdown. As a largely irrelevant yet burning side-note, Apple is annoying.

Last post about the Dairy Women Milkshake Barn, I promise! Maybe.
As I mentioned on Day 2, I used my persuasive wifely wiles to convince Rob to be the Boy in the Barn for my last shift slinging milkshakes. Today was that day...my third and final stint wearing a cow apron. Sigh.

Some friends on Facebook are starting to call me Mayor McMilkshake -- like Mayor McCheese from 1970s-era McDonalds. Naturally, I am considering getting a shirt embroidered with my new title so I can make it official.

Speaking of official, before our shift started, I asked Mary if I could perhaps make a donation to the Dairy Women Association in return for an authentic, official Dairy Women cow apron. Although I generally try to avoid cooking, I was having visions of flitting around our kitchen wearing memories of milkshakes.

Sadly, bringing the cows home was a no-go. Turns out the aprons are old and wearing out so they can't really spare any. And I am not the first to ask to buy one either. Of course, that started my wheels spinning about how great a fundraiser it would be if the Dairy Women got new aprons.  They could either auction off the old ones or get loads of the new ones made and offer them for sale at the Fair Swag Booth next year. You know who would be first in line with her credit card.

So anyway...back to milkshakes, Rob ended up being one of two Boys in the Barn. The crew was older, meaning we were all about the same age. They were actual Dairy Women and a husband, I think. Debbie next to me said she had grown up on a dairy farm in Clark County and had been hanging around cows her whole life. I was pretty excited to finally be interloping with Real-Life Dairy Women...the sort that I always thought was in the milkshake barn to begin with.

Hard at work in cow aprons.  Thank you SO MUCH for taking this picture, Shannon!  I already treasure it.

Rob kept the machines filled, the cups and fruit supplied, and showed unexpected skillz in scooping up hard ice cream. I once again worked the whirry spinny thing and gleefully splattered my arms in vanilla and obliterated my donkey watch in chocolate. I also continued to avoid learning how to work the intimidating soft-cone twist machine. Phew!

I am really hoping I can volunteer in The Barn again next year. Chris and Mary were very kind to give me shorter shifts so my back wouldn't burn out, but I don't know how much of a hassle that was to work around. I can be pretty easy-going in a lot of things but when it comes to my back, I can be high-maintenance. Big sigh. But YAY MILKSHAKES!!!

I hope nobody saw us leave
We had a little emergency complicate our afternoon. My camera has been having issues with its shutter. Then today it fell out of my pocket in a restroom and the zoom went all wonky. After some panicked fiddling, we decided the safest course of action was to go buy a new camera asap since, I quickly realized, my camera is critical to this little Fair Blogging Hobby.

I have to say, it felt really wrong to leave the Fair this afternoon. It felt like I was playing hooky but not in a fun “let’s get out of here” way. Fortunately, it only ended up being a one-hour interlude to discover that Canon and Sony have the point-and-shoot market cornered. My much loved Panasonic Lumix was nowhere to be found at either Best Buy or Costco. So we returned with only the same busted camera we left with.

On a secret mission.  Shhh.  Don't make eye contact.

Oddly, the zoom now occasionally comes back to life.  And fortunately, a fellow Fair Fanatic very generously offered to bring her camera to the Fair tomorrow so I can have a reliable back-up. Meanwhile, Rob is over there in the other recliner searching the internet for the best price on a DMC-ZS20. A replacement will probably arrive just in time next week for Rob to take pictures of me detoxing on our couch, eating salads and Lean Cuisines and almond milk. How depressing. Let's move on.

Demo Derby Day!
Today was my favorite day of the Fair every year. I absolutely adore watching grown-ups play bumper cars!

Dedicated Woodhaven Ramblings readers might remember how much the Derby sucked two years ago. Then last year, even with the same sucky promoter, the Derby folks totally redeemed themselves and put on a great show.

The same group (WGAS) was back again this year.  I have now decided that 2012's derby sucked but not because of the promoters. They really do know how to put on a great set of shows. Who knows what the real problem was back in 2012.  Radiator water under the bridge.

Between the 2:00pm and the 7:00pm shows today, we saw probably 50 different vehicles crash and bang and get all smoky. We saw professional drivers in heavy-duty cars full of reinforcements and welding. And we saw drivers in cars fresh off Craigslist who had never been in a demo derby before and drove like maniacs. The finale was five RV campers slowly but dramatically dropping their panels and tables and couches and awnings all over the dirt race track. It was all wildly fun.

My favorite part, aside from seeing the entire living space of an RV slide off its chassis, was watching a Saturn sedan in the "newbie driver" heat.

When the body disengaged from the frame of this RV, I think the crowd went the craziest of the entire night.

I had a Saturn once. I know all about its proudly touted plastic body panels. However, it was fascinating and greatly entertaining to watch what happens when something impacts those proud plastic parts. They go flying! A long way! With speed! The little purple Saturn blew apart piece by piece. At each big hit, purple Saturn bits burst into the air and rained down onto the track. Despite looking like just a snarl of metal, the Saturn held up really well and ended up coming in second place. Much better than I expected! But I still don't want a Saturn again. Ouchy.

It was still running at this point.

I was also really impressed by the announcer. Lloyd has been the WGAS announcer every year but for some reason I really only noticed him this year. 

"HI, LLOYD!"

Despite his name, Lloyd is a young guy probably in his late 20s. He is very comfortable working the microphone, energizing and engaging the crowd, making jokes, and smoothly sliding in sponsor plugs. Lloyd also did a great job explaining various rules and driving strategies. Truly, he did everything except give sandwich recommendations. I guess you have to be a rodeo announcer to do that.

Go here!  Get a grilled cheese sandwich!  Rodeo announcers don't lie.

Stats
I am astounded by how consistent my pedometer readings have been. Today I logged 3.78 miles. Apparently I really dig almost 4 miles of walking each day.

Rob shared his Diet Cokes today with both "Justin" and "Bree."

The re-entry hand stamp animal was a bunny.

The Flavor of the Day in the Milkshake Barn was marionberry.

Due to our late arrival (idiots!), today's Fair Food Feast Parade didn't begin until about 2:00pm. In light of that, I think I did pretty well. I did just realize, though, that I didn't get my Hawaiian Shaved Ice today. Since they are suddenly under-syruping them, I guess I'm losing interest? Anyway, here's today's Parade. Enjoy!

My second sandwich from Get Cheezed, this time with a classic cheese-pull.  My "Rancher" had chicken, bacon, 2 cheeses, tomatoes, and ranch dressing.  It was really really good.  I hope they come back next year!

Strawberry Cookies 'n Cream.  That's right, mixed together!  I would have never thought to do this but someone ordered one while I was in The Barn and I thought it sounded interesting.  It is now a very close second to my favorite Chocolate Cherry.  Which is crazy because I tend not to really like either strawberry or cookies 'n cream ice creams.

Strawberry juice drink from the Smashers vendor next to Get Cheezed.  It was light and refreshing and a tiny bit healthy.  Don't tell anyone.  I would order it again.

OK, so there's this new Totally Fried booth that replaced my favorite Pad Thai booth outside of the Food Court. The first thing on their menu is Deep Fried Coke.  Of course, we HAD to try it.  Except they haven't had all the ingredients to make it until today -- Day 8.  What?!?  So we finally tried it and wow, what a disappointment.  There was hardly any Coke flavor; just dough.  Based on this experience, we're sticking with Sweet Cheeks.

Frozen Pink Lemonade from the Dogville (Young Life) booth.  Very lemony and frozeny.  Hit the spot.

So because my favorite Pad Thai booth is MIA this year, I stuck with my Pad Thai for Demo Derby tradition and tried the Pad Thai from the Yakisoba booth in the Food Court across from the Lions booth.  I was disappointed.  It didn't have as much flavor, no peanut sauce or green onions, and the portion was smaller.  Since I bought it there, I loaded it up with the booth's Sriracha sauce.  Good thing, too, since that was the only way it had any flavor.  Pad Thai and Green Curry booth people, please come back!

Hot Tamales from yesterday.  They are gone now.

Night cap corn dog from the Lions booth.  I keep thinking I should try other ones, but I did that last year and these were my favorite.