Arkansas State Fair - 4,275 Miles

The Arkansas State Fair is for people who like midway rides and games. A full 50% of the fair grounds seems to be devoted to separating the rubes from their money by offering the usual rides and silly and crooked games. The fair grounds are clean and well-maintained. The people directing traffic and working there are friendly and helpful.

We checked out the Industrial Building that was full of a wide variety of booths that sold ideas or goods. Government agencies were represented by the Fish and Game people and the police from local to state levels. I cannot believe that the handwriting analysis people still are making enough money at their game to keep showing up at fairs.

We were strolling down the midway and stopped at a ride that Seven was kidding me about not riding. I do not ride rides. Seven had to have 3 children in order to have someone to ride the rides with. I get sick and, frankly, ride safety worries me. The rides are put together and maintained by people with less than a 3rd grade education. To wit: the ride we were watching started falling apart right before our eyes. It was shaking and making loud noises. Soon a part separated and was tangling in the air and a large piston rod bent. A father whose kids were on the ride was watching all this and was going crazy and was screaming at the operator to stop the ride. The operator was looking at him like he was cazy and finally got up and realized something terrible was happening and turned the machine off. Seven thought the ride was about to topple over. No one was hurt and all the kids got safely off. My doubts about the safety of these things was reaffirmed. For life.

One other shocking thing was the price of risking your life on the rides. Some cost 5 tickets or 5 bucks. It is incredible someone would pay $5 to ride one of those rides for a minute or two. There are lots of discount deals availabel to savvy fair goers so the top price of $5 per ride is probably not entirely accurate.

We enjoyed the pig races although the races weren't as interesting as the names they had for the pigs in the race. Lard Butt, Pork Chop, Sarah Jessica Porker, Brittney Squeals, Dale Earnhog (the pig wearing the #3 blanket of course), etc. They race to get Oreo cookies. I would too.

The Arts and Crafts building was small but contained a lot of great stuff. There are a lot of talented people out there producing quality items like quilts, paintings, clothing, photographs, and canned goods. We saw a huge watermelon that must have easily weighed over 100 lbs. Why it won 2nd and not first place in the watermelon competition is a mystery to me. I wanted to volunteer to be a cookie judge but the officials were busy judging some other foodstuffs.