Have I Paid Too Much At the Fair?

Holy Cow! I had no idea. I'm not even sure I've ever been to the Arkansas State Fair, so I just didn't know. Between the parking, the entrance fees and ride fees and the food, how in the world do all those people who were there afford to be there? And we didn't even let Maddie play any games. Do people save up for this?

Our daughter has gotten daring all of sudden when it comes to rides and she seemed up for anything today. My husband and I went back and forth between being excited that she is no longer so afraid and being scared out of our minds that she got on some of those rides. She had so much fun, I almost forgot about how much money we spent. And when that didn't work, I tried to pacify myself with the notion that the money provides jobs at a time when so many need all the work they can get. A radio station was handing out large stickers, saying, "We have staff people giving out money to people they see wearing our stickers." While Skip said, "No thank you." I took one and placed in very prominently on my person, convinced that I would be the recipient of a large amount of cash at any time. Didn't happen.

There was much food to be had. We couldn't roll with the fried coke or the fried Twinkies or the fried butter. We stuck with the classics--french fries and fried green tomatoes. My favorite "food picture" was a guy walking down the middle of the fairway with his pot belly hanging out of the bottom of his polo shirt with chili-cheese fries in one hand and a giant pickle in the other. Wish I could have caught that one on film.

We let a great chance pass us by. The rain has made sure that all the vendors in the Hall of Industry have had a rotten week. Skip and I have talked for awhile about getting a sauna to put in the backyard. It's a "someday" thing. Like people talk about having a vacation home or a boat "someday". The sauna vendor at the fair had had such a bad week, he would have sold us one for half-off the retail price. And I've priced them before, so it really was a great deal. Unfortunately, even a half-priced sauna isn't in our budget at the moment. But I've made a mental note to head back down to the Hall of Industry the next year that it rains the week of the fair and see what kind of deals I can strike.

Tomorrow, the much more affordable Lutheran High School Oktoberfest is on our agenda. There is weiner dog racing at 4 p.m. Who can pass that up?