I went to the Faulkner County Fair the other night, to see what-all was going on.  I’ve been to numerous small-town fairs and carnivals, so I expected this one to be bigger and better since it’s in a city of over 50,000 people.  But I was disappointed.  It wasn’t that much different, and everything has become so expensive.  I knew the food would be high, but the rides were even higher!  My wife and I were going to ride the Ferris Wheel, but then we discovered it costs $8 for the two of us, and it’s not that exciting.  Is that the typical going fare for carnival rides now?  It would get expensive real quick to participate in even a quarter of the rides and games there.

Now on to a few less-serious observations.  Seeing the kiddie rides brought back memories of years past.  There was a carousel horse ride, and I remembered riding on it as a kid.  Of course I don’t care about riding it now, but I imagined how it might struggle under my current weight.  Picture it going slow, the music dragging, smoke coming out from underneath…  🙂

There was a rock climbing / wall scaling attraction, and it was kinda funny to see some people try the expert side but then not even get off the first set of handles.  I knew better than to even try that…

We got a candy apple (covered in caramel) there, and it was really good.  Also saw where a concession stand was selling nachos, and I remembered seeing in Walmart a product that advertised itself as the nacho cheese featured in concession stands.  I’m not sure that’s a good way to market your product.  Although when I was a kid, I thought it was good.  But now that I’ve had much better nachos and cheese dip, that “fake” cheese just doesn’t seem so good anymore.  But to each their own…

We did get to see a lot of farm animals, like cows, goats, pigs, and chickens.  There’s nothing like that fresh, natural, barnyard scent, featuring lots of methane and manure.  I guess you get used to it if you work with them.

I was thinking the carnival could’ve been so much more.  I’m sure kids would enjoy it, but there wasn’t a lot of grown-ups.  I would’ve rode the bumper cars, but my long legs don’t fit in there too well anymore.  (I still remember the first time I realized I had become too tall to ride them.  It was a sad day, indeed.)

They should include some virtual reality rides there.  They could be built into a trailer that unpacks, so transport would be easier than the other stuff they had.  And I think a lot of people would be interested in it.  They could also have some state-of-the-art video games.  Maybe next year…

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