Tuesday September 2 (Fulton County Fair)

A gloomy start to the day weather wise but after breakfast I went for my first bike ride on one of the mountain bikes. I travelled about four miles and would have done a second circuit but it started to rain part way round and was quite heavy as I got back to base!!

Later on the afternoon, we headed to Wauseon and the Fulton County Fair. By this time the weather was improving and the sun was appearing between the clouds. 

It certainly did not look super busy as we found a park close to one of the entry gates. There were lost of different rides, one or two of them certainly had people screaming. 

I am not sure I have ever seen quite so many different food outlets in such a small area! I have never seen a whole onion broken open, battered and deep fried before! There were also racks of chickens being barbecued!

There was a great variety of food available including some I have never even seen before - Alligator Bites, Potato Twirlers, Funnel Cakes and Elephant Ears to name three.

We saw the Carnival Queen and King on our way to see some of the livestock, an important part of any Fair or Show world wide! We also saw an old fashioned ice Cream making machine and it is still operational! 

We wandered round the whole fair and then selected our food for dinner. I had rib eye steak sandwiches and the steak was very tender and superbly cooked!! 

We went and found a sheltered spot to eat and then we headed to the Grandstand for the harness races. 

We have harness racing in New Zealand, both trotting and pacing, and the betting is somewhat similar. 

What did confuse me was the fact that we did not see the horses that were about to race until about four minutes prior to the race. Horses from later races were out warming up. 

It was not until the fourth race that this was pointed out out me. In New Zealand, the only horses that are on the track are those in the next race and they go round several times. 

The racing was interesting and there were some nice looking horses. Between races we were entertained by a good Country and Western singer.

After the races we started to had home. Lisa purchased some doughnuts, freshly made, as Harry loves them. 

We then passed this ride that looked pretty wild, first it rotated 360 degrees, then it swing from side to side and was up above the centre support, finally it rotated as it swung!! 

There was lots of screaming and from the way the floor was washed between rides I suspect some lost their stomach contents!!

As we went to leave Lisa noticed a purse with keys attached. She had seen a woman leave the area with some young children. I looked inside and there were credit cards and the usual but no cash. 

We finally saw a cop but he was off duty so we headed to the Sheriff's tent. Lisa turned around and suddenly noticed the woman had returned so all's well that ends well.

We then headed towards our gate and the car. We passed a place selling the Potato Twirls and the woman put a couple of potatoes through the machine so I could see it in action. it basically looks like potato chips strung together and then they are fried, she was kind enough to give me some to try!! Very nice! 

Then we headed to a place I had seen earlier to buy an Elephants Ear with Cherry on the top. It was freshly rolled and fried and was much larger than the paper plate it as served on, it was absolutely delicious!! 

So we headed home into a beautiful sky reflecting the sunset. I had a lovely time thanks to my hostess with the mostest, Lisa!! (For my New Zealand friends, I was watching a late night show while writing my blog and they showed the Tall Blacks doing the Haka before their game against the USA earlier today!!