Saturday, August 19, 2006 - Iowa State Fair - Des Moines

Of the many camping venues we are attempting on this trip, this site would hit Steve’s least favorite list. Upon our arrival, a rolling sea of RV’s interspersed with jellyfish-like tents overwhelmed the hillsides surrounding the fairgrounds. The kids and I, however, were excited by the possibilities the fair presented and we sandwiched our tent between two others. I proceeded to park the van next to the tent and almost became stuck down the slope while positioning the van. Thanks to many years experience in southwestern mud, I maneuvered my way back up the hill and we set out for the fair.

The shuttles were pulled by soy biodiesel fueled tractors. Upon entering the grounds, we hopped on the Sky Glider which gave us a good overview of the fairgrounds. We headed into the agriculture building to see all of the award winning vegetables and one of my personal highlights of the fair, the cow carved from butter. The butter carvings also included Superman which we loved and Bill Reilly which was of no interest to us.


We put our names in a drawing for a soy biodiesel VW bug named the Bean Machine, a slug bug definitely worth at least 100 points in Kira's elaborately structured point system. We wandered outside the building to the largest pumpkins we’d ever seen including a state fair record breaker weighing in at 970 pounds....that’s a lot of pies.



The kids spotted the midway. Their most and my least favorite portion of the fair experience commenced. In my way of thinking, midways are expensive in price and cheap in experience. Of course, Kira and Grange are of the opposite opinion. Grange had his first experience driving bumper cars and they both loved a spinning ride named the Starship 3000. It was getting late and time to get some shuteye. Back to the tractor shuttle and our home sweet tent.

Sunday, August 20 - Des Moines and the Iowa State Fair

We awoke a little later this morning just taking the opportunity to relax and rest. It was the last day of the fair so people were starting to clear out of the camping area. We grabbed the tractor shuttle and headed down into the melee.

We wandered around the Culture building looking at all types of interesting photographs and other art forms. The kids enjoyed watching an artist throwing pots on a wheel. Next to the potter was a couple producing some amazing balloon art. Their entire balloon backdrop was the Grant Wood painting, American Gothic, balloon farmer and wife included! They put on an amazing performance, pulling people from the audience and creating things like a diamond ring and bouquet of flowers for one couple; an octopus and diver for another pair of kids; a monkey and banana tree for siblings.



It was recommended I try Pork on a Stick, so I posed with what was indeed a very good pork chop in front of the Iowa Pork barn. We watched some amazing acrobats from Kenya performing all types of flips and tricks on asphalt. Raven, an actress who Kira greatly admires was performing that afternoon. We tried seeing the performance, but people had been camped out since 9am, an exercise I am just not willing to make for the celebrity cause. It was packed, of course, and Kira got her first taste of star studded mania and found it wanting. We tried a vantage point upon a hillside, but found it unsatisfactory. Kira thought it best to wander on rather than try to watch a white clad speck dance round the stage.




That evening, I decided to brave the midway once again. I hated a second turn in that barrel but also knew how much the kids enjoyed it and figured it is part of a true American experience, slimy as that experience may be. Around 10:30, I noticed the character of the crowd had shifted and realized problems were brewing. One carney flying high on one illegal substance or another mumbled, “You still here?” Fights were breaking out and law enforcement was thickening. It was time to return to the innocence of our little tent.