Rob's State Fair Ramblings, Day 9

Today was Mother's day at the fair, the day when I take my mom to the fair and let her enjoy herself. Last Saturday was Father's Day. Mom did woodcarving in the Oz Gallery from 9-12, and answered questions and chatted with the fairgoers. They watched her carve and she gave them tips on how to get started. While in there, she introduced me to a man who knew my grandmother when they worked at Collins Grocery in the 70's. For you long-time Hutchonians, that's a blast from the past! It was nice to hear him talk about her. She passed away in 1996, and I still miss her.

At Noon, we were going to get lunch, but the Cottonwood Court (the food court) was so jam-packed, we decided to wait until later, and I am glad we did. The reason is because en route to a building to walk through, we noticed Bandaloni setting up for a show. Bandaloni is a one-man band, and very talented. My mom had never heard him before. He sang a lot of great songs, one of them being "Hey, Good Lookin." While he sang this, at one point he came up to my mom and sang directly to her. Bandaloni knows how to work an audience, and interacts with them constantly. We stayed for his entire 30-minute set, and thoroughly enjoyed it. 

After Bandaloni, we decided it was time to eat. Our tradition every year is to go to Cottonwood Court and eat Chinese food. The ChinaGo stand has a special  where you can get 3 entrees for $8.00. That's what we opted to do. The crowd had died down, so we hit up the ChinaGo stand and enjoyed our Chinese food. We were pretty full when we were finished. The food was pretty good as it always is, and the staff were nice as well.

From there, we decided to go walk through the buildings, but not before snapping a picture of Millie, the Channel 12 weather dog. As we walked through the buildings, I noticed that a lot of the booths had the same people that had been there during my morning pass while mom was woodcarving. I decided to play it safe and not grab for anything, lest they recognize me and say something. That was difficult for me to not pick up the free stuff available on the tables. Just as an FYI, the DirectTV people are very aggressive. If they ever offer anything, I walk on by, as they are dead-set on selling you a package, and they'll cross a flowing river of lava if they think they can make a sale. There are other booths that offer cool free stuff, but I don't support what they are pitching, so I leave it alone.

It was while we were walking through the buildings that my son and his wife (Ryan and Sarah) came out to the fair and hung with us for a while. We toured the tiny house (on the west side of the fairgrounds next to Main street), and then Ryan wanted to treat me to a round of go-cart racing, which is on the north side of the fairgrounds behind the big ferris wheel. We had a good time racing, and then he and Sarah raced. It was a lot of fun. By then, we were in the mood for ice cream, and in my opinion, the best ice cream is at the dairy bar in the Grandstand. My mom opted for chocolate, while I went for the cherry cheesecake. We both enjoyed our ice cream thoroughly.

After ice cream, mom wanted to treat me to a ride on the State Fair Railroad. The ride is about 8 minutes, and it takes you over a large portion of the fairgrounds. Along the route is a kettle corn popcorn stand, and sometimes they will toss little baggies of kettle corn to the riders. I have never been in the right place at the right time, and been unable to catch a bag. Oh well, at least I had the fun of riding the State Fair train! After the train ride was over, we were bushed, and decided to call it a day. Overall, although we were tired, we had a great time. 

It was good to run into Jeff and Sierra, The Van Fleets, who gave me a shout-out from the train, the Browns, the Cranks, Rob, Sandy, Cindy. Phyllis, Debbie, and the Hobbs, who blessed me in an amazing way today. I know I'm forgetting people, please forgive me. I see so many people every day, it's hard to remember them all!

There's only one day left, and that feeling is a mixture. I will miss the daily adventure of going to the fair, seeing people, and blogging about it for you. On the other hand, my legs are so tired and sore. What keeps me going every day is the fact that you read and like my blog, you leave comments, and that is a huge encouragement to me. I've had so many people tell me that they enjoy the blog, and that is uplifting for me. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you tomorrow night with the final night of the Kansas State Fair! God bless you!

PS: I have one gate ticket. Does anyone want it? Let me know. First come, first served.