Protect the sick people!

You know your night at the county fair is going to be great when it starts off like this:

Activist with his clipboard in hand on his soap box, "Are you registered Arkansas voters? Will you help us legalize medical marijuana?"
Us, "No."
As we walked away cries of "You must protect the sick people!" followed after us.

As I said, fantastic way to start the evening!I haven't been to a county fair since my "glorious" pig showing days in Nebraska so we decided to check it out on Thursday with Bryson and Alyssa. Even though we ate dinner before we went, something about the disgustingly greasy, overpriced, fair food was tantalizing enough to convince us we had to eat a hand dipped, foot long corn dog and fresh squeezed lemonade that really just consisted of one lemon squeezed into a cup of ice. Not the best eight bucks we've ever spent. However, I was much more pleased with my next purchase: 15 Taste of Home magazines from the 90s! Many of the recipes actually look familiar as I'm sure my mom and grandma have the same magazines. They were five for a dollar and the proceeds benefited the local 4H chapter; who could say no to that? Not Nathan!

Since it was a weeknight, there weren't very many people there. It felt a little eerie walking around what felt like a deserted carnival. (Other than the scary carni people.) I felt like I was walking through a horror movie. But then we walked around the animal pens. Lambs aren't scary, just stinky.

As you can see, there weren't a lot of people there.

The one disappointment from the evening resulted from Nate crushing my lifelong, cliche dream of making out on the ferris wheel! He said it was too expensive! I guess he traded my dream for a piece of processed meat on a stick.

The crowning moment of the evening came as we were about to leave when Nate stepped in a pile of "green mud" wearing only his flip flops. Yuck for him, entertainment for Bryson and I watching him!

On a side note: I woke up with pink eye the next morning. It looks like Mr. Marijuana Activist didn't protect the sick people after all. 

Italian with a Southern Accent

What happens when Little Italy is smack dab in the middle of the South? The Tontitown Grape Festival of course! Tontitown was settled by Italians, but over the years the Southern influence has crept in resulting in an annual feast of homemade spaghetti noodles and sauce served with none other than your traditional Southern fried chicken. Who knew they could pair so well together?

Nate loved the fried chicken while I preferred the spaghetti. What a perfect marriage of flavors and two people!

The festival also featured grapes from the local vineyards. (Hence, the name Grape Festival).

We didn't buy any grapes but we did try the grape flavored ice cream. Normally, I avoid grape flavored things because I'm always reminded of dimetapp......Fortunately, this was yummy ice cream with no resemblance to the syrupy medication.