Having just gotten back from the Great Minnesota Get-Together aka the State Fair or what I have deemed an exercise in excess it something ceartainly worth writing about. For those that haven’t had the experience of attending this state fair i’ll try to explain a little bit about it, but I must say that i’ll not do it justice.
First is the sheer size of the fair, by my guess, is at least 300 acres large and every available space is covered with a booth (mostly food.) Since I mentioned food it’s appropriate to explain the food in some detail. Just about everything from pie to pickles to pork chops comes on a stick. Second to that I would say that most things come fried, like cheese, candy bars, and chocolate covered bacon. The calorie consumption is staggering, by my estimation the amount of calories eaten in this 12 day fair could feed the country of Liechtenstein for a month.
Second thing that struck me about the fair is that it really does capture what I had pictured to be a State Fair. They had the 4-H kids out in force with their horses, cows, sheep, chickens, llamas, etc. I saw a 820 lbs. pumpkin and I hear there is the worlds largest pig at the fair but I didn’t happen upon him.
Finally is the sheer number of people visiting the fair, the street on friday is wall to wall people and I didn’t even stay for the night festivities so i’d only imagine it got worse than the daytime crowd. The only comparison I would have would be that of the street in Mong Kok in Hong Kong. It was an amazing place to visit, but towards the end I got tired of being crammed in with people stuffing themselves silly.
For those keeping track of my waterskiing prowess the count stands water 2, dug 0. The way i’ve come to see it is man wasn’t made to walk on water, for now… I’ll be back to give it another try, hopefully 100 lbs lighter.
Grizzly Adams checking in.
We leave for Canada tommorow so i’ll be out of touch until this weekend. We’ll be staying at a cabin on Little Trout Lake (i think thats the name) which belongs to a friend of my aunties. I think i’ll try and go fishing, row around the lake a bit and just chillout; as if my summer hasn’t already been chill enough.
On a seperate note I no longer have a cell phone. As many of you know I never really wanted a cell phone so once again the debate is whether or not to get a cell phone; that being said the easiest way to reach me now is via email.
We spent the last few days on what used to be my grandparents farm with my uncle and cousin. I think I got to live out the dream of many children this week by getting to drive around a backhoe. It really is everything it’s cracked up to be as moving around in a 50 ton machine is very empowering. Other than that we just putzed around the farm a bit and helped out here and there, so not all that much to share.
Current Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
It’s been a pretty good week since leaving Waukegan. We drove all the way through Wisconsin through the upper penninsula of Michigan on past the Macinac bridge and finally down to Ann Arbor Michigan. We had to postpone the trip to Macinaw island because the weather was so bad we could barely see 30 feet in front of us so it would have made the trip almost worthless, so the next plan is to stop by on the way to Canada. We are staying with my auntie and uncle here for the forseeable future with a small side trip to Canada later in the month.
Up in the northern part of Wisconsin is where my grandmother was raised so one of the things on my dads checklist was to try and find the old farmstead. The last time being there for him was when he was about 9 years old so finding it was tricky. He knew a few of the landmarks like the old school house and an old co-op which might or might not have been there, fortunately for us they were all intact (sorta.) Finding the exact farmstead on the other hand wasn’t as easy, dad knew a few things but wasn’t ceartain what road it was on but knew that the driveway went up a hill before coming down to the houses. We ended up driving around the roads that he thought lead to the house for a while and came up with 2 possibilities for what might have been the farmstead with the second one dad felt was the right place. We later got confirmation that what dad thought was the right place was indeed the correct spot, so we went back and took a load of pictures from what remained of that place.
We arrived here this past Wednesday just in time to help lend a hand for my cousin Rachels wedding which took place last night so things have been fairly busy since arriving. One thing I got to do was mow four acres of lawn on a riding mower which i’ve always wanted to try, so hurrah for that. It was a nice ceremony and dinner with a large portion of the Kirk family (moms side) attending, only people missing was Derek & Nikki. Otherwise everyone else was in attendance.
I think things will slow down a little from here for a while, but I have to put some more time into finding a bicycle soon so I can start getting ready for the Michigander. I updated pictures from the trip through Wisconsin and the Upper Penninsula and I’ll have some from the wedding up tommorow most likely.