Day 1 at the Missouri State Fair, and Flat Jason has started making the rounds. First, we stopped at the bear carving. They built a new children's playground near the bear and added more wooden sculptures.
Then we headed to the Missouri Department of Conservation to see Smokey the Bear. We stopped at the concession stand near the 4-H Building for our dollar-priced corn dog. Wa-hoo for Dollar Days!
Next, it was on to the farm implements, where I found what Jason would call a "quad cab, dualie, double pumper," which is what he says when he thinks things are huge and maybe a little overkill. He's only had to work on small farms, though.
Then we came back to type a few things in our snug little room. You can see that Jake the dog, who joined my family six years ago this fair. You may also notice that there are polar bears and penguins on my sheets to help me think postively about the fair weather, which has been great so far.
As Flat Jason and I got ready to go out for dinner, Smokey Bear wandered into the 4-H Building from the fire station to say hi. He came with Sparky, but since we had already posed with Sparky, Sparky stepped out of the photo.
We headed to the Gerken Dairy Building for a grilled ham and cheese sandwich and some soft serve ice cream. We checked out this year's butter sculpture. Then we watched the cows get milked in the small parlor on the side of the building.
We headed down the Midway to talk to Richard, who works at the carnival. He couldn't believe that I was actually carrying Flat Jason everywhere with me. Neither could anyone else in the carnival. Anyway, after that we went back to the room to work.
Another night, we went to the Leroy Van Dyke Country Gold Tour. I had told Leroy about FJ and he wanted to meet him, so FJ came along and posed with him. I should have brought him to the concert. There were so many classic artists playing my old favorites. I was in heaven.
