The wedding is over and the cousins have all returned home, it’s time to continue our journey but before we leave we get to spend a great day with Lloyd and Donna in Saugatuck, Michigan. Lloyd and Donna are fellow Hoots, and they detoured up to Michigan to join us for a few days. Donna has a cold and laryngitis so she can’t really talk but we manage to communicate and have a great time anyway. It is always great to meet up with friends along the way. We’ll see them again at The Hoots Event in October but now it’s time to head west.
We’re heading to DesMoines, Iowa and along the way we get to stop at the “World’s Largest Truck Stop”. This place is enormous and even has its own Museum! What kind of museum you ask? An Antique Truck Museum of course! The Truck Stop and The Museum were fascinating and it was a great break in the day’s drive.
Des Moines, Iowa is home to the Iowa State Fair and we are here on opening day to join in the fun. Unlike the Elkhart County Fair, these guys know how to make a buck, It’s 10 dollar to park and $12 each to get through the gate! I’m out 35 bucks and I haven’t even had breakfast yet!
The fair is very similar in size and activities as the Big E, but clearly there is a difference. The Big E has a lot more stuff for “City Slickers”. Here at the Iowa State Fair, it’s ALL about the agriculture! There are tractors here big enough to hold my tractor in the bucket. They have a horse show arena that’s nicer than most convention centers and a corn display that goes on forever.
As many of you know, Iowa is a flat state where you can see corn growing in the fields for miles and miles. Well, the interesting thing is they do have some hills in Iowa and they decided to plunk down the Iowa State Fairgrounds right where the hills are. I’ve never seen a fair where you had to climb up and down hills to get from one display to the next.
We climbed the biggest hill to get to the Wineries display, we didn’t come here to sample the fine wines of Iowa, we are clearly not sophisticated enough for that. No, we came here to stomp grapes! That’s right, Ellen has signed us up for the “Great Grape Stomp” competition and apparently she will be the “Stomper” and I will be the “Mucker”. Oh my god it was a bunch of FUN! And we came in Third! Did I mention there were only three teams competing? It really was a whole bunch of fun and I never realized how much juice you can stomp out of a bucket of grapes in under three minutes.
We’re heading to DesMoines, Iowa and along the way we get to stop at the “World’s Largest Truck Stop”. This place is enormous and even has its own Museum! What kind of museum you ask? An Antique Truck Museum of course! The Truck Stop and The Museum were fascinating and it was a great break in the day’s drive.
Des Moines, Iowa is home to the Iowa State Fair and we are here on opening day to join in the fun. Unlike the Elkhart County Fair, these guys know how to make a buck, It’s 10 dollar to park and $12 each to get through the gate! I’m out 35 bucks and I haven’t even had breakfast yet!
The fair is very similar in size and activities as the Big E, but clearly there is a difference. The Big E has a lot more stuff for “City Slickers”. Here at the Iowa State Fair, it’s ALL about the agriculture! There are tractors here big enough to hold my tractor in the bucket. They have a horse show arena that’s nicer than most convention centers and a corn display that goes on forever.
As many of you know, Iowa is a flat state where you can see corn growing in the fields for miles and miles. Well, the interesting thing is they do have some hills in Iowa and they decided to plunk down the Iowa State Fairgrounds right where the hills are. I’ve never seen a fair where you had to climb up and down hills to get from one display to the next.
We climbed the biggest hill to get to the Wineries display, we didn’t come here to sample the fine wines of Iowa, we are clearly not sophisticated enough for that. No, we came here to stomp grapes! That’s right, Ellen has signed us up for the “Great Grape Stomp” competition and apparently she will be the “Stomper” and I will be the “Mucker”. Oh my god it was a bunch of FUN! And we came in Third! Did I mention there were only three teams competing? It really was a whole bunch of fun and I never realized how much juice you can stomp out of a bucket of grapes in under three minutes.
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