While at the fair, don't forget to belly up for the Fried Twinkies. I am not making this up! They put a stick in a twinkie, dip it in cornmeal and deep fry that baby. (In case you hadn't already figured it out from the description, they are disgusting!)

For those of you that inquired about my adventures on Saturday, here's the feedback on the Kansas State Fair. The weather was particularly beautiful yesterday - in the 80s. 6 of us (my boyfriend, his mom [who I absolutely adore], his sister, his two nieces [6 and 10] and I) drove from Wichita to Hutchinson to the fair, I think it was on I-135. Except for some minor skirmishes between the girls [wanting and not wanting to listen to Radio Disney], the 50 minute ride was pleasant - mostly seeing chopped down cornfields and sunflowers along the highway (Kansas is the sunflower state). We also drove through a town called Yoder, which is an Amish town. Although I didn't see any Amish people or buggies along the road, it does remind me of Pennsylvania Dutch country. We made it into Hutchinson and passed the mall - Target, Dillard's, Hobby Lobby, Lowe's, IHOP, and Red Lobster were the major chains there that I could see from the road.

Parking the car was not a problem as there were huge fields that abut the fair grounds, but we got off at the front of the parking lot, and my boyfriend's sister parked the SUV and we met her at the gate. We had walkie talkies, so we were able to keep in contact throughout the day, but it took my boyfriend's sister about 20 minutes to meet us at the gate. We had purchased discounted entrance and ride tickets in advance of going to the fair, so we didn't have to stand on the long line to buy them at 1pm.

We decided to split up at this point and meet up again in 90 minutes, as the girls were anxious to go to the amusement park. My boyfriend's mom and I headed off to the agricultural and domestic venues, while everyone else went to the amusement park.

So, we saw swine, cattle, sheep, produce, fish, domestic and wild birds, baked goods for contests, quilts, afghans, cross-stitch, ornamental type hand goods, clothes, and of course, the famous butter sculptures. The butter sculptures were still in progress, but we saw 3 of them that were completed - a man with a fiddle, a woman dancing, and a small child on his knees watching. I must say that they were very life like, but in a cheesy sort of way. In the Domestic Arts Building, we saw some beautiful handmade quilts, and in that area, I actually bumped into someone that I know, which I thought was funny as I've only been living in Kansas just over 3 months. In the food section, we saw some absolutely beautifully decorated cakes - the one that won first place and best of show, was a cake frosted like a quilt, with all of the folds - it was truly original. I also bought the fair's annual cookbook of the winning recipes of prior years - never have I seen so many recipes with Spam as an ingredient - including a baked Spam sandwich which included the ingredients of butter pickles and chunky peanut butter. If those were the only ingredients in my home, I never would think of combining them together. But then, I never have bought a can of Spam, and still don't think I will. Anyway, what we were most impressed with were the cross stitch tapestries and quilts. They were truly amazing.

We wandered over to the amusement park and found the others and then headed off to have lunch in the new Cottonwood Building. There are plenty of stands to buy lunch throughout the fairgrounds, but the Cottonwood Building is air conditioned and has seating. Three of us had Pronto Pups (corn dogs) and the others had Chinese food (the 10 year old), and pulled pork sandwiches. We all shared onion rings and sodas. Pronto Pups, which I found boring and funnel cake seem to be the park favorites. So, I don't think I will have a Pronto Pup again. All of us then went to see the live poultry, went to the birthing center (the cows and sows were all in labor, but none had given birth yet), and then went to the milking exhibit. From the seats that we had there, my boyfriend and I watched the acrobats at the circus. We didn't have seats close enough to see the cows being milked. The acrobatic show was interesting, including a daredevil on a motorcycle riding a tightrope.

We split up again, as the girls wanted to go back to the petting zoon, amusement park and also get temporary tattoos. My boyfriend and I headed off to the beer tent for beer. After drinking the beer, we went on the ferris wheel and a ride called Power Surge. All that I can say is that the ferris wheel was tame and gave us a great view of the fairgrounds and all of the cars parked in the fields - there had to be at least 20,000 cars. We were harnessed into the Power Surge ride, and believe me, I couldn't wait to get off of it. My best description is that it's an evil ferris wheel. Seating is in pairs, and besides the ferris wheel spinning, the chairs rotate, sideways and up and down, so we were upside down for quite a bit of time. Don't wear anything loose on this ride as I almost lost my sunglasses even though they were on my face, but I did have them on a string around my neck. Swearing and keeping my eyes closed seemed to get me through the 3 minute ride. However, when we finally got down, I couldn't release my harness, and my boyfriend couldn't either, so I thought I was doomed to be on this very popular ride forever. Luckily, one of the ride ticket takers was able to pop the latch and release me.

My boyfriend and I decided that we weren't getting on anymore rides and gave our remaining ride tickets away to two appreciative eager children.

We walked through the rest of the amusement section and my boyfriend tried out one of the games of fortune, and with his prowess aim was the first to burst a water balloon by filling it with water from a water pistol, thereby winning me a green plush M&M (nieces later fought over it, but it is still mine). Not too bad for a $2 investment, and of course, he is a winner in my eyes even if he hadn't won the stuffed toy for me. He's a winner because he has me as a girlfriend.

We then walkie talkied the others, and decide to meet in a half hour and leave to go home. We went to another cow exhibit with dogs, and saw that the dogs ruled as they were able to keep the cows together in line and not let them wander off. We all met near the gate, and then stopped off at the Hershey's exhibit and sampled the free flavored milks that they had to offer. Chocolate is still my favorite, although the cookies and cream and strawberry were other good choices. In fact, the girls liked the milk so much, that they each got in line 6 times.

We drove back to Wichita, and saw all the same things we saw on the ride to Hutchinson. Got back to our car, stopped off at the liquor store for more beer. Got home, took showers, ordered a pizza, and watched "One Hour Photo" with Robin Williams. We were asleep by 10:45pm, and the fresh air and fun did us a world of good, as we slept about 10 hours.

Overall the fair was fun, but it wasn't as exciting as I had expected it to be. I really thought that it would be enormous (there's a lot of undeveloped land in Kansas), and I thought that there would be more exhibits. About 75 percent of the fair is dedicated to rides, amusements, and food.

There are different events each day. The rodeos are midweek, and there are concerts in the evening. Next time we go back (probably in a couple of years), we'll go back later in the day and experience the fair in the evening.

Well, the aviation festival in Wichita (the aircraft capital of the US) is in 2 weeks, so I'm looking forward to going to that.

Oh, and for those of you that are curious to know what happens to the butter sculptures at the end of the fair - they are placed into refrigerated trucks and carted off to the next state fair. Who knows, what happens at the last stop - my guess, the butter is donated to the local churches and schools for pancake breakfasts.