Missouri

Short 2 mile run in the morning, followed by a one-hour drive to the Missouri fair. The parking was free, and bottled water was only $1 here, big win compared to other fairs. Like the Iowa fair, the livestock was directly inside the gate, so we spent most of the morning seeing the standard variety of cattle, horses, mules, poultry, swine and sheep. The rabbit barn was fully-occupied by poultry this week, but we did see two rabbits at a “Children’s Barnyard” exhibit. This included two of everything, including cats and dogs. There was a very large and modern horse show arena which featured a special ‘Ride & Shoot’ event where riders had to run a course of pylons with balloons on the top, shooting the balloons along the way. 5-sceond penalties were assessed for every missed balloon. The times averages around 18 seconds, but we saw some as fast as 11.5 seconds. This was very unique and interesting, but apparently a legitimate sport in the Midwest.

Near the horse arena was another unique feature to this fair, a farm toy show. It was a building full of various vendors of farming toys and collectibles.

As with the other fairs on this trip, the FFA and 4H buildings were well represented. The 4H barn had hundreds of cakes and other baked goods. This was a lot more than we had seen anywhere else.

We didn’t do as well with food at this fair. We didn’t see any Missouri-specific offerings, and there was no food guide like the other fairs had. We settled on the old standby – ribbon fries, which were cooked extra crispy as we like them. We then got a Big-as-a-Plate Pork Tenderloin sandwich. This came with curly fries. It was a disappointment, being very bland and too much breading for the amount of meat. Finally, I got Deep-fried Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. This was served with vanilla ice cream. It was ok. We may have just been too full to enjoy it.