Sunday afternoon Amy, Laura, and I decided to go to the Upper State SC Fair. It was an odd decision, but we figured it would be fun and different, and I would be able to get some interesting photographs. While it was all those things, it was also different from what I had expected, and something of a disappointment.
While the rides and carnival seemed fun, I really wanted to see the agricultural exhibits – the 4H and FFA prize animals, jellies, pies, vegetables, needlework, etc. There was one display of antique farm equipment, a small petting zoo, and some farm animals brought in from Hollywild Zoo. That was it for the exhibits. Oh well. I guess for those types of things, you really need one of the county fairs or the state fair. This one seems geared solely towards entertainment.
The midway was gaudy, colorful, and full of the types of people you might expect. We were there right after opening, so the crowds had not picked up, and some of the rides weren’t even operating yet. We did one circle of the midway, strolling through booths of food on sticks and funnel cakes and deftly bypassing carnies who wanted to guess our age and weight. I was surprized to see how many of the rides seemed similar to each other. There were at least three funhouses, and several kiddie trains.
After taking a turn around the place, we decided we had to ride at least one ride. The Crazy Mouse roller coaster seemed fairly slow and safe enough. Yeah, right. What we didn’t realize until we got on the ride was that you can’t see the track, and the curves jerk you around so that you feel like you’re going to fall off. For a small, slow ride, it was intense. After that experience, we had enough tickets for two of us to ride one more ride. We rode the spinning bobsled, which, while faster, still seemed much tamer than the roller coaster.
I did get some great shots, which can be seen on my Flickr account.