It was Sedgwick County Fair in Cheney last week and with the heat index I believe it was the hottest fair I have ever attended. Now, if you know me well, you know that I am there before opening time – basically go home to sleep – and still walking around the vendors when they start selling the extra ears of corn or a hefty container of Methodist Church homemade chicken & noodles to divide and freeze for future meals. See, after my first fair in 1991, I was hooked. I dubbed myself the Quality Control Inspector and took the burden that this entailed very seriously. My duty was to eat my way from one end of the fair to the other – DAILY.
My oldest daughter came up from Tulsa with her 3 kids and we felt we were up for the mission ahead. It is amazing to me that my two oldest grandchildren are of the age that do more walking around in large, unruly groups than ride rides. My grandson, Boston was all about the rides, even though the carnival was not running the first night. As we sat outside in the oven, shaking hands with the largest & sweatiest group of politicians I have ever had the “pleasure” of shaking hands with. With no carnival rides, we looked at Boston, who had at least a pound of candy from the parade. I am not sure what his expression was when his mom told him that we were going to go upstairs – in the air conditioning – and order a pizza. This was due to the fact that any of the remnants of my eye makeup had melted into my eyeballs. Even the girls, who were checking in with mom every 30 minutes, came home early to stand in the cold shower.
Thursday we got Boston a ride bracelet and I had the first thing I always have – a Pronto Pup. An hour later Boston had about all he could handle of the hot fun. We all met up together to share in a funnel cake with cream cheese frosting and we looked at each other and simultaneously agreed that we were done – time to go home and shower.
I never got back up there, even to check out other food vendors. I can confirm that this year, the best tool in weight control was the unbearable heat… I think I am done whining now.
