Saturday afternoon, after we ran some necessary errands, we picked up some lunch for the road, and drove up to Augusta, NJ, to the 2011 New Jersey State Fair – Sussex County Farm and Horse Show. Namita and I went years ago when we were just a young couple, which was many years ago. Back then, it was mainly animals and exhibits, from what I can remember, and then we attended a Toby Keith concert on the fairgrounds. Like us, Toby Keith has also gone on to live a luxurious life of fame and fortune. This year, we went with kids in tow, and met up with our friends, the lovebirds, Doug & Kathy.
View from the ferris wheel - 2009 NJ Farm & Horse Show
Now, I haven’t been to a fair in a while, not since July ’09 and the ill-fated 2009 Quick Chek NJ Festival of Ballooning. That festival/fair scarred me for life, I tell you. The heat, the rain, the costs, the threat of a tornado and everyone told to evacuate to their vehicles. Running through the mud. I can feel the PTSD coming back already. The weather for this year’s NJ State Fair was originally forecasted for rain, but the weather cleared up into a beautiful day…. for a while. We got to the fair around 3pm, bought admission tickets and the first set of 20+ ride tickets. The fair was lot bigger than I remembered. This year, there was a ferris wheel, mini roller coasters, bumper cars, and much more. When did all this happen?
We walked around, ate, did our thing, saw the sights, and alternated with taking the kids on rides. The weather was pretty good, until dark rain clouds began to appear on the horizon. By 6 or 7pm, it began to lightly drizzle, and yes, my PTSD came back, but it wasn’t so bad. The food was pretty good at the fair, and the rides weren’t expensive — between 3-5 tickets for admission. I initially attempted track my calories, but I eventually gave up. One day of fair food wasn’t going to kill me, and sometimes you just need chicken-on-a-stick.
We called it a day around 8pm as we ate a late dinner under a tent while the rain fell. We parted ways with Doug & Kathy, who I believe actually had a good time bonding with the kids. We drove home in the rain, and got home around a bit after 10pm. The kids were exhausted, but they had a great time.