Cindy and I went to the 2007 Iowa State Fair in Des Moines recently. Actually, we went up there to see both The Blue Band and the BoDeans who were playing the same night, yet at separate stages. Cindy wanted to go back the next day to look around at things, so we did just that.
We met my cousins, John and Tom Wehrle, John's girlfriend, Bonnie, and Tom's co-worker friend, Bobbie, at the Varied Industries Building just after we got to the fair. John was hungry and he wanted to go get a Gizmo. So we headed over to get him one.
Here's a picture of John finding the holy grail of State Fair foods - Carl's Gizmo. To see my earlier post which featured Carl's Gizmo, click here.
The Gizmo is still the best food at the fair. Ground beef and sausage, cooked in a special tomato sauce with herbs and spices. Placed on an Italian roll and topped with melted mozzarella cheese. Oh, man! It's heavenly. We didn't have a Gizmo right then (since it was around 4:30 on Friday and we ate lunch a little bit earlier), but we did have one later on that evening and one again the next day for lunch.
Here's Jalapeno Pete's on the Grand Concourse. It's one of the newer places to eat at the State Fair and they also serve margaritas and Mexican beers. I had a Sol, but it was lukewarm, plus it cost $6 bucks. Ouch! It was also horribly loud in the place with karaoke going on. We didn't stay there long.
This is one of the new stages they have near the Original Budweiser Beer Tent. This is the Susan Knapp Amphitheater. It looked pretty neat. But most of the acts playing on this stage were of the country and western variety, so we didn't stick around there, either.
One of things that drove us nuts this year were the number of people in these little carts driving around the fairgrounds. First of all, they're slow as all get out. Secondly, they pop up out of nowhere. Third, if you can't walk around the fairgrounds, why even come out? I told Cindy, "If I get to be that big and can't walk, just shoot me and put me out of my misery."
But this is the most popular mode of transportation around the fairgrounds - the good ol' tractor hauling the people wagon. I can safely say I've never gotten a ride on one of those things, but it seems to be a big hit with a lot of people. They're always packed.
Here's a far away shot of the grandstand and the midway from the south Sky Glider. Actually, there's not much to see on the south Sky Glider - it goes right over all the farm implements and some of the agriculture exhibits. 
The north Sky Glider that comes down the hill on the east side gives some great shots of the Des Moines skyline and the Grand Concourse as shown in the picture on the right that I took last year. For more pictures from last year's fair, click here.
Of course, Cindy had to go see the cows and horses. We stopped in and caught a little bit of the judging for cattle. 
And we went over and watched a little bit of the horse show. It's big for a lot of farm people, but to me it's like watching paint dry.
They had the annual Chili cook-off going on at the fair when we were there. They had about 20 to 25 people all lined up in a row along one of the streets making up chili. Here's Cindy asking one of the contestants what his secret is. I think he replied, "Cow urine."
And the trip to the State Fair can't be complete without seeing the big boar and the big bull. This is the big boar champion - Big Red. He weighed in at 1203 pounds. No shit! He would sleep all day, then wake up around 7 p.m. to drink three gallons of water and eat five gallons of ground feed. And no, those aren't hemorrhoids hanging from his backside.
And here's the big bull - the Super Bull - as they call it. "Lazar" tipped the scales at 3322 pounds. Jesus, that's a big goddamn bull! But as impressive as that might seem, he was still 56 pounds UNDER the record weight for a bull that was set in 2004. His owners said they didn't do anything special to make him that big - he just had his daily helpings of silage and hay.
We had to head up to the art building to see the pictures and paintings. I always like to see the sand castle they sculpt in the main entry area at the art building.
Right down from the art exhibits is the agriculture building. And that means the annual pilgrimage to see the Butter Cow. This is the second year Sarah Pratt has sculpted the Butter Cow, after taking over last year for longtime butter cow sculptor (sculptress?) Duffy Lyon. Lyon sculpted the Butter Cow for 46 years.
And they usually have some topical sculpture with the Butter Cow. This year, it was Harry Potter. The lines were long to see the sculptures up close. I just took Cindy's camera and stood behind the crowd and held it up above and took the shots.
Here's another big winner and very popular exhibit at the fair - the biggest pumpkin. This one was the all-time record for the State Fair - 1176 lbs! Holy crap! And crap is what they had to feed the soil around the ground to make this thing grow, no doubt. That and a LOT of water. But the 1176 pound gourd didn't just barely break the all-time record. It DESTROYED the old record by nearly 200 lbs! My God!
Time for relaxation. Here I am standing in front of Stockman's Inn near the barns on the south side of the fairgrounds. Stockman's has the best deal on beer at the fair - $5.00 for a 24 oz. COLD glass of beer. Most of the other places charge $5.00 for a 16 oz. glass of beer. Stockman's is my favorite place to drink at the fair.
And at the end of the day, we met up with my cousins, with Tom's friend, and John's significant other. Here's the crew having a cold beer at Stockman's. From left, Tom, Bobbie, John, Bonnie, and Cindy. Believe me, it was tough to leave because the beer was cold and we were having some good laughs.
The last weekend of the State Fair always seems to bum me out. When I was younger it meant that summer was over and school was just getting ready to start. These days it just means that summer is almost over. Walking out brought back those feelings again. But it was still a great time at the Iowa State Fair. I'll go back again next year.
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