July in Nebraska

Traveling the fair circuit. I spent this July traveling to the Mid-West. Early July, I flew into Omaha Nebraska. Roger was demonstrating his bowl turning at the Madison County Fair. A nice little fair in the middle of corn fields. The weather was in the high 90s for 6 days of sun.

I sent some pots on ahead, and cut down one of my paddle loom boards to fit into my suitcase. I had to fit 6 mugs and steins, the loom, yarns, notebooks, and some clothes into my two bags. This time, I had to stop at the airport security so they could take out my Oil of Olay bottle. It was 6 oz. Too big. But the nice gentleman said he would scan it, although he doesn't usually do that, and gave me back my Olay. This time, my plane got sent to Minneapolis for the first stop. Which got me debating with others about planning my next trip to Minneapolis. By booking a flight to Omaha by way of Minneapolis, and getting off at the half way point, would now turn into a direct flight and save me having to sit in Philadelphia or Chicago for a couple of hours. The only problem with this is the baggage. What if they had to take my roll on case and send it to Omaha. How much would I have to pay to get it back to Minneapolis? Well, it's something to think about.

I got to Omaha on a commuter plane. A little tight, but a short flight. In Omaha, I had booked a bus that would take me the two hours to the Madison County Fairgrounds. The bus turned out to be a shuttle, which I missed, they had to come back for me and I finally rolled into the tiny town of Madison, population just over 2,000. Corn and soybeans, cowboys, cowgirls, cowkids....all very nice and friendly people.

The corn crop looked dry. I wove on my tape loom to pass the time and met some locals who were interested in weaving too.

This bug on Rogers tent ropes and this corn field, and the beer garden were the only photos I took while there.

Roger and I got invited to a Nebraska corn farmers couch burning party at 3 am one morning. The farmers had 1,400 acres of corn, some was being watered but the whole mid west was dry this summer.

The couch burning started a few years ago and now this once a year event has grown and friends and family come for weiners cooked on a pitchfork, beer and other tidbits while sitting around a huge bonfire on old couches and chairs. After everyone had their fill of weiners, someone put a mattress on the fire and then a couch. The flames shot up into the early morning sky. People backed away from the heat. The couch went up so fast... do not smoke and fall asleep on your couch. WARNING:  Do not try this at home. Folks seem to like to watch things burn, but the fumes were not so good and we left around 4 am smelling of burning fibers and smoke.

We saw some great bull riding, horse shows and met a lot of nice folks. Seems one of this fairs best events is line dancing and the beer garden. Next to each other and about 100 feet from our camper till 1 am.  Crowds of teenagers were great to watch dancing and having a good time to very loud music. They enlarged the beer gardens this year. The enclosed, underage enforced area of just beer, could hold about 2000 folks.

All in all a very nice fair that I would recomend... did I mention the fair admission was FREE?