Iowa State Fair

My primary reason for being in Iowa on August 17th was because our family farm was being recognized as a Heritage Farm--150 years family owned. Of course, seeing family as well as seeing the farm was a huge added bonus. My cousin Lois, her friend Dennis, and I left Forest City on the morning of the 17th and headed south to Des Moines. My niece Julie, her husband Jason, and two boys, Douglas and Carter, were also in Iowa dropping their second daughter Natalie off for college at Iowa State so it was an added bonus that they were able to join us to represent my brother Mike who passed away a few years ago. Century farms are recognized starting at 0900 but there are a lot of them so they didn't finish until about 5PM. In the meantime, we looked around the fairgrounds. I should mention how hilly the grounds are. We had a real uphill hike to meet Julie and Jason and they had a worse hike from the direction they came. Horse barns are always interesting.

Everybody was getting a bath before showtime.

We rode a tram around part of the grounds just to see them. This is a really big place.....I think it is actually the largest fair in the country.

Everyone has their favorite fair food and it was all represented here.

It was dusk by the time we made it on stage to receive the plaque and certificate and have our group picture taken. The photos won't be available until the 11th of September but I have a photo of my cousin and I with the Heritage sign mounted at the farm that I will add at the end.

They have about 2500 RV spaces but they were all long since spoken for so I left the RV back in Forest City with Mary Jane and the longdogs. W were all exhausted at the end of the day and still had a two hour drive back.