Photographs from drive west are up.

I've finished the last page in the summer photograph series (of nine pages). This one mainly features photographs from the four-day drive I took to reach my sister's new home in Salem Oregon. I was driving her car and bringing along her family's bird and dog and hermit crabs. I didn't really have the ability to stop and do much sight-seeing, but I did take short breaks at several state capitol buildings, and even left the animals in the car for very short (ten minute or so) quick peeks inside a few of the capitol buildings.

I left Saint Louis around 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday the 17th and reached Lincoln, Nebraska at about 8:30 p.m., where I spent the night with my cousin Lesa and her family (Joe, Jake, and Logan). I saw the Nebraska state capitol on the morning of the 18th and headed out of Lincoln around 9:30 a.m., and arrived in Laramie, Wyoming around 6:30 p.m. There I spent the night in the home of my friend Mike Brotherton. On the 19th I left Laramie around 11:00 a.m. and arrived at my motel in Boise, Idaho around 10:30 p.m. Friday the 20th I departed Boise around 11:00 a.m. and arrived in Portland, Oregon around 5:30 p.m. I visited some friends and family before finally arriving at my sister's home in Salem around 10:00 p.m. The total expenses for this trip were about $440.

State Fair Entertainment

Arthur and I had a great time at the State Fair. Arthur is 9-years-old, and about 56 inches tall, so he was able to go on rides like bumper cars and the octopus ride all by himself. He prefers to ride with friends or family, but even without someone he knew, he was willing to ride alone on some of the rides. The sun was setting as we were choosing rides, and the air was cool, it dropped from about 24 degrees Celsius in the afternoon to perhaps 20 in the evening.

When we had used up all the tickets, we went to the Ethnic Village to hear a reggae band. This was Keith Eric and the Waterhouse Band, and they were great. We tried a delicious snow cone and watched the impressive fireworks show at 10:15. This was a much better firework show than we had in Springfield for Independence Day. When the fireworks were over, around 10:40, we had a funnel cake from the Dutch ethnic cuisine booth. Arthur loved that. The music just kept getting better. The band played a Harry Belafonte medley, and played a couple covers of good Bob Marley songs. They had several good songs I didn't recognize, and those might be original numbers, but at any rate, they jammed and improvised and had many people dancing. While they were performing, an artist worked on a big canvas behind them, painting a picture of a woman in a night sky background. We watched the artist start with a blank canvass, and for the first few songs, I had no idea what he was painting. Also, his canvas was on a wheel mount, so that he kept spinning the canvas around and painting on it as the canvas moved. The artist moved his brushes in time with the music as if he was another artist, so his creation of the painting really seemed like an extension of the music made by the band. Arthur was very interested in that, and I've shared a photo of the final image here.

After the concert and funnel cake it was nearly 11:00 p.m., so we bought one last snow cone (Godzilla flavor, which wasn't as nice as the grape we had earlier, but was still pretty good). We stopped and looked at some rabbits and donkeys and goats on the way back to the main gate, where we quickly boarded a bus without any waiting, and then rode the bus back to the state capitol to get our car and drive home.

It was a perfect evening. The music and fireworks were fantastic, and all the food we bought was delicious. The weather was perfect, the things we saw were interesting, and we took breaks and rested when we were tired or our legs started to get sore. I bought a great new hat, and Arthur had a wild time in the Midway riding fun rides. I'm looking forward to next year.

State Fair

Arthur and I went to the state fair today. This is the third year in a row I've gone to the fair, and I've had a great time with each visit. Today Arthur and I left home around 3:00 and drove to the state capitol complex, where we caught a bus to the fair. The $4 round-trip bus fare for the two of us was cheaper than parking near the fair, and I enjoy riding the bus. The person working at the state information center for visitors to the capitol complex gave us incorrect directions about where to catch the bus, but we ignored her directions and went to the place where we eventually caught the bus.

As soon as we entered, we got ourselves an elephant ear and sat down in the Ethnic Village area to enjoy it. When we had finished that, we asked about where we might go to see rabbits, but the rabbit show ended on Friday (this was Saturday), so the rabbits had probably all gone home. Instead of rabbits, we watched dogs. The Purina dog show was going on, so we watched dogs catch Frisbees. We had seen a show like this before, at the Indiana state fair, about five years ago, but Arthur probably didn't remember. We then went to see the exhibition of artists, which I had missed the past couple years. I enjoyed the photography and painting, and there were some interesting sculptures on display. Arthur's favorite work was a computer art image of a dragon attacking an old World War I fighter airplane, I think a Sopwith Camel.

We looked at some livestock and the 4-H building before making it over to the conservation area. We missed the chance to ride in the big voyager canoe, but Arthur did find a nice monarch butterfly caterpillar (Danaus plexippus). After looking at all the exhibits in the large conservation and natural resources area we stopped at the pork patio to enjoy a pork chop on a stick. This was dinner for us. I reflected that this was the first time in about three weeks I had purchased any meat, and aside from finishing hamburgers when Arthur has been too full to eat them, this was also my first meal of meat in about three weeks. But my, it was tasty. Next to the dining area was the Corona tent, and a band was playing a cover of a good Dave Matthews Band song.

Looking through exhibits, I found a place selling good hats at fairly low prices, and found a good-looking black hat that fit me (I'm a 7-and-3/4, which is huge for hat sizes, and usually 7-and-5/8 are too small for me). I'd been looking for a hat that fit me well and wasn't too expensive for years (not looking very diligently, of course). I was so delighted, I bought it, and got a new belt as well. I've lost about 20 pounds since May, and I intend to lose another 20 pounds by the end of the year, so my belts are starting to be a bit big for me.

Finally, we made it to the midway, where I spent the rest of our cash (gee, $50 went pretty quick!) on 22 ride tickets for Arthur. Arthur went on the hang glider ride twice, the frog hopper twice, the bumper cars once, the octopus once, and the two of us went together on a crazy type of fast Ferris wheel.