Fryeburg Fair - The Road is calling... OWGrv is answering.

Today we couldn’t see Ev and his fiancée Cassidy until the afternoon, so we decided to check out the Fryeburg Fair – only a half hour or so drive from our campground. Tom had done some research to indicate how big this is – It is Maine’s largest fair, they are open for 8 days and expect 250,000 people over that time.

Definitely not a sign you would see in the city.

We ended up parking in the “official” lot for $5 when we arrived around 10AM – passing several private lots with signs from $10 to $30 which would probably be further away from the an entrance gate from where we parked. After paying the $15 per person entry fee, we first went to the sheepdog trials. We watched three different dogs and sheepherders work with 3 different sets of 3 sheep. While all the dogs were impressive, the best was far better than the average both in agility getting the sheep to go through various gates and portals, and the time it took to accomplish this.

Next we went to see the animals – Llamas and Alpacas, sheep, cows, draft oxen, draft horses, sheep, goats, pigs, piglets, rabbits, and such.

This rabbit is bigger than many small dogs.

Then a highlight of the trip – kids pedal-powered tractor pull. There were different weight classes – we saw the 35 pound and under, and the 36-45 pound weight classes – both boys and girls, 4-5 years old. In fact there were more girls than boys competing. One boy and one girl remarkably did a “Full Pull,” covering the full length of 100 feet.

Next was lunch at “Emily’s Restaurant” – then on to the farm museum with the most impressive antique chainsaw (and circular, and reciprocating) collection Scott had ever seen. Great variety of farm implements and gadgets from the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

A small portion of the chainsaw exhibit. Many looked too heavy to even carry, let along operate effectively.

Finally, we saw the lawn tractor races. This was the most crowded part of the fair, and we just managed to get seats when we showed up just as they started at 1:00PM. If we had known we could have gotten “box seats” for the day for $10, we might have sprung for that.

10 laps, of which most were run under the yellow caution flag during several heats, due altercations with the hay bale guard rails.

We left shortly thereafter, with Scott’s knee complaining a bit with over 6500 steps at the fair. We went back to the campground, and were fortunate enough to have both Ev and Cassidy join us for some conversation at the campsite then dinner at Cassidy’s favorite restaurant, the Campfire Grill . Then another blog-and-bed after a long day.