Texas State Fair!

Peter and I as well as the Dutchers and some other friends from work all went to the Texas State Fair on Saturday. Biggest in the country, and also known as the Fried Food Capital. Unfortunately, the weather didn't match the event and it was kinda chilly, but still so fun.

As soon as we walked in, they had a Chevy test-driving station and since Peter forgot his wallet at home, I got to drive us around in their fun cars! I tried to gun it, but since the course was pretty small, I didn't really get anywhere. :)

Our first stop with the good old south was the animal section where we met the 1100 lb pig. Sick! The poor thing couldn't even stand up when it was eating, it just laid there stuffing it's face. Next to the fat pig was a feeding area with emus, a baby giraffe and zebra, lots of big and little goats, a kangaroo and some other weird animals. I guess the smell of gross animal pens made us hungry, so we stopped by to get some food and saw this sign:
Not only were there these fried foods, but there was also fried snickers, fried lattes, fried s'mores, cheesecake, and pretty much anything else you could want deep fried. Peter and I shared a corn dog (or corny dog, as they call them here) and that was about all the grease that I could handle. But it smelled so good everywhere!

After eating we hit up the auto show where a sweet old man started telling us about a car crash he got in when two corvettes were racing and the one in his lane didn't manage to get over in time. He said that he saw the corvette blow up and melt on the pavement. Another interesting thing about Texas, everybody talks to everybody and especially old people as they love to tell stories.

We raced to get over to the pig races in time and that was probably the highlight of the night. They had three rounds of races and I was so surprised how much Peter got into cheering for our little pig to win.

Also at the fair were the show animals (goats, horses, and cows) and they were the cleanest animals I had ever seen. Clean enough, I guess, for this guy to take a nap with them!
And I guess, clean enough to wear a hat?

But really they were just like puppies, and just wanted to be scratched.

Who knew the state of Michigan was like a wild animal park??

So far in the two weeks I have been here, it has felt somewhat like a zoo in that I am seeing animals that I have only seen in pictures in real life. I guess that happens when you grow up in the desert.

I have seen these three:

Unfortunately for me and them, they all seem to be "playing possum" on the side or middle of the road.
I have seen a few live animals though, like a snake, a chipmunk, and a big fat rat. The rat was huge and disgusting and I have never seen anything like it! Insects also do not seem to be in short supply here, and when Peter and I went on a bike ride yesterday a big fat bee ran right into my head. And these bees aren't normal sized, they are like the size of June bugs but with huge ol stingers.

Hopefully I will see more animals as the months go by, and less of them hanging out by the road.