Clay County Fair, Spencer, IA

Tuesday, Sept 13, 2016

Today is Senior Day at the Clay County Fair in Spencer, IA.  It is the largest county fair, I think in the US.  We went today and it was almost as big as the Texas State Fair.  I used to go to the Texas State Fair with my good friend Kathy every year.  Well since we are on the road now, Tic gets to go to the various fairs with me.  

We started with the vendor buildings.

When I saw this booth, I was excited. I got a new basket for my fresh fruit. You can see my choice in the chair center bottom of the picture.  The current basket I am using is starting to fall apart.  

As we walked out of the 2nd vendor building we saw this Spudnuts booth.  Tic introduced me to donuts made using potato dough.  OMG they are DELICIOUS!
 

Let me introduce you to Hillbilly Bob and Old Ruthie. Lots of funny stuff on his Ford jalopy.

Corn is a huge crop in this area.  This vendor is showing the results of their various corn seed.  We learned that corn stalks are developed to grow one large ear of corn per stalk.  That blew my mind.  No wonder we see so much corn being grown.
 

This porker is Billy Bob (not Hillbilly Bob). I personally had never seen such a huge hog. See his info in the picture below.

I thought these sheep were pretty.  I did not include pictures of the goats, cows, poultry, and foul we saw.  
 

This is only one picture of the huge model train layout.  It filled a building.
 

One of the buildings housed several old wagons and buggies.  I'm just putting one picture in.
 

Both the picture above and below are prize winning vegetables on display.

Of course I have to include a couple of pictures of the agricultural equipment on display. The wagon above is the largest one I've ever seen. Can you imagine needing tracks like below to get your equipment around and take care of your fields?

There was a whole building on photography.  There were tons of outstanding pictures by both adults and youth.  Many times I could not tell the pictures were done by youth.
 

Lunch time!  Brats are not one of my favorite foods, but these are definitely an exception.  They tasted so good I'm actually going to see where I can buy some.
 

Grandpa's Barn was the petting barn full of baby animals and many children.
 

There was even a display of antique cars.  Tic's father used to own a Crosley similiar to this one.

I've given you an brief look at our fun day!  If you are ever near Spencer, IA during the Clay County Fair, it is a must see!