MyChristmasCountdown: Week Seventeen October 2009

This week was originally scheduled as a "catch up" week. But, since I managed to stay fairly well on schedule, I gave myself (another) playday. My friend and I went to the NC State Fair. I don't think I've been to the Fair for close to 30 years! My family always went when we were kids ... a few rides, a few games, some cotton candy. As a "grown-up" (yes, by some people that's questionable ... but sometimes I have fun! LOL!) I'm not at all interested in the rides or games. Jimmy isn't especially interested in the exhibits (a few, but not all); and in any case, he couldn't last more than an hour, tops, and would have to sit down to wait. And my friend's dad and son are both only interested in the rides, and have no patience for her to go through exhibits. So, we went. We had no one wanting to drag us off this way or that; no one bored with what we wanted to see. We had SO MUCH FUN!!
I picked her up close to 10 am, and we drove to Raleigh (about 45 minutes), and parked the car. We rode a bus to the fairgrounds, and were there by 11:30. We went through every exhibit building ... arts and crafts of every imaginable kind; we saw all the animals (sadly, not allowed to pet any of them); we saw fabulous gardens (and got caught in the rain!). We ate deep fried Reese Cups (like a Reese Cup tucked inside a doughnut ... wonderful!); and chocolate covered bacon ("Pig Lickers" ... much much better than it sounds); homemade ice cream. We ate huge sloppy sandwiches (steak and cheese for me, polish sausage for her) for dinner, and brought home candy apples, caramel apples, and fudge! (oh, and some Moravian stars that can hang or be used as candle holders). I got an autograph from one of the local weathermen (my 2nd favorite, Mike, after Greg who wasn't there).
We roamed back and forth several times ... ducking inside buildings during showers, and strolling around in between (or when it was only a light sprinkle). By shortly after 8:00 we had seen everything there was to see, and decided we were too tired to wait another hour for fireworks.
We took the bus back to the car, and headed home. On the way home we had the only "negative" incident of the whole day (well, aside from the batteries in my camera dieing!). The car in front of us braked suddenly, then pulled over. I was going very slow, trying to figure out why it stopped; meantime a car came from the other direction. In it's headlights, Andrea spotted something in the road. I thought it was a deer - fortunately, going slow enough to pull off behind the first car. It was NOT a deer!! She had hit a man who had apparently darted out in front of her! The poor lady was histerical!! I had my cell in my hand and had already dialed 911 when I realized that a man (don't even know where he came from) was beside the road and already talking to Rescue. Several people stopped, and at one point they were giving him CPR. After a few minutes, I realized that the situation was under control, Rescue was on the way, and I was probably in the way. With some help from other people around, I managed to back up enough to get back on the road and on my way. We passed the First Responders and Police on their way to the scene. I was a bit shaken, but the rest of the way home was thankfully uneventful!
I have attached a few (very few) pictures from our day.

This is a view of the big ferris wheel (the only thing I might have been tempted to ride, but not with that stormy sky!)