Dutchess County Fair

Saturday afternoon I took the hour long drive with my wife to Rhinebeck, NY and the Dutchess County Fair. I hadn't been to a county fair in a few years and last time it was in Tennessee. The Dutchess County Fair wasn't all that different from other fairs I've been to. Situated about 2 hours up the Hudson river from New York City, Rhinebeck is a trendy little town with the fairgrounds and tons of antique shops, I even think I saw an art house movie theater. The traffic was terrible the closer you got to the fair because it's a two-lane road through the town. After 1 1/2 hours in the car we were able to get through the gate and get a decent parking spot near the 4H entrance to the fair.

Who would have thought that so close to New York City you would even have a 4H competition, I didn't know that New Yorkers knew about 4H. But there it was in all it's glory and smell. We saw some prize winning hogs, plenty of cows and steers, goats, sheep and horses. Not far from the 4H stalls we found the food.

I'd been wanting a funnel cake since we found out about the fair. We started off with a corndog for $3.50, a drink for $5 and a cheeseburger for $4.50. Once we polished those off we found the french fry guy and got a large basket of piping hot taters for $5. The funnel cake came later though and it was awesome! It was fun to be full of fair food again.

The fair was crowded with people, more so than others I've been to. The weirdest thing was that for a few minutes there I totally forgot that we were in New York, but then all of a sudden there's some guy yelling to his wife in that Brooklyn accent... "Hey, get me a hotdog while you's is up. Where d'ya think you're going?"

The ever popular pig racing was too crowded to see anything but the dog agility course was open and we got to see everything from a Chihuahua to a Lab run the course. The announcer was a rough looking woman who kept yelling into the microphone. "The next dog is a LONG HAIRED CHIHUAHUA.... her NAME is BUTTONS.... she's a FEMALE and 2 YEARS of AGE!" Everyone kept cringing every time she opened her mouse because it was so loud.

This year they added a grand stand to the fair. Little Big Town was the headliner that night and the bleachers were free but pregnant women and benches don't mix. So we thought it wasn't such a good idea to stay around for that. We thought about riding the ferris wheel but by the time we got ready to ride it my wife was starting to get very tired from walking around so much. By the time we left we had stayed for 3 hours. It took us another 30 min. to get out of the parking area with all the traffic.

I would go again, if not just to get a $5 funnel cake.