The Florida State Fair

Wednesday was going to be a beautiful day. Only a 30% of rain and that was to be in the evening.  We had made plans to head over to Tampa to attend the Florida State Fair.  John and Judy had gone last year to this fair and highly recommended it.  So we joined them to give it a go.
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 We arrived at about 11:00 and met up immediately with Judy's brother Howard.  He and his wife are also escaping the snow and spending a couple of months in the Sarasota area.  Howard pulled in right before us and saw us pulling in.  How is that for good timing!!



The fair grounds are very pretty.  Not like the fairs that I remember at home.  There were many attractions for us to check out.  There was a sea lion show, pig races and a circus.  The circus was a pretty good show with clowns, motorcycles riding in a big steel ball, dog shows, etc.  There were  two huge camels that came out and walked around with two llamas and a black stallion. They didn't put on much of a show but they were sure interesting to watch.

 This lady worked the trapeze for our entertainment.

We had some really greasy fair food for lunch and then headed over towards the livestock area.  We moved through the Moooturnity tent to look at all the farm babies.  Calves, goats, lambs, piglets,  chicks hatching.  You name it and it was there.  They also have an ongoing maternity ward with cows giving birth for the educational entertainment of the public.  I felt sorry for this poor cow laying on a floor of straw on a stage calving with all these people standing around watching.  I guess they have pregnant cows all lined up ready to keep the show on the road.



Of course there were all the food vendors and the midway to keep everyone entertained.

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We were on our way to watch the equestrians when we heard an announcement over the loud speakers that there was  severe weather heading into the area.  We were being advised to head to the permanent buildings to take cover.  The vendors were told to secure their signs and goods.  The rides were stopped.  The horses were all taken to the barns.  So we headed off to the expo center to seek shelter from the storm.  Not long after we got into the building the sky opened up the rain poured down and the wind came up.  We wandered around in the expo center looking at the displays for about an hour hoping the storm would pass.  But it just kept up.  Rather than spend the entire evening in this one very crowded building  John finally got brave enough to run for the jeep.  He soon arrived at the main gate to pick us up.  What a guy!!

We stopped in Lake Wales at Chili's for dinner on our way home. The rain continued through most of the night.  Our neighbors told us that the wind had been really strong in the resort during the late afternoon also.  They said the trailers were rocking and the palm trees were bent over.

Too bad the weather had to turn on us but we did manage to see a lot of the displays and shows that we wanted to see.  All in all it was a good day.