The Big Eat

I have long dreamt of going to the Big E - the annual New England exposition held in Springfield, MA - ever since I picked up a leaflet for it about four years ago and read about the enormous butter sculpture they display there.

Today my wish came true! 

My, though, it's an expensive day out.  You pay to park, you pay to enter, you pay even more if you want to go on any of the fairground rides, and you pay through the nose to eat.  There are lots of opportunities to eat - the 90 listed concession stands is only the start of it - and none of them serve what you or I would recognise as food.  Everything is fried.  You simply wouldn't believe what it's possible to deep fry - but more of all that tomorrow.

We did see the butter sculpture.  It was a sheep-shearing scene, executed skilfully, but a strangely unsatisfying subject in the medium of butter.  I'd have much prefered a life-size cow.

In the Farm-a-rama pavilion we watched baby chicks hatching (awww) and saw giant pumpkins (awesome).  Cows, sheep, goats - the usual agricultural suspects.  Plus llamas.

There was a pavilion devoted to scale model circus scenes - that was cool.  But the kids didn't want to see the real life circus.

We also missed out on seeing Galaxy Girl performing a trapeze act a-top a 120' swaying pole.  Instead we paid a dollar each and took a peek at Lil' Muffin, the "world's smallest horse" (who was certainly small, but not, as advertised, small enough to "stand in the palm of your hand").  To avoid disappointment we decided to pass on the "unicorn cow" and (inevitably) the "world's biggest horse".

Parades of old tractors and marching bands passed by from time to time.  There were elephant and camel rides and opportunities to buy a hot-tub or an extra-special mop, or get a tattoo or learn about your personality through your handwriting (but what really are you expecting to learn if it's your own handwriting?).  There were pavilions representing each of the New England states, which seemed to be mostly full of vendors selling things like chocolate-coated bacon and maple-bacon ice-cream. E-euw!

All in all an odd day out.  I'm not sure we quite got into the spirit of things (we definitely didn't get into the fried things), and we've no plans ever to go again, but it was an experience I'm sure we'll all remember.