If you’ve never been to the Iowa State Fair, you haven’t really lived.  USA Today once put it on their Top 100 List of Things To Do Before You Kick The Bucket.  I go every year with religious fervor.   I haven’t missed a fair since 1992, save for two years ago when I had a dire case of strep throat for the entire month of August.

To me, the Fair is a homecoming.  Not only do I see countless random friends … I get to indulge in all the things that make me a proud Iowan.  This year was a strange assortment of fried food on a stick … combined with a media blitzkrieg.  When I was there on Friday, there were nine (count ‘em, NINE) Republican presidential hopefuls running around the fairgrounds trying to connect with voters.  I literally bumped in to Newt Gingrich walking down the grand concourse.  And I spotted Sarah Palin talking to a rabid group of newbie reporters.  Imagine my surprise when I turned around and noticed hubby Todd Palin was standing behind me.   He seemed shocked when I asked for a photo with him.  After I took the pic … I was surprised I’d asked him too.  Probably just wanted to record the moment for posterity.  (That and no one would believe I would do such a thing without proof.)

The Fair was absolutely jam-packed over the weekend … 1) because of the throng of reporters swarming the grounds and 2) thanks to the incredibly pleasant weather.  75 degrees.  Sunny with a few fluffy clouds in the sky.  And light breeze.  Those sorts of days never happen in Iowa in August.  It was, indeed, an Xmas miracle.  Only a few days before, the entire Midwest was gripped in an ugly record-breaking 100+ degree heat wave.

I traipsed around the fairgrounds with my dad and a couple friends.  We managed to score a golf cart to maneuver around the fairgrounds with ease.  A golf cart makes you soooo A-list, it’s not even funny.  Why walk the fair when you can be shuttled around like a VIP dignitary?  I think my dad put it best when he said, “Wow!  We saw everything I wanted to see AND ate a corndog in under 90 minutes.”  I can’t even wrap my brain around all the things we ate before lunch.  A cinnamon roll the size of my head.  Two scoops of ice cream.  A Maid-Rite.  And deep-fried Oreos.   It’s a veritable smorgasbord of unhealthy food.

The mayhem continues in Part II … including a meet-and-greet with the group of Def Leppard … and something lethal called a Red Velvet Funnel Cake.  God help my arteries.