Kanabec County Fair

 Mora, MN

Fair Food!

The Kanabec County Fair

Today we drove about an hour north to pick up some new counties, new highways, and visit a county fair.  It was quite a bit smaller than the Rice County Fair but it was still good.  

The fairgrounds entrance features a giant Dala Horse.

When we parked I assumed this was a shuttle that brought people to the fair but it was part of their transportation display.  You could go inside.

They asked us to fill out a thank you letter to Minnesota State Congress for funding so we could get a free bag but we said we were from out of state so they gave us a free bag anyway.  The bag features counties we haven't been to.

The photo area featured more animals in hats than I would have expected.

This Godzilla won a Blue Award!

Abraham looks worried he won't get any Valentine's Day Cards.

Apparently Butterflies start out looking a lot like Pennies.

This alpaca grew up in the mean streets of Mora.  You gotta keep on your toes (good thing alpaca have toes) and use a bit of hay like a toothpick to look tough.  This one's hair also looks pretty tough.

Not sure what happened here...

Grubbing on local pork.

There is a competition for drinking beer and then picking flowers.

This toupee won an award.

There is an award for drinking wine too apparently.

Pinball Tournament and A New Brewery

Later than evening I headed over to Keg and Case Market to play in a pinball tournament.  The market has some fun stalls in it, a big brewery, and the bottom floor has a ton of pinball machines.  The tournament was advertised as starting at 7 and ending at 9 so I figured I wouldn't be home too late.  Turns out it went until 10:45 and if I had done well I would probably still be there.  I was tired and played on a bunch of machines I didn't know and got kinda destroyed.  It was a good learning experience for me.  I came in 25th out of 31 which isn't what I consider good.  I won 2 rounds but took 4th and 3rd in the rest.  You get points each round for where you place.  7 for 1st, 5 for 2nd, 3 for 3rd, and 1 for 4th.  After winning my first round I got destroyed in my 2nd round and I think that put me on edge for the rest of the tournament.  There were some games I should have played better on.  Next time!

The tournament is $6 and you get a token for a free $7 beer.  I like that math!

This is me scoping out the competition.

The competition was intense!

This gal slapped and shimmied to first place in one of my rounds.  She ended up 7th.

It's fun watching everyone's style of play.  Some are pretty still but many are incredibly animated and really fun to watch.  I am noting all of the tournaments near our future stays and hope to play in more.  It's an inexpensive fun evening if you don't buy a ton of beers, which I don't.

That's it for today.  If you missed Visiting the Hmong Marketplace check it out.  The Twin Cities area is the largest urban Hmong population in the world.