Another County Fair

 Fairmont, MN

I am in Fairmont, just 8 mines from the Iowa border eating my porkchop on a stick!

The Martin County Fair

Today Donna and I drove south about an hour and 40 minutes to Fairmont, MN, the county seat of Martin County.  The drive took us through 6 new counties as we chip away at a Minnesota completion.  It was a really nice drive down US 169 Dude!  We saw a lot of cornfields because we were pretty much in Iowa.  We also saw a lot of old barns with grain silage.  

Donna didn't snap any photos of the barns but they all looked like this pretty much.

We arrived at the fairgrounds and found parking in a grass lot and then paid our $10 each to get in.  We were there at around 11:30 on a Tuesday so the crowds were light.

Marty is Martin County's mascot.  I guess Martin County is the Bacon Capital of The US.  It's the #1 pork producer in Minnesota.

We each got a porkchop on a stick at the official Martin County Pork Counsels building.  Other rando venders were selling them also but we wanted to support local pork.

I don't know why I took this.  We didn't enter to win although I would love the Bacon Capital T-Shirt.

Donna has wanted a porkchop on a stick since getting one last year at the Kanabec County Fair last year (see here).  Our memory is faulty because we both remembered the porkchop on a stick but it wasn't on a stick.  It was just as delicious as we remembered.

I know I am intimidated by whatever this is.

This is just before Donna got to pet the donkey.

Little Sebastian! 

You're going to want to stay clear of the beater.  It looks painful.

Can I get $10 for wearing one while I am in the grandstands?

I guess there is no data on what chickens look like in 2024.

The porkchop wasn't enough so we got some more food.  Donna wanted Pie

We ended up getting pie and a Hot Turkey Commercial (see below info)

The Hot Turkey Commercial is a regional name for a Hot Turkey or Hot Turkey Sandwich or Open Face Hot Turkey Sandwich or Turkey Manhattan.  I know of this dish as a Hot Turkey Sandwich and ate them a lot while working at Disneyland in the employee cafeteria.  The term commercial probably comes from the fact that it is served at school lunches and so it isn't a thing you would make at home much.  At any rate, it was good, salty, and fun to eat.  

I haven't thought of 7Up in a long time.  This clock is old.

On the way home we took a different rout home so we picked up another county.  Here is where we stand in Minnesota as of today.

The purple counties are this year's new counties.  We will grab a few more to the southeast this month.  We are approaching 50% Complete for Minnesota.

That's it for today.  If you missed, Swing Dancing in a Cave, check it out.