Journal: Excursion to the Nebraska State Fair

 

Last Tuesday, I quilted the majority of the day, finishing the top borders of the Nine Kittens quilt.  I like to work late at night; it’s quiet and peaceful (except when bats get into the house, aaaiiiiiyiiiiyiiiiieee).  I quilted most of Wednesday, too.  By the time I headed to church that evening, I was nearly done with the first row.

Early Thursday afternoon, I caught a glimpse of something jewel-colored outside the kitchen window, held still and watched – and there was a tiny ruby-throated hummingbird flitting from blossom to blossom amongst the white hostas!  It was the first time I’ve seen a hummingbird around here for at least two years.

The green ruler on the quilt above is the smallest of the three Infinity rulers by Julia Quiltoff.  She creates the niftiest  rulers.  I wasn’t entirely happy with the feather design in the white areas of the Log Cabin blocks – a bit messy, I thought – but once I’d done three or four of them, I was pretty well committed, unless I wanted to spend three or four days laboriously picking out the stitches.  So...  I am instead endeavoring to make the rest of the similar designs less messy.  

Carolyn will not be judgmental.  😉

As I quilted that afternoon, I watched an ominous-looking cloud approaching from the northwest.  It wasn’t long before strong winds of 55-60 mph hit, and soon it was pouring rain.

That evening, Levi sent a couple of pictures of his algebra lesson, writing, “I’m learning the alphabet!”

“That looks like the same alphabet I learned once upon a time, years and years ago!” I told him.

“I can’t wait ’til I get to the ‘elemenopee’ section I’ve heard so much about!” he commented.

I belatedly looked that up just now, and have now bought him this shirt for Christmas.  Since he’ll probably wear it as a pajama top, I got him flannel pj pants to match.  

There was a pretty sky that night, both in the east and in the west.  The setting sun was shining on a low bank of thunderclouds off to the east, turning them all coral and pink.  Here’s the view from my upstairs quilting studio window.

That night after supper, Larry headed downstairs to take a shower – and immediately came rushing back up the stairs, saying, “Where the racket?!  I gotta play batminton!”  😂

Yep, there was another bat down there.

By the time I quit quilting for the night, the next row of the Nine Kittens quilt was two-thirds done.  This isn’t a quick process!

Friday morning, I had one of my favorite breakfasts of half a bagel, toasted, with peanut butter and honey on one side and blackberry jam on the other.  I made a fresh pot of Hazelnut Cremé coffee and a tall mug of peach-mango ice tea, then headed back upstairs to continue quilting.

Here’s one of my ruby-throated hummingbird pictures from a few years ago.  

I had a feeder hanging from the eave right outside the front door, and we had a ringside seat to all the hummingbird shenanigans.  They can be fierce with each other!  I saw one take another right down to the porch in a fluff of feathers, and then, because they wouldn’t let go of each other, they tumbled right off the porch into the rose bush.  I was hoping none of the cats were down there.  😬

Victoria sent pictures of Baby Arnold.  “He’s wildly proud of himself,” she wrote, “that he can stand by Willie’s bed and only hold on with one hand.  And he always plays in this position now.”

Here he is, standing on his two little feet, and bent in half in order to play with a truck.

“He looks very industrious, from this angle,” I wrote back to Victoria.

I finished quilting a couple of rows and rolled the quilt forward that evening.  Eight more quilted pinwheel blocks, and this quilt will be a third done.

Saturday morning, I started a load of Larry’s work clothes in the washer, then began getting ready to go visit Loren.  Soon I was sipping hazelnut cremé coffee while I blow-dried and cured my hair, listening to the news, and answering texts and posts on my Quilt-Talk group.  How’s that for multi-tasking?

As usual, I took Loren a couple of National Geographic magazines, including one with a beautiful cover photo of an elk in Rocky Mountain National Park.  He was admiring that picture when I handed him the other magazine, which sported a picture of a Sahrawi herdsman clad in a Touareg scarf, with only his eyes showing.

“And here’s someone in a pretty Easter bonnet,” I said, causing Loren to give a sudden burst of laughter.

On the way home, I stopped at the Love’s Truck Stop in Schuyler and bought some yummy spinach salads with strawberries, chicken, and walnuts for our supper.  I got home a little before 6:30 p.m.  After eating, I washed the dishes, finished the laundry, and then edited pictures.

“That’s not the I-80 route,” commented one lady when I posted the pictures.  

“No,” I agreed.  “I prefer the backroads.”

“Do you take a different route every time you go to Omaha?” another asked.

“I try!” I told her. 

I like to put my destination into my GPS, and then go other ways in order to discombobulate the ‘lady in the radio’, as one of my kids used to say.  Sometimes she has to reprogram herself every five minutes or so. 

I make an odd turn... and she starts intoning urgently, “Make a U-turn as soon as possible.”  Then, when I keep going, she finally says huffily, “Okay, fine.  Just GO that way, then.”

(Well, that’s what her tone sounds like, anyway.)

Since Monday was Carolyn’s 7^th birthday, and we were going to be gone to the Nebraska State Fair, we took her a birthday present after our evening church service Sunday night.  We gave her a porcelain doll, a cap with a blue sparkly bill and butterflies printed on the crown, and a ‘fidget slug’, a funny little worm-like thing made of moving plastic cup-shaped disks all fitted together. 

I found the porcelain doll in a plastic bin at Loren’s house when we were clearing it out.  His late wife Janice had been saving it for a gift; so she would be pleased that we gave it to one of our granddaughters.

Below is a picture of the Elkhorn River, which I cross in one location or another each time I go to Omaha.  In this particular spot, as of Saturday, that area of the Elkhorn is just a little over 1½ feet deep in the deepest spots.

The Elkhorn River flows for approximately 290 miles and joins the Platte River west of Gretna, Nebraska.  The Platte then flows into the Missouri south of Omaha.  The Platte, below, is the Missouri’s longest tributary.  

The Missouri River is a total of 2,341 miles long – that’s one mile longer than the Mississippi, which is 2,340 miles long.  The Missouri River flows into the Mississippi at St. Louis, Missouri, about 550 miles to our southeast.

Yesterday, we went to the Nebraska State Fair at Grand Island.

Immediately upon arriving, Larry practiced his archery skills in the Nebraska Game and Parks building.  Their aquarium was teaming with fish.  Below is a white bass.

We watched a Red Cross helicopter and a United States Army Chinook helicopter take off and make circular passes over the fairgrounds before heading back to Offutt Air Force Base south of Omaha.

We went in the sheep barn and heard a whole lot of sheepish conversations, then walked through the nursery and saw multitudes of brand-spankin'-new piglets, calves, lambs, kids, ducklings, and chicks.  The piglets were all two days old.  There were 14 piglets in one litter and 20 in the other.  The little black calf was only nine hours old.

I was describing the ducklings to Keira today when I took her quilt and the ribbons to her.  I said they were seemingly floating along smoothly atop the water — but the water was very clear, and we could see their little webbed feet under them, paddling furiously away. 

“They looked like little kids on tricycles,” I told her, and she really laughed.

Since it was 3:30 p.m. by the time Larry and I made our way through these three buildings, and we hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast, we got a smoked turkey leg and shared it.  Yummy; it was good.  And expensive.  $20, it was!  Yikes.  We also got two cans of Celsius drinks, watermelon and peach – and they were $5 each.  Good grief.  We shared one can and saved the other for later.

Feeling refreshed, we proceeded on to the cattle and hog barns.  Some people were getting their animals ready to take home, and some were washing and brushing them.  Most of these animals are more than barnyard beasts; they have become pets through all the care and handling they’ve had during the last few months.  

There was one big pink pig in particular who kept grunting loudly and setting up a fuss every time we started walking away from her.  We’d return and pet her... she’d look all squinty-eyed and happy, her mouth stretching into a piggy smile – and then as soon as we’d turn our backs and start walking, she’d go back to grunting and oinking, clearly begging us to stay and pet her.

Here she is.  

Now just look at the squinted eyes and the ‘smile’ when Larry scritch-scratched behind her ears – and then look at that woebegone expression when he stopped!  She’s clearly been babied and pampered and treated very well indeed.  🐷

We continued on to look at the new campers on display (after making sure our shoes were clean, heh).

I started worrying about getting back to the other side of the fairgrounds to see all the quilts before it was too late – and then Larry, who had seemed quite docile until now, suddenly decided he really needed to see the tractors, the hunting blinds, the Green Mountain grills, the antique threshers, grinders, and washers, and you-name-it.

Rather than debate the issue, my method is just to hurry off lickety-split toward wherever we need to go – and hope Larry follows like a good little puppy.

He invariably does, haha.  I guess he doesn’t want to lose me!  😂

As it turned out, it was a jolly good thing I did so, because they closed the quilt room an hour earlier than they usually do, in order to take down the quilts and dismantle everything.  We walked in at precisely 4:18 p.m.  I know this, because I immediately started taking pictures of quilts, and the first shot has a 4:18 timestamp.  I found out at exactly 4:51 p.m. that the place would be closing at 5:00.  I learned this from the lovely lady who had asked me to bring quilts to the Threads Across Nebraska show at Kearney last year.

She wanted to show and tell me about a particular mini quilt a friend of hers had made.  This took 6 more minutes – and there were still 93 quilts I had neither seen nor taken pictures of!  But, like I said, she’s a lovely lady, and lovely ladies are much more important than as-yet-unseen quilts.

After our conversation, I kicked in the afterburner, dashing along and pressing the shutter button with all my might and main.  I evidently took 31 photos per minute, because the final quilt picture has a timestamp of exactly 5:00 p.m.

The doors had now been locked, and no more people could get in.  One lady was already explaining to the assembled volunteers what all they needed to do.  We marched past the group, doing our bestest to look like we were on a mission and knew exactly what we were doing, where we were going, and why, though I was hoping the door was not locked on the inside.  It was not.

We pushed it open and made our escape into the main part of the huge Pinnacle Expo building, where the most of the fair vendors have stalls and booths.

It was only after Larry asked several times if I had seen Keira’s quilt that I realized I had not.  Later, I looked through my pictures and saw that I had not gotten a shot of it, either.  I looked back at the photo Victoria had sent me of Carolyn and Violet standing in front of Keira’s quilt, and then hunted through my pictures for the quilts on either side of Keira’s.  I had no shots of those quilts, either. 

Apparently, I somehow missed the entire side of one of the aisles!  I was doing one side at a time, thereby traveling each row twice.  I get mixed up over which quilts I’ve shot [nothing is harmed in these shootings] if I go back and forth from one side of the aisle to the other.  Anyway, I’m sure glad Victoria got a picture of it!  I wonder what other pretty quilts I totally missed seeing?  🥴

There were 473 quilts there this year, down 18 from last year.  It’s too bad they have to overlap most of the quilts.  It’s a big room, but it would have to be at least twice that big to display the nearly 500 quilts in their entirety.

Oh, look at this!  I just now chose one of my favorite small quilts to put on this page – and lo and behold, it was made by Margie Sergent, the teacher’s assistant in my 7^th-grade sewing class!  She’s such a sweet lady.  I loved her then... and I love her now. 

Here’s one more she made – beautifully hand-appliquéd and hand-quilted.

We did not get to the Textile Arts building in time to see anything there.  There would have been clothing, rugs, photos, produce, woodworking, and all sorts of other crafts; but they, too, closed their doors at 5.  Our walk to that building took us past the food vendor who sold cold treats, so on the way back, I got a pineapple whip and Larry got a strawberry cream soda.  We were glad to sit down for a bit while we ate and/or drank our treats.  My ankles, knees, and hips were putting up a fuss! 

We still had not gotten the alligator filet on a stick that I was wanting to try.  And the vendor was on the far side of the fairgrounds.  Or at least one of the vendors was.  Somewhere, there was another one also selling alligator filets, but we never did see that particular food stand.  We decided to take the overhead tram, which would drop us off in the near vicinity of the vendor we wanted.

Larry told me, “In order to save money on these expensive fair foods, be sure to get the alligator filet with skin on, so that you can later make yourself a pair of shoes with it.”  😂

As it turned out, the term ‘filet’ was more than a little pretentious.  Better terminology would be ‘tidbits’.  Breaded tidbits.  Heavily breaded tidbits.  Heavily breaded tidbits on a skewer.  There was a small cup of sauce to dip said tidbits in.

I tried one.  Larry tried one.  I gingerly tried one more, with less sauce.  The sauce was overly sweet and quite hot.  I couldn’t tell if I liked the alligator or the sauce less. 

So I said what Teddy used to say when he was wee little:  “This is really good.”  (...pause...)  “And I’m full now.”

Larry ate two more tidbits, then rewrapped the rest of it and tucked it in one of the multitudes of large pockets in the pants he was wearing.  He ate the rest on the way home.  He’s handy that way.  😉

We will never again be able to say that we have not eaten alligator.  However, I strongly suspect that a true alligator filet, particularly a tenderloin, which is found in the tail and is known for its tenderness and firm texture, smoked or grilled to perfection and not breaded, would be infinitely better.

Later, I told a friend about our culinary experience.

“Oh, my word!” she exclaimed.  “You’re kidding.  Ugh!”

“Tastes like chicken,” I informed her.  “Everything tastes like chicken.”  I considered, then added, “Pineapple whips taste like chicken.”

“Of course,” she said, then conceded, “Well, I would try a pineapple whip.”

“The smoked turkey leg was better,” I told her.  And before she could reply, I said, “Tasted like chicken.”  😂🤣😅  “Not...  ...  ...really.”

While I watched people loading their pigs into trailers (not without some degree of difficulty, and quite a few vociferous protestations [from the pigs, mostly]) for their drives back home again, Larry walked the somewhat lengthy distance to the Mercedes, drove it up closer to the entrance, and then brought the canvas wagon to carry my quilts and pillows.

In the Textile Arts building, there were a few things that had not been picked up yet – including the Best of Division pumpkin, which weighed in at a whopping 624.5 pounds.  Just look at this beast.

Sometime in the midst of all that walking, my VeryFitPro awarded me a ‘Gold Cup’, which it’s set to do at the 5,000-step mark.  By the time we left the fairgrounds, my tally had gone past 9,700. 

There was a beautiful sunset on the way home.

Today I’m stiff and sore.  For some reason, my left shoulder is what’s complaining the loudest, probably from holding my camera in a vertical position as I took pictures of quilts, and from the weight of my smallish purse hanging from a strap on that shoulder.

I guess I’ll soon be putting on some kind of topical analgesic!  I keep a variety on hand:  lavender-scented Two Old Goats (funny name, but good stuff); spray-on Old Goat oil (another funny name, but a totally different product than Two Old Goats, though this one is good, too), Absorbine Jr., Pain-A-Trate, Capzasin, roll-on StopPain, IcyHot, Watkins lavender/eucalyptus arthritis cream, etc.

Since I just took a shower and then applied EOS Lavender-Rose body lotion, I think I’ll choose one of the lavender-scented rubs, so as not to clash scents.  I’d hate to put two aromas together that didn’t match, and cause some sort of explosion!

Now to finish editing the rest of my pictures.  I took 781 photos and 8 videos!

,,,>^..^<,,,          Sarah Lynn          ,,,>^..^<,,,