Junk Food and the Panhandle South Plains Fair

Okay, for my money, the Panhandle South Plains Fair http://www.southplainsfair.com/ is a real rip off.  If you do not go before 1 PM, when parking and entry is free, it costs $5 per vehicle to park, and $8 per adult, and $4 dollars per child with some age limits just to enter the fair.  This would cost a family of 4 (government norm) $29 to walk into the fair. Not to mention cost for midway rides, if you are so inclined, and food, which is way over priced.

Of course, there are free concerts (tickets required) and free shows, lots of exhibits and "bargains" which are very often "knock offs" and not "bargains."  Many vendors who offer "fair pricing" put the hard sell on the customers who express any kind of interest in their wares. So much so, I think they might be a little shady. Just my opinion. If you have to push that hard to sell, what is wrong with your product?

I know that many local charitable organizations use the fair as their major fund raiser for the year, earning between $10,000 and $20,000 in a 10 day time frame, with lots and lots of volunteer man hours working at the fair. I appreciate this. When I go to the fair, I buy food and drink from the local vendors instead of the professional carnival midway vendors.

And the variety of food is amazing:  roasted corn, turkey legs, fried green tomatoes, oxtail, funnel cakes (including various flavors and varieties), fried pickles, fried Snickers, fried Milky Ways, fried Reese's cups, double hamburger cheese burgers, fajitas, curly fries, sweet potato fries, cheese on stick, sausage on stick, baked potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, sweet potato fries, fried pies, lemonade, corn dogs, foot long corn dogs, and what am I forgetting?

This is junk food nirvana. And, I admit, I go for the junk food at lunch.  I usually go to the fair one day, before 1 PM, when I can park for free, enter for free, and still enjoy much of the fair. The food booths are open, the exhibits are open. The free shows do not start until mid-afternoon, and since I am on my lunch break, I cannot stay for these. The midway does not open until about 3 PM, so I cannot ride the rides.

Well, I would not ride the rides, anyway. I get deathly ill on anything that goes back and forth or around. I can do a fun house, or a roller coaster that does not loop-de-loop.  I can do a chair lift. I can do a bumper car, maybe, but those even often tend to go round in circles. I can do a slide or a water slide, or some version of that like a log ride water slide.  It has been years since I have been to a carnival or amusement park to know what kind of rides they have. I suspect I could do a "zipline" ride. In fact, that sounds very intriguing to me.  But nothing that rotates.

This year, I went to the fair with coworkers at lunch time. I had fun. I bought and ate junk food. And then, I went back to work.