Small Town Elements: Fall Festivals

Well, according to my calendar, it is officially Fall, even if the weather does not always feel like it, so to get into the spirit of things a bit, we spent some time this weekend at a local fall festival.  I saw signs advertising a "Pumpkin Festival" in Rural Valley, another nearby small town, so I talked Hubby into taking the dog and going for a bit.  Back where I grew up, we have a huge Pumpkin Festival in Barnesville, Ohio, and I miss it a lot, so this was a nice substitute on a smaller scale.

When we arrived, the day was gorgeous, and the festival was a little bigger than I expected, so I was pretty amped.  But when I saw this

well, that is when I knew magic was going to happen.  Because it is not everyday that you see a cow eating fried rice.

Basically, the festival was a lot of local organizations selling home made food, including pumpkin themed items like pies and rolls and cookies, as well as semi professional food vendors.  As I mentioned, we took Dexter with us, so when we spotted Todd's Weiner Wagon, it was a photo op we could not resist.

Todd was a great sport, and asked if he could hold Dex in the picture.  He said they own 2 doxies themselves.   After that, Hubby had no choice but to buy a hot dog from Todd, which he said was delicious.  I love small town folks, for reason like this!

There was a little picnic area where people could eat, right in the middle of the festival.  It was pretty well packed, and we were there fairly early.  I was glad the weather was so nice, had it been rainy, I doubt many people would have gone.

No local festival is complete without entertainment.  There was a stage set up with a band, but as we were passing by, they were getting ready for Pumpkin Idol.  Yes, that is right, Pumpkin Idol.  Hey, you could win money, and who doesn't like that?  I thought it was pretty cute, and had I been prepared, Dex and I may have sung Ain't Nothin But a Hound Dog (complete with him in an Elvis costume).  No one would have been able to beat us!

The thing I was most excited about were the craft vendors.  Like any thirty something small town wife, I love to look at craft vendors, even if I am not going to buy a thing.  I do not tend to have a lot of knickknacks or things around the house, and do not decorate much, but I do love to look at the stuff, so I was checking out all the booths.

I did eventually get something for a friend, to help decorate her classroom a little.  I was impressed with a lot of the vendors there, no only for the quality of their work, but the really reasonable prices.

All in all, we had a great day, and I can not think of a better way to help officially usher in Fall!


In unrelated news, I recently wrote an article for a technology blog about the use of Netflix.  I am thinking of writing some more articles for the blog, and would love it if would would check it out, and give me some feedback!  The name of the blog is TechBurgh, click below to read my article.

Netflix N'at: Getting Started