Day Six: Saturday, August 23, 2008

Saturday morning we drove back from Tuscola, and packed in a lot in one day.  We stopped by Cameo Vineyards and Winery, right next to the fairgrounds.  There have been grapes grown in the area for over 100 years but this particular family started up the business about 15 years ago.  They make delicious, very good wine.  Their shop is built from reclaimed barn timbers and sits on a hill, with a great porch. 

 

We stopped by Grissom's Lost Creek Orchard to get the most delectable peaches you can imagine.


Saturday is also Derby Day at the fair.  In addition to 5 other thoroughbred races, they also have the Cumberland County Derby, a nearly 2 mile race of Illinois-breds.  It is one of the stops on the National Road Triple Crown as well.  

We went back to the house for awhile to cool off and relax before the most popular event of the the week -- the Demolition Derby!  We were back in time for dinner, but this is not what I had...

I have a cousin who always puts a car in the derby (the son of the woman who hosts the pagaent).  His is #4, black station wagon. Also, there was a cool device that was getting the track ready that looked like Wall-E.

I took the tripod out to the midway to take some long exposure images of the rides and such.

Then we closed down the fair by getting a few last treats.   I snuck a picture of my cousin Ross with Roger's Fresh Cut French Fries.

Day Five: Friday, August 22, 2008

Friday we went over to my grandad's shed to poke around. He has always has bits of everything around, and it is strangely organized. Like things are together and yet there is a chaos to it.

In the yard were a couple of butterflies...

We then went up to the fair for delicious lunch and some more harness races.  Before they started, we visited the horse barns.

Once the races began, we sat with grandad and guessed on which were the best horses.  Steve read the racing forms and I just looked -- I always picked the winningest horse.  We're getting pretty good!  Then we hopped in the car and drove up to Tuscola to hang out with my cousin.