Apple Picking and The Sandwich Fair

The next day, we all got up super early as always, with the plan to go apple picking/pumpkin buying, hit up the sandwich fair, and possibly throw a trip to Gyroscope in for some mountain biking. It was over 90 degrees. I'd like to just take a monent to say a big "eat shit" to this fall. I look forward to this weekend all year, in addition to fall in general. And the weekend came, and only half the leaves had changed, and it was in the 90s. What happened after this week? Rain for several days, leaves changing full force, and then rain for what seemed like the entirety of October, knocking every leaf off. And it snowed yesterday (remember, I'm 2 weeks behind on this blog). There were like 4 total days where the leaves looked pretty and it had that crisp, cool air feeling you crave in fall. 4 DAYS. Worst fall ever. Can I at least have perfect, crisp fall weather on the weekend of Squamtoberfest?! 90 DEGREES?! SERIOUSLY, AL GORE!? Arg. 

But, at least I don't get sick in warm weather, and a blue sky is always good for taking pictures, even when the pictures are shockingly more blue than the actual sky was. 

We all had different plans, so we left Kevin's in like 9 cars to go to Surowiec Farm to pick some apples. 

It was hot and sunburn city, but gorgeous. 

Kevin, surveying the land

Jake only likes apples with bees on them.

I took the standard Squamtoberfest apple picking shots, but this time with my phone so I could HDR.

yea, it really looked like this

This got like 17 likes on Instagram (lots of chevrolet fans I think)

I've taken this exact picture every time I go here- the "Squamtoberfest Picture." It's a tradition that must be continued. If they ever get rid of this truck, I'll be destroyed.

The added bonus this year was that we now had an adorable child to take pictures of. 

Wyatt in the back of the truck

Wyatt driving the truck

So excited, he jammed his foot right through his flip flop

And I was there to document what I am pretty sure was the first time he ate an apple using his first and only tooth. Adorable. 

A bunch of people then went home. Dustin and Amanda went to go ride bikes at Gyroscope, and I decided the only way I could do everything I wanted to do was to go to the fair, eat garbage, and then attempt to mountain bike before the sun went down. So 9 of us went to the fair. 

This was my third fair of the year. I had planned on going to 4, but never put together a trip to the Topsfield Fair. The Sandwich Fair is my second favorite, and the only place I ever get fried zucchini. It was fun, but the 100% absence of any clouds in the sky made it pretty painful. I was squinting my eyes while wearing sunglasses. It hurt. BUT, worth it, if only for this guy:

The zucchini was better last year when it was in stick form, but it was still neat to eat it. 

I also ate an ostrich burger, mudslide fudge, lemonade, and a slice of garbage fair pizza. This marks the first fair in probably 4 years where I haven't gotten Fried Dough. The piece I got at the Deerfield Fair wasn't great and I never feel good after eating them. I decided to take a break, and I don't regret it at all. But next year, I'm gonna kill me some fried dough. 

I did get to finally take a picture to document how stupid the prizes have become at these things. I present to you, the prizes I talked about in my Rochester Fair post, but never got pictures of- RASTA BANANAS:

so mad they didn't have skeeball so I could have won one of these stupid things

We hit up some animal sections for as long as we could before we all felt sorry for the animals. This cow had to have its horns cut, because they were on their way to stabbing the cow in the face. How shitty does your life have to be if your horns are growing out of your skull, then INTO your eyes/right back into your skull? This cow's own body hated him. He was giving Tara the death stare. It was pure evil. 

Look at this guy, owning the day:

This is a world I've always been fascinated by. Look at this picture from the Deerfield Fair:

Imagine what these people's lives are like. They raise cows and then bring them to a fair once a year to have people stare at them. They sit in the barn for the entirety of the fair, next to cows and wheelbarrows full of cow shit (that they shovel periodically). That's it. That appears to be their lives. And there are little kids there every year too, just sitting in chairs next to cows for 8 hours at a time. This is their lives. Do they go back to school and brag to their friends that their cow took first prize at the Sandwich Fair? Maybe I'll make a documentary. This is a world that needs to be infiltrated. This is a story that needs to be told. 

Towards the end of the fair, I joked to Natalie about going to Plymouth to get balboas at Biederman's Deli (a sandwich place/bar on the main street of Plymouth State College). She didn't freak out about the idea, but Tara did- enough to make everyone decide to go there. I was heading there anyway to ride my bike at Gyroscope, so the day worked out perfectly for me to spend even more time with them before separating. Right when we got into town, I called Dustin to ask him how Gyroscope was. Right as he started answering me, I said "wait, where are you?" He answered and we realized we were about 100 feet from each other. They had gone to the top floor of Biederman's. Small world. 

Sadly, Gyroscope had been pretty destroyed by the hurricane flooding a month or so ago- most of that area was under 10 feet of water (and much worse things, since septic tanks were nearby). He said it was nothing but downed trees and too confusing to try and ride there. This broke my heart a little, since I wanted to ride there so bad, but it meant I could stay with everyone and have a beer at Biederman's while watching some football. Not the ending of the weekend that I had imagined, but it was nice. I ordered a beer and "tapped the keg," meaning my order was the one where they realized the keg was empty. I got a Biederman's beer glass and some stickers. It was pretty hilarious. They had all been coming here for years, and the first and only beer I've ever ordered there got me free stuff. Woo! Jake stepped it up though:

Then we all headed back to Kevin's, packed up everything, and went our separate ways. Another fantastic Squamtoberfest weekend. Now I just have to figure out some way to get all of these people together for more than 4 weekends a year. 

currently listening to: Into It. Over It.: Proper