Missed It By THAT Much!!

    Dennis and I are still recovering from our weekend of the Sandwich Fair…and our family get together, better known as a Cave-A-Palooza.  If you have never been to our fair, I have to say it is one of the best County Fairs in the State of Illinois. It always begins the first Wednesday after Labor Day and ends that Sunday.  This is the 127th Sandwich Fair, and I think Dennis was at the first one..JUST KIDDING!!! But he DID direct traffic during the fair when he was in high school.  We still have the bamboo cane that was wielded by the car parkers back then to direct traffic….This cane is possibly definitely an antique…at least over 50 years old!!

  The Wolff family rolled in Friday night about 7PM and the Heisers came the next day, with Kelly and Cindy coming over after 4PM..  We waited for Peyton to run in a Kaneland High School Cross Country Track Meet Saturday morning and then we all went out to the fair together…(This group can be overwhelming when you actually meet up with us on the narrow sidewalk.)

Peyton is 14 years old and a Freshman in High School this year.  I know….He looks much younger, and this is his first year of Cross Country in High School.  In these meets, he competes with all 4 years of High School kids, Freshmen through Seniors.. He finished 12th out of 40 runners, so I’d say he did REAL well!!  Yet another Cave runner in our family!WOOT!WOOT!

We arrived at the fair about 1:30PM, just in time for the “heat of the day”...    Actually Cindy had to be at the EMS Medical Tent everyday at 7AM and leaves at 4PM, and Kelly was out there with her already.  She is in charge of this and has been doing it for years. If anyone needs any kind of medical attention, they end up either here, or in the ambulance.

 

 

  

Look closely at this photo of our daughters, just in between their heads, and you will see the best “photo bomb” ever, courtesy of Iron Man John Wolff!

Spending most of my life living in Sandwich, this fair has grown unbelievably…and so have the prices. I use to go out to see old friends and people I hadn’t seen in a while…now I don’t see ANYONE I know!

Saturday night, the adults went back out to the fair to watch the Tractor Pulls…Not “moi”…I prefer to stay home with all the kids and have a campfire. A little of the fair goes a loooong way with me. I’m not a big fan of the crowds and the noise of the Tractor Pull…I can hear it just fine from my house!!

The kids and I stayed back at the campfire…Cindy stayed back with me as well…Enough fair IS enough fair!

As you can see, the traffic going into the fair was backed up past our house again this year…

 

On their way to Sandwich, John Wolff stopped in Hammond, IN and picked up some great shrimp, already breaded and ready to fry…He and Kel cooked it up in our cast iron skillet…AWARD WINNING! …and it sure beats that fair food by a long shot. Not only is it less costly, but you don’t have to eat it standing up!!

After everyone left on Sunday, we had more visitors arriving…They missed our Cave-A-Palooza by THAT much!!! and here is what they arrived in…

….Yep, that would be John and Bridget Hatch (FD5)..driving their new to them 2007 (I think that’s the year) Monaco Diplomat…FINE LOOKIN’ RIG!!! We have met them a couple times before and they are just a great couple. Currently, they are volunteers at Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota and working with the birdlady of blogland, AKA Judy.  They just missed the crazy Cave Clan, but were still in time to go to the Sandwich Fair, so we walked out for about an hour and did the “tour”.

John and Bridget enjoyed the fair, though we didn’t linger long…The sun was hot , and being the last day of the fair, it was PACKED with people!! We got our fill of the fair and walked back to our house for some adult beverages, a campfire and some left over lasagna and Italian sausages…John and Bridget did get to meet our son and his wife…and Fred met their 2 dogs, Finley and Murph..

 

 

Fin (female Silky Terrier) and Murph (male Weimaraner) are the same age,  came from the same kennel and they were raised as brother and sister by Kelly and Cindy. Finley is a “wild child” and Murph is a “cool dude”. And just for the record, they have both been neutered, so no worries about “Silky Weimaraners” running around the house…They roll and tumble and play together great, but if Finely gets in trouble (which frequently happens), Murph scolds her by putting his big mouth around her head…very gently..He never hurts her, but just reminds her she needs to settle down.

I’m pretty sure Fred had his pants Beagle spots scared right off him when these two rolled in…However, after a few “hairy eyeballs” and sniffs, they all settled down as friends….well, they accepted each other as equals…Well……Finley was satisfied that Fred was NOT going to knock “Her Highness”off her throne any time soon.

 

  

Monday morning, after some Casey’s breakfast  pizza, John, Bridget and Fred prepared to get “on the road again”..I hooked them up with some home grown tomatoes, potatoes and my world famous “rub”….

How  many retired Firemen does it take to program a GPS??…and OOPS! Someone left the key on in the “toad”…tehee….

 

Never hurts for McGyver to learn how to hook up a toad, right??? Just for possible future reference….

Now we see who is “the lady in charge” of this organized bedlam…YOU GO BRIDGET!! …and….THEY’RE OFF!!!!!

SAFE TRAVELS TO OUR GOOD FRIENDS..UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN!!