My Favorite Fall Activity

Even though I spent the entire weekend in bed a few weeks ago I made a point to leave the house for my favorite fall activity…..the Demolition Derby!

Have you guys ever been?  It’s kind of awesome. 

It happens one weekend every year here at the Arizona State Fair. They have a bunch of old clunker cars with the windows busted out and the doors welded shut line up on opposite ends of a wet dirt field and when the flag drops they just crash into each other over and over again….on purpose!  The last car to move and make an actual hit is the winner. 

I always make it a point to go see this every year and this year did not disappoint!  In fact there was a first….a car flipped! They said in the almost 50 years they had been doing this particular derby, that had never happened.

It was kind of awesome once the driver crawled out and we could see that he was ok. They took two tow trucks and were able to flip the car back over.  The driver climbed back in and turned the ignition….and the car started!  In fact, the exhaust pipe on the hood of the car (I assume this  was for looks and loud sounds) starting shooting dirt and dust out of it. Talk about a moment!

On the first night there was one woman driver.  Can you find her in this picture?

Yep, that would be her in the pink car on the outskirts while all the boys are getting their hands dirty and banging into each other.  She drove around the outskirts and never hit anyone. Finally, someone came and knocked her out of bounds so she couldn’t do anything.  I think she did exactly what I would have done!

On the last night, there was a bit of a controversy.  As I mentioned before, the last car to make a hit is the winner. Well, on the final night, there was only one car moving around because all of the others had either broken down or were pinned in.  The driver, assuming he was the winner, drove off the dirt field and went to park his car!  He never actually made a final hit.  The announcer was yelling at him to come back to the arena but he just kept going on his merry way, thinking he had won.  I never did find out if they ended up declaring him the winner, I didn’t feel like waiting around for them to scour the rule book. 

The aftermath

After the derby we explored the fair a little more munching on various foods. My favorite is definitely Wisconsin cheese curds!  Mmm mmm those things are so yummy.  I also found this bit of amazingness…

BACON!!

I didn’t try anything this year, but you better believe I am going to be all over that food stand next year!

What are your favorite things to do at the State Fair?