The State Fair in Albuquerque - Sept 27, 2009

In the morning we went over to the main building at the RV park for their continental breakfast and talked to some folks about Work-camping at Legacy RV parks like this one. This is a very nice park and seems well organized, so we plan on checking out other RV parks managed Legacy.  And we chatted with a retired Colonel who told us a bit about his service, and he shared his grandfather’s advice of the 6 Ps: “Prior planning prevents piss-poor performance” – still good advice!  

We only had one full day in Albuquerque, so we decided to go to the New Mexico State Fair. When we got in line to buy entrance tickets, the lady in line in front of us brought 4 tickets for her family and got a free ticket. She gave the free ticket to me, so Randy only had to buy one ticket – a nice start to the day! 

There were several performance shows at the fair. There were some performing pigs; apparently these are famous pigs, and one was on the Tonight show a few years ago. They did things like push toys with their snouts and pick up balls to put them in a hoop – that sort of thing. They were cute, but I enjoyed the “Dock Dogs” more. There were about 9 dogs that have been trained (to varying degrees of success) to take a running leap off a dock into a large pool to retrieve a toy. One young dog didn’t think that was a good idea, and she balked at the edge of the dock every time. Even her handler thought that was funny! The “show” was actually a competition to see which dog could retrieve the toy the fastest. 

The 7 Marcon Tigers of India also performed, and they were wonderful to see. They were several colors - standard gold and black, white with black stripes, all white, and gold with red stripes. Because it was a hot day they were a bit laid back, but they were so beautiful. This group does actions that are based on normal tiger behavior, so they don’t do things like jump thru flaming hoops. They do other types of actions on command, such as lie down in a row, roll over, sit up - that sort of thing. They were all born in captivity, and they seem content and very healthy.

Next were the Daredevils, and these folks are really pretty good. Two acrobats climbed tall poles (probably 20 feet tall) and performed balancing tricks, including making the poles sway enough so they could switch poles with each other. 

There was also a man who walked inside, then outside, a large wheel that was counterbalanced so it turned in the air like a Ferris wheel. Another man drove a motorcycle on a high wire with two acrobats hanging onto a counter-balance bar underneath the bike, and they all did handstands while the motorcycle was running on the wire. For the last act, two motorcyclists raced around inside a 14 foot steel cage. 

And there was a street performer on a unicycle who was really entertaining and funny – he got as big a crowd as the major acts did.

We just have to have some fair food, so Randy and I shared a big double cheeseburger and a roasted corn on the cob, then we walked thru the Midway and vendor booths. One shop was selling wax impressions of hands and roses, which was pretty cool.  The last show we saw was 3 Indian boys doing Hopi traditional dances. They looked like they were about 10, 9 and 5 years old. An adult beat a drum and chanted, and the boys danced to the beat. It may not have been what they intended, but they were really cute! 

At the end of the day we came back to the RV park and got in the hot tub to relax. We both miss our hot tub!