Friday was Ride Day

I had paid $20 each at Lowe's for wristbands for the three of us, so we'd have unlimited rides for one whole day.  Our main goal, on Friday, was to get all the use we could out of those!  Since the midway doesn't open till noon, we had a little time to kill, and chose to see the "extreme canines" dog act.  These incredible creatures have been on the Tonight Show, Animal Planet, and other TV shows.  They're frisbee champs, and also run obstacle courses, going through tunnels and leaping high barriers.

Then we rode...

and rode....

and I even watched the girls get stuck in one ride; the guy running it had a messed-up hand (a run-in with a sledge hammer, he said) and even after he called for help, they couldn't get the door to open:

Finally they just lifted the girls out OVER the stuck door; it makes one wonder just how safe it is to ride these contraptions at the fair, doesn't it?

One thing the girls kept going back to each day (free, thank goodness) was the Bungee Run:  kids climb up onto this inflatable platform, tie a belt around their waists that's attached to a bungee cord, and see how far they can get before they're pulled back.  This was a very popular item with all the younger fair-goers.

Of course, you're always running into interesting new characters along the way, like Bartholamule.

I did get on some of the rides with the kids.  I've always lovedthe Ferris Wheel and the Merry-go-round, and the tilt-a-whirl is my VERY favorite.

By the time Ride Friday was over, we were all dragging as we went back to the camper for the night.