The long awaited day has come and gone. I am left with memories and pictures and a sense of sadness that the one thing that I had been so looking forward to for so long is over. Done. Finished. Complete.
Of course I am talking about the National Peanut Festival that is held in Dothan, Alabama every year. This was my first experience with the festival as Chris started his new job with Dunbarton earlier this year. The National Peanut Festival is held in the town where the main facility for Dunbarton is located and ever since my first visit I was drawn into the peanut mania.
Saturday was the big day for us. We had decided when we would be able to attend and that was the day. The week had not gone as expected for the National Peanut Festival because of horrible rain. It rained and rained and rained some more and the facilities, mainly the parking, was just flooded with too much rain and parking soon became an issue.
I followed along on all the discussions about parking and it appeared to me that the festival was doing its very best to accommodate people by chartering busses that festival attenders could access from two different areas to be bussed directly to the event. It seemed like a great solution for a soggy problem but as always the grumblers on social media were ever present.
When we went on Saturday we were able to park on site because we went early and secured a great spot. The downside of that was that things did not really start getting geared up until we were almost ready to leave. We opted out of going downtown to watch the parade which according to locals is the big event. I think we made the right choice.
So what did we see? Some fun things. Did it live up to my expectations? Probably not. I am afraid I had hyped myself up a bit too much and after attending both the Minnesota State Fair and the Iowa State Fair it was a bit of a let down because it was obviously much smaller.
A fun thing to watch was Brian Ackley of Ackmonsters Chainsaw Art. He had quite a variety of creations that he had done and was working on including bears and peanuts holding phones. Visitors could bid on each item he had created and it was fun to see him work away.
The animal barns were woefully empty but I suspect it was because we were there on the second to last day of the fair. Most of the animal events had already come and gone but there were still a few that remained to amuse me. 
Oh if only I was 100 pounds again. Then I could have ridden Julius. I really wanted to but since he is a “baby” they were limiting riders to those who weighed less than 100 pounds. I call it weight discrimination. He was awfully cute.
I even milked a fake cow.
One of my favorite exhibits was an exhibit to honor Dancin’ Dave. I loved it and actually teared up a little bit when I saw it. 
We did manage to have fun and that is what it is all about. Enjoy the pictures. Take it all in. Smell the smells and come back later on in the week when I share a bit more from the National Peanut Festival. You won’t want to miss the racing pigs. There might even be a video or two.
