Oregon - The Lakeview Roundup Day 1

Our travels continue to take us further south in  Oregon, to Lakeview, the highest city in Oregon - altitude that is! For as long as anyone can remember the town's 'brand' has been it's Tall Man sign.
I think, at one time,  there was a local business called the Tall Man.  The local leaders and business' decided to create an official 'tall guy' - this man can bee seen all over town.

 It's the town that Tom grew up in, so there are many 'points of memory' being noted on the this stretch of our journey. ' This is where..., I remember 'so and so and I did this over there.....! It's fun and most of the memories are really good ones.

On this particular weekend, Labor Day, the town does their "Roundup" - county fair, rodeo, concert and the finale is the Destruction Derby ( said in a really loud, deep voice!)

When my brothers and I were kids, our parents would take us to the King County fair in Enumclaw.  It was a small town fair: small in size, activities, midway and displays.  I didn't go the the Washington State Fair until I was 19. It was very large and overwhelming and hard to see everything in just a few hours, let alone a full day. I missed the small town atmosphere.  Lakeview definitely has it.

The are several buildings with the animal displays: 10 rabbits, 12 chickens, a couple dozen cows and horses, not the endless rows and rows animals in the many barns at Puyallup.

The fair has a small midway of rides and a few games.  No lines and no real concern about where your kid is.  It's safe here.  No children on leashes were seen the entire weekend!

Keep your eyes on the fourth child, in the black shirt!

While watching the kids roller coaster I was paying attention to the ride as it came around at me.  Focusing on 'getting the right angle', I didn't see the child in the dark shirt until the editing began!

I'm sure this kid lives on a farm and probably has his own ATV for riding around the farm.  He seemed fearless - even as the attendant was yelling at him to SIT DOWN!

# 23 is our fearless rider!

And then while watching the 'capture the pig' competition for the kids, he was involved in the 4 year old game.  Your prize is the pig, so you better be ready to take it home!  There were several kids that didn't realize the pig was 'greased', and came away with "icky" on their hands!!

This young man in the 5year old division, happily grabbed his piggy.  He wasn't quite sure what to do with it - they told him to grab it by both back legs.  Unfortunately, this little piggy was having a 'potty' issue...... nature in action!  Hmm, so that's what pig poop looks like!

Typical fair food, as well as some tasty caramel corn, and really good street tacos!

And the usual 'service' booths.  The position of the 'body piercing' booth right next to the " 3 things God doesn't do" booth, was, I'm sure, some fair planners little joke!

Back behind the animal barns we came across the live animal auction by the 4H kids.  I enjoyed it, again for it's home town, small town feel.  The people in Lakeview are good, hardworking, friendly people who enjoy their 'cowboy' style belt buckles!  And no, I don't have any belt buckle photos to share.... think of where you must point the camera!

We wandered through the buildings with all the different 'contests' - largest tomato or zucchini, nicest beans, pretty eggs, and a few sad looking pastry items were almost embarrassing.

I'm not sure what a cow has to do with a cherry pie, but it won 1st place.  I remember making a black berry pie, years ago at my aunts house, that I decorated to look like clusters of blackberries!  I was just goofing around, but it was really cool!  I have to say that most of the baked goods were pretty pathetic.

I got a good laugh at the exhibit for "Salt Block Art"!  All created by tongues.

Note the "Please Do Not Lick" sign!

We ended our wandering the first day by attending the evening concert by Micheal Ray, a recent winner of the country version of American Idol.  Going in to the evening with no expectations, we were pleasantly surprised.  He did a good concert for about 90 minutes.  We forgave him for the 90 minute delay, but figured it was to wait for the sun to go down!

We headed back to the RV park to rest up.  Tomorrow we'll be back for the rodeo!  Stay tuned!