indiana state fair day 9

I don’t know if Ann Herr Mitchell and I had ever been to the state fair together, which is surprising since we’ve known each other for let’s just say, ages.

We walked down the trail catching up on life. Ann is the person that I feel closest to in this world, but we talk very randomly. We had pretty much solved the world’s problems by the time we got there.

We walked around; stopping at the Ag/Hort building, checking out the cheese sculpture, looking at the paintings in the Home and Family Arts building and the new bridge. There were some teary moments (not that Ann and I would ever discuss it in a million years) looking at wood working and cows – reminders of Mr. Herr.


We cheered up considerably at the lumberjack show. I’m sure it was the sunshine and goofy jokes during the show. The physique of the lumberjacks had absolutely nothing to do with it. Swear. After all, the theme of the fair was “Year of the Trees.” We were just being patriotic.

We had one goal for the day: to ride an elephant. I’ll admit to snubbing of the circus area earlier in the fair. I’m a purist. What does the circus have to do with Indiana? As it turns out, a lot. The Peru Circus (pronounced PEA-roo in Indiana) was offering elephant rides and Peru is the winter home of the circus.

The elephant ride was a blast. I got the better end of the deal – Ann got the bony end of the elephant. But Ann Herr and I rode an elephant. Of all of the adventures our little Nancy Drew hearts dreamed of, riding an elephant was not even on our radar. The most exotic we ever got was reading Nancy Drew's The Mystery of the Ivory Charm. 

I really wanted to take a photo while riding the elephant. I envisioned a shot with floppy ears in the front of the frame. They were strict about both hands on the bar. I tried to sneak in an iPhone photo, but I was given the stink eye when I reached for it. 

Speaking of stink, poor Ohma could have really used a bath. 

The sky looked ominous. Ann and I walked home and made it to my backyard before the rain started. Good thing we didn't melt!