Day at the fair

My buddy Jim is Ratmaster of the 5150 Ratrod Club, which has members in two states and might be the largest club of its kind in America.

Their cars have graced the cover of Motor Trend and you could not find a nicer, more creative bunch of guys.

They design and build the cars themselves or with a little help from their buds.

He invited me to hang with the group at the fair.

It is an annual appearance for them and people love to check out their rides.

We met in a parking lot in Escondido, we would all ride in together. 

I was supposed to ride with Don but somewhere near Lake Hodges his throttle cable broke.

Snap!

Luckily, Debbie was behind us, she picked me up and Don waited for Triple A. 

Second road catastrophe in Del Dios for Lehrman, he may want to stay off that road in the future.

Anyway we all got an easy way in and everybody set up, next to the monster truck. 

Arrived about an hour before opening.

I left my chair in my car as Don said we had plenty but ended up borrowing Jim's most of the day. My left knee is really aching, thing the time for a replacement is coming soon, that is if the rest of my parts don't break first.

Walking was tough but Debbie and I decided to have a walk around.

Ran into Pinks and had to stop, their first sale of the day. 

Good hot dog.

Chased it down with an excellent corn dog soon thereafter.

My job was done there.

We went into the ag buildings and saw a wallaby at the petting zoo, some pretty cows, goats and some incredible chickens.

There were some very psychedelic looking birds.

I ran into this girl at the birds, knew I knew her!

She was our long time favorite waitress at the much missed Le Bistro restaurant, now helping her children with their poultry.

Also ran into our old friend Shiram from Roxy, the falafel guy.

We went back and found friend Ginger and we all explored the garden collection.

Just my luck, they were showing dahlias, mums, roses and glads, my favorites.

There was a time I was planting 500 glads a year at my place. I miss the color!

Debbie and I continued over to look at the photo exhibit and find the hobby collections area, which has been moved since the last time I looked. Always loved that and the old guys that worked on the model trains which is now gone.

Collections are such a trip, from smurfs and Kiss to staplers and pencil sharpeners.

We checked out the confection contests, honestly the stuff looked good enough to eat.

Watched the monster trucks driving people around but it was a little boring, would rather watch things crashing into each other or getting a little air perhaps.

We decided to bail a little early and it was such a hassle leaving. 

Took forever, traffic nightmare. 

I toyed with the thought of bringing Leslie tomorrow but was dissuaded by the aggravation which will only get worse on the last day.

It was fun, like to thank Deb and Jim and all the 5150 guys for letting me hang out.

Happy fourth of July, everybody!