Robot Claw

Yesterday we went to the Altamont Fair. Were I in Australia, it would have been called the Altamont Show.

Lets get the obligatory agricultural significance of the event out of the way first, shall we?

Above we have the Grand Champion Chicken and some sort of Super Horse. We also saw prize winning Rabbits, Goats, Sheep, Cows, Geese, Ducks, Quails, Turkeys, Ponies, Bulls and even Guinea Fowl!

No pigs though, which was weird. Is there some sort of swine flu epidemic on right now perhaps?

At any rate we spent a couple of hours perusing animals before moving on to the most important part of any fair – the midway!

The organizers did something unusual this year, which was to charge a single admission ($15 per person) which included unlimited rides. As such the lines for the rides were a bit bigger than you’d expect at such an event, and I can only imagine they became very long at night.

Also it must be said I have some sort of evil cold right now, and one of the worst symptoms is my sense of balance is whacked out. It was so bad yesterday morning we almost didn’t go, but I decided “what the hell” and went anyway, dizziness-be-damned!

We went on a half dozen or so rides, including the unusual coaster seen above and a Scrambler from 1946!

But from the moment I saw it I only had eyes for one ride, The Zipper:

I remember the first few years this baby turned up at the Newcastle Show during my youth I was too scared to ride it. Once I summoned up the courage I loved it – even though it was as scary as I remembered! It had been 20+ years since I’d been on one and I just couldn’t resist. We captured the entire experience on video:

The effect on my sense of balance from The Zipper turned out to be as nothing compared to a classic 1928 Tilt’A’Whirl we went on shortly after. Foolishly I took no photos of the ride itself, but here’s a shot of me immediately before and then immediately after the ride.

Frankly it’s amazing you can’t see the half-digested corn on the ground in front of me in the latter photo. Yep, I was that sickened by the Tilt’A’Whirl.

A couple of other random shots of rides:

The Ghost Train incidentally was probably the worst one we have ever ridden (or ever will).

And here’s a shot of some of the panels decorating the freakshow tent:

Even though I was feeling ill we had a great day at the fair and I’m glad we went. I don’t doubt we’ll return again next year 🙂