Maple Leaf Festival

So we went with Grandma Mary to the Maple Leaf Festival. Both because it's in my home town of Baldwin, Kansas, where I lived until I was five, and because it's the last hurrah of the fair circuit.





Being late in the year means school is in session, so lots and lots of marching bands. Osawatamie, Tonganoxie, Wellsville, etc. And for whatever reason, no Shriners in Tin Lizzies or Blue Devil go-carts.





Em had fun putting grass in her sister's hair while we waited for the parade to start. She got probably ten stalks in before Mo noticed. And I bought a bag of pork rinds for the girls to try, and they dug them.





When the parade was starting, I noticed the woman standing next to us was talking on her cell phone with someone who was in the parade. 'No, we can't see you yet, right now it's the fire trucks. No, we're past that, closer to the corner where it turns...' Is it just me, or if you're in a parade, shouldn't you get off the phone?








Those old bicycles, with one giant wheel up front, I never understood those. Now I get it: no gears or chain, so having a huge wheel gets you better speed, because the outside has to go so much faster than your feet.





The rides were priced pretty fair for carnival rides. $25 for twenty tickets, but even the zipper was only a two-ticket ride, making it about a third to half the price of the Zipper at some other festivals we've hit.





It's my favorite ride, I think, rivaled only by the Power Surge for it's sheer terror.





The disappointment was a bunch of the rides turned out to be for kids under 48 inches, which mine are not. But Mo still wanted to ride them. So we ended up doing the Zipper and the Merry-Go-Round twice, and Em took a second ride down the Super Slide.

I asked Mo if the Zipper was fun and she said, 'No.' But when I asked if it was thrilling, she said 'yes.' When I asked if it was tight, she said 'yes.' When I asked if it was phat, she said 'yes.' And when I asked her if that phat was PH or F, she said, 'PH.'





The line for Buffalo Burgers was still unreal, so we ended up dining at Long John Silver's for late lunch/early dinner.



The weather could not have been better. There ought to be more of these things in the fall, when it's not so hot out.



We drove by the house I lived in until I was five. It's cute, but when I lived there I thought it was huge. It's a two-bedroom Arts & Crafts bungalow, so no, not huge. I've met the current owners, seen the inside and all that. They're a pair of academics, if I recall, and they've got it just cute as a button but I can't imagine trying to raise two kids in it.



Baldwin's a charming town, one I'd like to live in if it wasn't even further out than Gardner, plus it's expensive because it's become a bedroom community for Lawrence.