The 4-H club is very big up here in Minnesota. Not only did we see the usual collection of farm animals (horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, lions, tigers and bears - oh, my!), there were many presentations by 4-H members. They ranged from paintings and sculptures to bug collections, animal track examples, and the anatomy of a rifle scope. We also saw a fashion show where the girls modeled the clothes they had designed and made. Unfortunately, lingerie doesn't begin with an "H".

There were lots of rides which scared the bejeebers out of us. There was one attraction called a "Reverse Bunge". In this medieval contraption the rider is strapped into the middle of what looks like a gyroscope assembly, which is attached to bunge cords arranged much like a sling shot. This is then pulled down mechanically, then released. The rider shoots towards the sky, then falls back down, repeatedly bouncing up and down until Newton's laws catch up. Is that stupid or what?

We saw many other things at the fair, but we won't bore you with the details. Suffice it to say that we were duly impressed.

However, we must share how we shaved the price of admission in half. Instead of driving to the fair and paying for parking, we drove to downtown St. Paul and parked for free in a public park a few miles from the fair. We then unloaded the bikes and rode to the fair. Bike parking was free and we received $2 discount coupons for biking (tree huggers are like that). So instead of paying $16, we paid only $8 and we got to see downtown St. Paul by bike. This was much better than Jim's first idea, which involved knifing a parking lot attendant and Marci rolling him for change.