New Thing #4 - Demolition Derby Time!!

Okay, so I'm relatively sure I've been to a demolition derby before, but I was probably too young to remember it. Only my parents could tell me if I've been, but it's 1:30 in the morning. I don't think they'd appreciate a phone call right now. So, for the sake of my parents sleep schedule, I'll go with this being a new thing. :) Oh, and funny story, one of our old cars ended up in a demo derby back in the day. The good ol' brown bomb, the Jonesmobile!! My sister learned to drive in that car, and it was a sad day when we gave it away. ;-)

My friend Betsy and I went with 3 of her friends, Jeremy, Jackie & Gene, to the Monroe County Fair in Waterloo, IL. How ironic that the first county fair I've been to in years has the same name as my hometown's fair. For those of you who don't know, Paris, MO, is in Monroe County too. :) I just have to share this next picture because I thought it was hilarous.

How often does the Janitor get his own parking spot?! Classic...

Anyhoo, we got there around 7, and the weather was perfect. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to last. The first heat started and I realized how much I missed the laid-back relaxed camraderie that I grew up with. These were my people!! For you "city folk" who have never been to a county fair or seen a demolition derby, it's a sight to behold. Lots of jacked up old cars ramming the hell out of each other. Awe. Some. It had rained earlier in the day, so there was a healthy amount of sludge covering the arena. But, for the first two heats, it wasn't enough to slow too many people down. The first heat had a girl, and we were cheering her on quite a bit. She gave a hell of a show, and gave her all almost to the end. She even kept driving even though there was a ton of smoke billowing out of the engine. That's true dedication. I'm not sure how she even saw anything. This is probably why they go in reverse most of the time.

Here they are lined up and ready to roll.

...and they're off!
This guy has no ass end!I was cheering for #42 b/c he had the most junk in his trunk!! ;-)

Sometimes you end up on the wall!!

Here's our girl, and yes she was dragging her bumper for most of the heat!

Me and Betsy enjoying the show!

After the 2nd heat, we decided to go grab a bite to eat and some more beer. Another good thing about county fairs? Dollar hot dogs and $2 beers!!! What's better than that? Once we had our fill we thought we'd head back up for some more destruction. Mother Nature had a better idea. The skies opened up and it started coming down. We joined the rest of the smart people under the pavilion (right next to the beer tent!) and hung out for awhile. Hundreds of people under one roof is quite entertaining.

45 minutes later it stopped raining and we made our way back up to the bleachers for the final round. The final 3 drivers from the first 4 heats made up the final round. How these cars were even able to still drive, is beyond me. They were just getting ready to start when once again it started pouring. And geniuses that we were, we decided to stick around and watch. It wasn't raining too badly at this point. (One of the people with us knew one of the drivers. Apparently, we were supposed to be cheering him on...) If we thought it was raining then, all we had to do was stick around 20 more minutes. Let's just say I had water and mud in places where there should never be mud or water... The derby wasn't quite as exciting at this point, since most of them were getting stuck in the mud, rather than bashing into each other. We finally got smart and headed back to the pavilion. But, it was rather pointless by this time since we were all carrying an extra 30 pounds of water weight!

Four of us in all our rain-soaked glory!...Jeremy, Jackie, me and Betsy

We finally decided to leave, and realized that the Honda Civic we came in was stuck in the mud. Shocking, right? Twenty more minutes and two very muddy boys later, and we were out and on our way home. I apologize to Jackie for the inevitable wet dog smell that will still be lingering in her car today! I had forgotten how much fun fairs can be, and despite the rain, or in this case, because of the rain, we had a blast.