Fair Play

The Cajun Heartland State Fair is a week-long event that starts every Memorial Day weekend, with live music, lots of traveling fair rides and food, petting zoo, and that guy that makes art out of logs with his chainsaws (personally, I wonder if he's ever worked with ice). The boys had never been to a fair, with the carnival rides and all, so it was an exciting new adventure for all. The boys were first interested in the "Wild Mouse" ride - a fairly tame roller coaster - so we bought some ride tickets and headed for the line. Evan, of course, was too small to ride, but Nathan was tall enough to ride with an adult. Note: Being "tall enough" does not equate to "ready" to ride a particular attraction. Once we were near the line, Nathan decided to take a detour off to the side of the thing and see how it worked. Lots of gears, wheels, track, clicking, clacking, dips and turns... after watching several passes of the ride, Nathan quietly informed me he did not want to ride this one. "That's ok, Nathan! Let's go find some stuff you might want to ride!" I encouraged. And we sure did! The boys drove a "big rig" cab, with two steering wheels, lights and horn. Then my little speed junkies wanted to drive in a NASCAR race. The cars were lined up single file, and Nathan knew which one he wanted to drive - the green one! I was just about to load Evan in beside him, when Evan told me "No, I wanna drive dat one!" He pointed to the car behind Nathan's, so I belted him into it and moved outside the gate to watch. Somehow, in a momentary lapse of sanity, I failed to realize that these little kiddie racecars simply putt-putt around the "strait-away" of the little oval, but whip around the two corners. Not a problem if the boys are riding together. Probably not a problem if Evan had witnessed the cars in front of him do this first. The problem was that I placed him in a car with one of these whip-it turns right in front of him. So, just as I'm outside of the gate, standing next to Laura as we prepare to enjoy the boys enjoying their race, the operator hits the on button. There was no "here we go!" There was no, "ladies and gentlemen, start your engines!" There was not any indication that he was about to launch our sweet little "Boopy" into near orbit, unleashing such shock and awe on the kid that I could only wonder at the amount of counseling may be someday needed to undo my abandoning him to such torture. The ride was only a few minutes, but Evan cried for me to rescue him the ENTIRE TIME. Everyone around us felt so sorry for him, and I'm sure I'm off their ballot for "Dad of the week".

Thankfully, there was a petting zoo around the corner! After petting and feeding the "Baskin Robbins" petting zoo (it was mostly comprised of about 31 varieties of goat), Evan was better. He refused to get on any more "ride-a-vehicle-around-in-a-circle" rides, but he did go down the super slide with us a few times, and I'm pretty sure the overall memory will be a positive one! Nathan wants to know when we're going back.