On the road again! (Part Two)

Antelope Co. Fair- Neligh

After leaving Halsey about 7 a.m. we headed to Neligh for the Antelope County Fair. After gassing up and cleaning all the bugs off of our windshield, it seems to just rain bugs when we drive at night, we pulled into the fairgrounds.

We met up with the Extension Educator Anita and she directed us to the 4-H exhibit hall for the day! It was great weather and we enjoyed our shade. The rabbit and poultry show were in progress and the announcer would give us a shout out ever now and then… thanks! There was quite the crowd for the poultry show, there were over 130 entries total! Biggest Poultry Show Award: Antelope County!

We enjoyed chatting with Anita and checking out all the building exhibits! They had over 30 decorated tables and she said it was their “cattle show” in the building! ☺ They were all very creative! As we were tearing down we got a visit from our friend Ben Beckman and he gave us a hand! Thanks!

Antelope County was a fun, laid back morning and we thoroughly enjoyed Anita, thanks for all your help! Keep selling tickets!

More Stamps!

On our way from Neligh to Ord we hit up a few more stops on our passports! We took another county road to get to one of them… I don’t think we’ll ever learn! It was twisty-turny, hilly, gravel road but we made it!

Fort Hartsuff was an old military fort that used to be the hub of activity for the area. It was a private farm headquarters for a while but it was eventually donated to the NRCS and is now open to the public! It was interesting to see all the old buildings and their various purposes throughout the years!

Our next stamp was at the Happy Jack Chalk Mines in Scotia. Correction, outside of Scotia, we toured the town and finally asked a nice man on the street where it was before discovered it was a few miles further down the road! Once we made it though we got to see the mine shafts and got our stamps! Stamp Total: 9. We got our free T-Shirt!



Valley Co. Fair- Ord

We got to the Valley County Fair in Ord about the time their free BBQ started! Their building was very impressive. Inside of it was two show arenas, the food stand, 4-H exhibit area and at the far end their actual Extension Office! Right there on the fair grounds! Very convenient.

We set up in a hot parking lot beside the kid’s inflatables and the area set up for the cake auction and live entertainment later. Their cake auction was outrageous! It was a “big deal” according to the locals! 90% of the proceeds went to the 4-Her and the other 10% went to Valley County. The grand champion cake went first and set the cap for all the cakes. It sold for almost $800! A CAKE! They all sold for over $350! What an excellent way to raise money for the kids!

We sold tickets and then packed up to head to Hooper for the night! We stayed with our friend Z! Thanks for letting us hang out!



Burt Co. Fair- Oakland

On our way to Oakland we stopped in Bancroft at the John G. Neidhart State Historical Museum. It was interesting to see all of his literary works! He is the official Nebraska poet. We got a stamp in our passports, number 10!

We got to the Burt Co. Fair and met up with their Extension Educator Mary. It was their livestock day and there were lots of people everywhere! We set up right in front of the 4-H Exhibit Hall and caught a large portion of the traffic to the show ring.

Burt County was very generous and the tickets were an easy sell! It was a very 4-H focused county with the Exhibit Hall being the center point! We enjoyed all the people that went through. We would like to award Mary with the Best Loud Speaker Announcement! She was awesome and generated ticket sales too!

They had the best food stand set up we’ve seen too! It was an entire serving line and you got what you wanted and then paid for everything at the end. There were tons of tables set up too. We went at about 1:30 p.m. because the line went on forever right around noon! The food was great too, Molly had a taco salad, the best she’d ever had supposedly, and Reese had a hot beef sandwich with mashed potatoes! We were stuffed but oh was it GOOD!

We had so much fun in Burt County, it was great to just chat with people and enjoy the morning! It was our most productive morning yet! Thank you so much Mary for your help, we really enjoyed getting to know you!




Douglas/Sarpy County- Springfield

We headed from Oakland down to Fremont, through Omaha (eek) and into Springfield. The directions we got from the educator were from Lincoln so we just navigated ourselves and we felt a little lost for a bit but in truth we were always on the right roads and drove straight there! We shouldn’t have doubted ourselves!

We got to Springfield, washed the truck at the car wash which was right next to the fairgrounds. We then met up with the Extension Educators and got set up next to the shooting sports. There was a rodeo starting about 8 p.m. so we caught some of that crowd. We got to chat with 4-H families and it sounded like they were having a good fair.

Lil’ Green was there and we got our picture taken with him! He even tried to get in the truck… for some reason he didn’t quite fit in the drivers seat! We also had a 4-Her come visit us with her rabbit, they were cute!

We headed back to Lincoln and it was the shortest drive to where we were going to stay for the night! It felt very strange to get out of the truck after 45 minutes! We are becoming seasoned drivers it seems, 3 hour commute to our next location is short!



Lancaster Co. “Super” Fair- Lincoln

We hit up the Lancaster County Fair in Lincoln on Sunday… what a HOT day! We were set up in a parking lot and I think an oven would’ve been cooler!

We were next to “Daryl’s Racing Pigs” and got to watch them run around the track for their prize, Koolaid! It was a crowd drawer and everyone enjoyed picking their favorite pig! We were also next to the Rabbits R Us 4-H Club dunk tank! It was entertaining watching them fall in the water and after sitting out there for hours we were a little jealous too!