More Meet Ups With Friends - Got To Be NC Festival

(Raleigh, NC)  Hi 86 Lo 74 -- Friday morning Liz, a friend from my ham radio days here in Raleigh, came for a visit. We spent the afternoon "bin diving" at some thrift shops in the area. I found some yarn and crocheting supplies. We had a great afternoon. Thanks Liz for coming over.

Also on Friday Jim went to lunch with Dave and Brett, two of his co-workers from his working days at Duke Energy (formerly Progress Energy).

He usually meets up with Dave when we're in town, but it's been quite a while since he's seen Brett. He enjoyed seeing the guys again and hearing about changes at the company since he left over five years ago. He also enjoyed teasing them about how great retired life is. They didn't seem to like that. :)

This weekend there was a large festival going on here at the NC State Fairgrounds. The Got to be NC Festival is a celebration of the agricultural tradition of North Carolina. The main fairgrounds are about a mile from our campground so we drove over on Saturday morning. It was quite crowded but we finally found a parking space and enjoyed wandering around, taking in the sights and sounds of the festival. There were a lot of old tractors and farm equipment, food vendors, and rides for the kids. Very much like a smaller version of the State Fair. (Click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

Tractors and other machinery were everywhere.






Grandstands for different activities.


We've never seen a swing ride where you lie down on your stomach.




We should be able to get about a year's worth of groceries in this cart. It has a V8 engine in it and appears in parades all over the Raleigh area.


Dorton arena is one of the landmarks of the fairgrounds and dates back to the 50's.


Inside the arena they had a BMX track set up. It was fun watching the bikes fly over the jumps and through the air.




There were food stands everywhere


This is the first time we’ve seen samples of the food on the menu laid out on a table. If the food was real (we didn't get close enough to find out) it seems like such a waste.


There is a huge flea market every weekend at the fairgrounds, and we were glad to see they still had it this weekend, even with the festival going on.




We got back to the RV before it got too hot. We watched some old movies on TV the rest of the afternoon. (Including Jim's favorite movie, "Field of Dreams". We've seen it many times, and we still cry at the end of it.)

Today (Sunday) we have nothing planned. Jim went for a long walk. We watched the Indy 500 time trials on TV and basically chilled all day.

See you in a few days.