I have great memories of my grandmother taking me to the South Dakota State Fair in 1983. All the farm animals and machinery, the giant bingo game where you could win a TV, my 86 year-old grandma taking me on the Tilt-A-Whirl (God bless her!!), going back for seconds on the best fried onion rings I'd ever eaten - I remember it all with great fondness. I had hoped to duplicate that magic for my kids someday - a trip to a midwestern state fair. It ended up all working in our favor when planning this road-trip out of Yellowstone. Wyoming's State Fair opened right in time for us to catch it while driving towards Mount Rushmore. Turns out, it wasn't exactly what we'd all hoped for. See, it was very, very, very small. In fact, it might have even been smaller than our country fair here in California. And despite us being there on it's second day, much of it's offerings - concerts, livestock shows, the rodeo, were not even available yet. We still managed to knock-out an entire day seeing it's unique offerings like the antique tractor pull, and the collection of vintage covered wagons (not shown), but I still have a craving to get my kids to a giant midwestern state fair. I just read Texas puts on the largest state fair. It's not exactly the midwest, but it IS next month... ;-)