Tex Appeal at the State Fair of Texas

The State Fair of Texas started today in Dallas at Fair Park.

In my current condition I don't know if I'll be going to the fair this year. Or down to Round Top this weekend.

I'm not in the mood to walk. After years of bragging that I've cured myself from getting back aches, I've got one. I think I either overdid swimming or sitting at the computer. Or both.

I was listening to WBAP radio's news at noon and a fairgoer was going on and on about how delicious the 2008 Big Tex Choice winner was. To me it sounds disgusting. Chicken-fried bacon, using extra thick bacon, double-battered, breaded, then deep-fried. With either ranch or honey-mustard dipping sauce.

At the State Fair of Texas you can not use United States currency to buy things like food directly. You must wait in a line to buy coupons and then pay for your chicken-fried bacon with coupons. I don't know how many coupons the chicken-fried bacon costs. If I remember right last year it seemed like the Big Tex Choice foodstuff was in the 6-8 coupon range. A coupon is worth 50 cents.

If you don't use up all your coupons you can not turn them back into U.S. currency. You can save them for next year and use them at the fair. Unless something scandalous happens, like a few years back someone stole a lot of coupons from wherever the leftover coupons were stored after the end of the fair. So, they voided that year's coupons from being used at future State Fairs of Texas. This did not seem fair to me.

If I do go this year I am going to stay til it gets dark this time so I can watch the fireworks/light show. The first time I went to the fair the fireworks/light show was about the best of that type thing I'd ever seen. A huge globe rose out of the water and somehow images were projected onto the globe. Fireworks and laser beams shot all over the place.

This year the show is called Illumination Sensation. It fires up at 8 PM. In addition to the usual fireworks there is some sort of high-tech 3-D light screen and liquid fire fountains shooting flames skyward with computer generated graphics timed to music.

If I do go to this year's fair it will be on October 17. Jessica Simpson will be singing at the Chevrolet Main Stage. It's free, I think.

Maybe if my back doesn't get better I could do the fair in a wheelchair. That might be fun.