Still in Centre Hall

Grange Fairgrounds (July 10)

Monday morning most of the bluegrass folks left, and the fairgrounds were much quieter.  With so few people around, Rumple could have his walks off-leash, which he loved.  The people who work on the grounds all seem to love dogs, and so our occasional encounters with staff were friendly.

On Monday and Tuesday we had quiet days around the fairgrounds and met friends Don (Monday) and Margaret and Bill (Tuesday) for dinner.

Meanwhile, the fairgrounds were being transformed – at least in the horse area near the gate.  Large shelters similar to the shade tents for the Bluegrass Festival were erected and outfitted with lots of plywood.  As the week wore on, it became clear that these were horse stalls.  The Pennsylvania Quarter Horse Association was setting up its show. (A quarter horse is any breed most suited to running 1/4 mile races.)

Towards the end of the week, the horses and their owners began to show up.  This was a totally different crowd from the bluegrass folks — younger, more athletic and I assume wealthier.  Owning a horse costs only a few thousand dollars a year, particularly if you live where you can have your own barn.  However, showing a horse is another matter – there is transportation, trappings (fancy saddles, blankets, reins, etc) show fees, and gear.  Many of the riders, particularly the women, wear very fancy beaded, sequined and bejewelled outfits.  Some of the concessions sell the lady’s jackets – the least expensive one I saw was $1200.

We were  intrigued by the horse trailers and RVs.  I am sure that some participants stayed in hotels.  However, there seemed to be two themes for RVs – large RVs pulling large horse trailers, and even larger RVs that are separated into living quarters for humans and quarters for horses.  Since the horses moved into the horse stalls upon arrival (and I think some of the many dogs moved in with the horses) there was plenty of room for the people.

Most of the action was in a different part of the fairgrounds from our campsite.  Since we were not involved, and did not know whether we needed tickets to watch, we just observed from afar, although I did take a few pictures of people exercising their horses.  Although my own kids took riding lessons one summer, I was still amazed at watching young children work with these large horses.

 

 

 Wednesday was a work day.  I had a student meeting and Chuck went to work with Phil.  As I was finished early, I visited the Children’s Craft Fair, which is always held on the first day of Arts Fest.  I really only did a quick walk-through, however, as I biked off to meet Chuck at the music store.

Yes, Chuck and I decided to ignore our previous failures at learning guitar.  Inspired by the Bluegrass Festival, we both invested in guitars and hope to learn to play – something!  We believe in the 2000 hour rule – you can achieve competence in anything if you put in 2000 hours of learning/practice.  Of course, 2000 hours is 40 hours a week, 50 weeks of the year or 10 hours per week for 4 years.  Don’t sign us up for a concert until 2021 – at the earliest.

For dinner our friends Becki and Gene (both biostatisticians) invited us out to their place, along with Becki’s father, Charles, who is also a statistician.  We had a wonderful dinner and a great time.

Thursday morning was the doctor appointment for which we remained in State College.  It went well.  After the appointment, we went to Boalsburg for the People’s Choice Craft Fair, where we met up with Don and Mindy.  We listened to music, ate festival food, and shopped for a gift for Mindy’s friend.

On Friday morning it was Rumple’s turn for a medical appointment, as he has been panting a lot more than the weather merits.  He had an echocardiogram, which seems like high falluting stuff for a dog.  In the end, he got a prescription for a heart medication to add to his growing cocktail of drugs.

We decided that it was silly to be camped at a horse show without going to see the horses, so we went over to have a look at what was going on at the show rings and barns.  Primarily what we saw were obedience trials for the horses, either on lead or being ridden.  While I am sure that hours of training are involved, these are not too exciting for the audience (at least for people like us) as each competition involves each horse and trainer going through the same routine of trotting, stopping, side-stepping, etc.  At the events we saw, most of the participants were women, although the events seemed to be mixed gender.

After we watched for a couple of hours, we headed off to downtown State College to join our friends Susie and Phil for Arts Fest.  They always stake out a spot near the stage on campus to meet with friends and family.

Chuck dropped me off with our chairs and cooler, and then went off to park.  As always, Susie and Phil had collected a nice group of friends and we gabbed and snacked.  As well, their daughter Maddie and boyfriend Cody were visiting for the weekend.

I meandered off to see the arts and crafts, and grabbed a bag of candied almonds en route.  The arts and crafts were terrific as always.  So were the nuts, except that one of them grabbed a filling which fell out.

The tooth fairy has not been kind to us this year.  Our trip was initially delayed because Chuck needed dental work, and we have had to return to State College 2 more times as follow up.  With jagged edges of tooth cutting into my tongue, it was clear that the tooth fairy was demanding that I visit my dentist before leaving State College, delaying our departure until Monday.

The tooth problem not withstanding, we had a good time at Arts Fest and enjoyed good company, good food and good music.

In principle, we planned to go back to Arts Fest on Saturday and enjoy the crafts and music.  What we actually did was to view a few more horse show events, and then head for Susie and Phil’s place to have dinner and enjoy the ambience.  As is often the case when there is an event in town, they had several guests staying with them and we all enjoyed their hospitality.

On Sunday, the horse show folks began to move out.  We noted that unlike most RV events, this one was dominated by women.  In any RV, you are likely to see a man driving and a woman giving directions (although there are exceptions, of course).  In the horse show crowd, most participants were women, and so were most of the drivers.  I now have the title of my first country and western song: “Big Rig, Horse Toting Mama”.  Unfortunately, after this inspired title, neither tune nor lyrics have come to me.  Stay tuned for a 3 a.m. revelation.

The wonderful April Detar agreed to see me at 7 a.m. on Monday to put in a filling.  In the interim, I learned that the drugstore sells a putty-like substance that can be used to plug the hole, although it required reapplication every few hours. Once the filling was in place we headed out.