The King, Cute Cowboys and Corny Dogs

The State Fair of Texas is a bit like our Melbourne Show, except very much bigger. It runs for a good 3 weeks and boost the largest ferries wheel in all of America (they probably say the world too, but I won't go that far).

As you would expect, there were plenty of games to play and win prizes from, beers to drink and Texan favourites such as the corny dog, smoked turket legs and curly fries. There were also chocolate dipped key-lime pie and this year's show food: Fried peanut butter jelly sandwich (sorry guys, I was looking for it, but at the end of the day, I still couldn't find the stall that sold it).

For the kiddies, there were plenty to see. The Peewee round-up had little kids hopping along on their stick horses and cows, doing their own version of the "8 seconds" rodeoes. There were also amusing shows like the piglet race, where 4 piglets actually run around a wire fence track to dash for their prize at the finishing line - oreo biscuits.

The most impressive would be the bird show. It is not just talking parrots and budgies doing tricks (but there was a very talented parrot who can actually sing 7 different songs from start to end). There were eagles, kingfisher, doves and exotic parrots. They had eagles flying from the carts of the Texas Star (that's the giant ferries wheel) to the stage, swooping down just above the crowd.

But wait there is more - The Corny Dog Eating Competition. If you don't know what an corny dog is, let me explain. It is basically a sausage on a stick, with a 6-7mm thick coat of corn flour batter deep fried (of course it is deep fried, what do you expect? It is Texas we are talking about!). The competition is to eat as many corny dog as it is possible within 10 minutes. Last year's champion ate 15. His wife came second and ate 12.

There were 15 competitors this year - most of them were... ok... quite "built" but the defending champion was this 70 something year old guy who was quite small and slim. You wouldn't have picked him for being the bottomless pit that he was!! And guess what, he won again, this time holding down 19 corny dogs. Amazing.

There was also a miniature trains garden, an autoshow, an exhabit of Elvis memorabilias for the fans, a parade and a lightshow to finish the night off. All pretty good!