Nebraska State Fair

A few months back we were looking at cheap airfares from Boston for a long weekend and we stumbled across a great fare to Kansas City. We had never been to Kansas City before so we decided to buy a couple of tickets. We figured if nothing else, they had great BBQ and we could explore the area a little bit. As it got closer to our trip we noticed that the Nebraska State Fair would be taking place at the same time we would be in Kansas City. Looking at the map it didn’t seem that far, only a little over 4 hours each way. We had driven that short (to us anyway) distance plenty of times so 4 hours out, the day at the fair and 4 hours back shouldn’t be too much of a problem. As usual, we got sidetracked. We did not take the most direct route because we wanted to check out at least one Roadside America attraction on the way. After a quick breakfast in the hotel we were on the road by 8. It rained for about the first hour but the rain soon stopped and gave way to a very clear and sunny day. We arrived in Hiawatha, KS, our first stop, a little after 9. What drew us here was an interesting memorial. A man named John Davis erected a memorial to the memory of his wife after she died in 1930. The memorial contains 10 life-size Italian marble statues depicting John and his wife Sarah as they aged. The 11th statue is of John alone, sitting next to "The Vacant Chair" where Sarah would have sat. The statues are all incredibly detailed, many of the statues of John are even are missing a left hand, which he had lost in a farming accident. The memorial cost over $200,000 to build, which would have been an extravagant sum during the 1930’s. Reportedly, the people of Hiawatha hated John for spending the money on this memorial when the town was in need of a hospital and other things that the town thought would be of better use of his money. John continued building the memorial instead of investing in the town. Once the memorial was complete in 1934, John visited the memorial frequently. He continued to watch over the memorial into the 1940’s and he often personally greeted tourists. When he died in 1947 he was buried next to his wife under the marble canopy. We found this whole memorial to be quite interesting. We have seen elaborate memorials like this before but we never heard the story behind them.

After leaving Hiawatha we headed west towards the fair. We noticed that the state highways in Kansas are on yellow sunflower shaped signs. We knew that Kansas was the Sunflower state and we learned that the state flower is the sunflower so we figured that there must be an abundance of sunflowers but until we were driving some of the back roads we didn’t realize just how many sunflowers there were in Kansas. We encountered field after field of sunflowers, some of the fields seemingly going on forever. Of course we stopped to check these out, thus delaying our arrival time at the fair, but it was certainly worth it.

We finally arrived at the Nebraska State Fair a little after 1. One major advantage of arriving so late in the day is that we did not have to sit in traffic getting into the parking lot. We had considered grabbing one of the $10 parking spaces outside of the fairgrounds at a local supermarket and walking in, but we figured let’s give the fairgrounds parking lot a try. We did and we were rewarded with a free parking space about 100 feet from the main entrance where you buy your tickets! The shopping center where we were considering parking was a 5 minute drive from the entrance. At that time of the day there were so many people who had their fill of the fair that parking was pretty easy. The fair itself was pretty normal in terms of fairs. There were rides, unusual foods, lots of animals and people. The fair might have been a little bigger than many other fairs we have been to but there was nothing especially unusual about the fair. We wandered around the animals for a bit, even talking to one of the farmers about his cattle; Jackie got bumped into by a stray pig (they are pretty strong animals!); we browsed through some of the crafts that were being sold; we watched a local band play Sweet Home Alabama while we enjoyed some local Nebraska beers; and we ate fair food. The standout foods were probably BBQ pork nachos, deep fried cookie dough (yum!), and fried gator bites. We did not go on any rides because the lines were all pretty long but overall we had a good day at the fair.

Ayrshire cow. 

"Tiny" weighs over 3200 pounds and eats about 75 pounds of food per day.

Looks painful.  Offers scientists a direct look into the cow's stomach.  We watched a video on this and it was pretty nasty.

Watsui cattle also known as African Longhorn

Gordy the 600 pound pork chop.

Arnold the 900 pound boar.  We think those things coming out from between his legs make up about 200 pounds worth.

Inside of deep fried cookie dough

Smoked nachos

Fried gator bites

After leaving the fair we again took an indirect route back towards Kansas City. We didn’t really have plans to stop anywhere; we were instead looking for a route that would take us home while avoiding the interstates as much as we could. We have noticed, especially when you get away from the Eastern US, that state highways are often just as quick as interstates. While the speed limit on the interstates is usually 75 and you can drive faster, the state highways, with their 65-70 mph speed limits are more scenic, are not clogged with trucks, and often much more enjoyable. We started heading back towards Kansas City and had we taken the interstate rather than a local route we would have missed Seward, Nebraska, which if you did not already know, is the Fourth of July City! We are not sure why it is called the Fourth of July City but we did discover something even more interesting: the world’s largest time capsule. On July 4, 1975, a local resident buried a 45 ton vault under a mound of dirt on the front lawn of his store. Rather than show the future what life was like in the past, like many time capsules do, he wanted to show his grandchildren what his life was like because he feared that they would not remember him. He filled the time capsule with an assortment of 5,000 items, including a pair of bikini panties, a man's aquamarine leisure suit with stitched yellow flowers, and a brand-new Chevy Vega, "the cheapest car he could find." Also in there is a Kawasaki motorcycle with no mileage. The 1977 Guiness Book of World Records certified the time capsule as the largest in the world but almost immediately a university in Georgia claimed they had a larger time capsule which had been sealed in 1940. In 1983, Harold Davisson, the owner of the time capsule in Nebraska, decided to build a second time capsule directly over the first, sheltered within a concrete pyramid. The pyramid also served as a roof to keep water away from the original. Within this pyramid he placed a second car, this one a beat up 1975 Datsun. This whole idea seemed pretty cool and we suspect that on July 4, 2025, we may find ourselves in Seward, Nebraska to watch the excitement unfold.

We made one last stop, for gas. We were surprised to see that at the gas station where we bought our gas as well as most others in the area, that mid-grade was cheaper than the lowest grade gas. Apparently the mid grade is made with 10% ethanol, vs. no corn in the lower grade.

Our route