USA - All the fun of the fair

As someone who, when it comes to holidays, tends to do a lot of planning and research it is a nice change now and again to just take pot luck and see what happens. On the tourist information stand at the station I picked up a leaflet which was a guide to the small towns along this part of the Connecticut coast. There is a train that shuttles along the coast regularly between New London and New Haven and putting them together I chose to take a ride to Guilford (They've dropped the middle 'd' here).

In the UK a shuttle train like this would be a single car Class 153 or a 2 coach Pacer but not here where it produced a big, thumping, noisy diesel with 3 carriages and in the labour intensive world that is the US rail system, 2 guards!

Guilford is a fairly typical New England coastal town. On one side of the tracks, a small harbour overlooking salt marsh, the open sea and in the distance an island with a lighthouse. On the other, a quaint town of clapperboard houses and shops overlooking a large rectangular green.

It wasn't completely peaceful though as I had, by chance, stepped into the Guilford Fair so I went and had a look at a fair American style. 

It was part, normal bog standard fairground, part agricultural show, part WI extravaganza. There was a big wheel and other rides, tractor driving demonstrations, a live band, prize winning sheep, goats and cattle and some very amusing donkey trials. I did feel a bit sorry for the guys from the local donkey sanctuary who were trying to lead various donkeys around a course of jumps and other obstacles. Donkeys are not known for their co-operative nature and once one decides it's not going to move it's virtually super-glued to the spot.

In the "tents", they had entries for jam, baking and flower arranging competitions and entries for the Connecticut Fairs State Quilting Competition (Nerida - if you are reading this, I expect an entry from you next year!). All the fruit and vegetable competition entries looked a bit basic given that my grandfather was a champion gardener, he could have to taught them a thing or to. There was however one item that the New England American's are famous for that he could not have won. The biggest pumpkin! Boy do they know how to grow pumpkins here! The winning entry is in the photo below and it had 390 on the board next to it, so I'm guessing it was 390lbs?

One thing I have to mention of course is the food. The food at fairs in general is not usually particularly healthy so imagine what it's like here. Lots of trailers advertising "Fried Dough". Having said that I have now taken a liking to Apple Cider Doughnuts!