| Ready, aim . . . |
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Nevada County Fair -- 2004, Part 2 of 2
Photos taken August 14, posted August 15, 2004
© 2004, Herbert E. Lindberg
After a couple hours enjoying the animals and chatting with their caretakers, it was time to move on to the carnival and crafts areas. We came first to "Water Wars" along Gold Path next to the Ferris wheel. In the picture below you can see a young fellow pulling back the giant water balloon slingshot and, in the second picture, letting fly through the hole in his roof a red balloon on a trajectory toward his adversary (out of the picture on the left, lofting balloons from an identical rig). All four water warriors were soaking wet from direct hits and near misses. Great fun on a warm day.
| Ready, aim . . . |
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| Fire! |
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Deep into the carnival area was a new ride (new to us, anyway) for youngsters. It was a red tug with a white and blue canopy that rocked back and forth on a two-rail, vertically curved track. As it rocked back and forth it also rotated back and forth on a pivot with which it was attached to the bogie rolling on the track. Thus, it had all the disorienting motions of a ride for "big kids" but at gentle amplitudes and frequencies.
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The ROCKIN' TUG, a great new ride for youngsters |
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| The Green Dragon roller coaster, a long-time favorite on Gold Path |
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Our local parks (Empire Mine, Bridgeport, Starr Mine, and so on) put together a very nice booth smack in the center as you enter the Main Street Center building from Gold Path and Main Street. Ranger Jeremy Alling (at left in the picture below) from Bridgeport was among those tending the booth. Our own (Lake Wildwood) Diane Marten added to the display an announcement of an upcoming Auto Tour on the Virginia Turnpike (which still has some of its original stacked-rock walls from the 1850's) up to the covered bridge.
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Our local California parks had a well-conceived booth. |
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A visit to the arts and crafts in the Northern Mines building is a must. As usual, there was a wide range of artwork from the local grade schools as well as from adult artists and craftsmen and women. The homemade furniture was outstanding, but scale models were more unique for photographing. The model below is a live steam engine that burns diesel oil and operates at 100 pounds (psi) steam pressure. It was modeled after Southern Pacific's Class P-4 Pacific by Gordon Briggs. He originally built the model as a P-3 in the 1960's and then took it apart in the 1990's to upgrade it to a P-4. The rebuild to its present state was completed in early 2004.
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First-place-winning model train engine |
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The doll house below had all the intricate detail of the steam engine plus many creative furniture pieces, lamps, wall paper, and so on. If you look closely front and center of the house you can even see an upright vacuum cleaner. This model won "Best of Show."
| First place and best-of-show doll house |
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Model homes and landscaping at the Narrow-gage Railroad Museum |
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| Same home from another angle |
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| Model railroad bridge and mountain abutment |
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| Beautiful draft horses -- a hint of the
coming Draft Horse Classic, September 16-19, 2004 |
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