Adventures in Arkansas: I'm not country enough for this!

Well, call me crazy. I took my 2 month old child to the state fair today, with my friend Sara and her 2 girls (2 1/2 and 3 months). It started out as kind of a dreay day, raining and cold. But Saturday looked like this too, yet we managed to have a fun day at the zoo. So we decided we'd brave the weather, hoping it would turn nice, and head to the fair anyway. To get to the fairgrounds, we learned you have to drive through the, ehem, ghetto. This didn't turn out to be eventful, but you better believe we locked our doors! Once we got inside the fair, after being turned away from about 10 gates that were closed, we were directed to the "parking lot". We knew it was the parking lot, because there were signs designating the rows and what lot it was, but there ended the resemblance to a parking lot. It actually looked more like...a field of mud. We knew this could get bad when we saw the tow trucks that were on standby! Now, I drive a V8 Ford Explorer. Pretty much a truck, right? The parking attendant waved me to a "spot", which was on the other side of a mud hole. And I got stuck. I've never been stuck in the mud before, so I was a little antsy about this, but the parking attendant (a true Arkansan...only had about 4 teeth. Seriously.) jumped right in behind me and pushed me out of the mud hole. I turned around to Sara, desperately trying turn her away from this madness, but she was already fishtailing her way toward me. We were both cracking up by this point, but still determined to HAVE FUN AT THE FAIR, by golly! At least the rain had stopped by now. We sloshed our way into the fair, wishing we had rubber boots, and had a good time eating good fair food and watching Kate (the 2 1/2 yr old) ride, sometimes cry her way through some rides. We also enjoyed the petting zoo and the lovely scent of livestock. Once we had our fill of the sights, sounds and carnies, we trekked 14 miles back to the mud field, er, parking lot and started praying we could get our cars out. Rather than slosh the babies through the mud to the cars, I stayed with the strollers while Sara got her car out onto the road. That Oklahoma girl can really work her Saturn through the mud, haha! She made it up on the road without getting stuck, and only minor fishtailing. Then it was my turn...I was nervous, but said a prayer and gunned it (but not too hard!) and sludged my way up on the road without getting entrenched! The parking attendants all cheered as Sara and I got our cars out of the mud hole...they even said they were proud we did it by ourselves, w/o the tow trucks! So we had a fun day at the fair...lots of great memories! Next adventure for us both: a serious carwash!