Nodaway

[vakkotaur]

There was no corn at the Corn Carnival, that I saw, with the exception perhaps of popcorn. This, it was explained, is because the Carnival is not a celebration of corn but a celebration of being done dealing with corn for the year. There was, however, a renaissance faire at the renaissance faire. This was "downtown" as Nodaway is of a size that you are either downtown or not in town at all.

The faire itself was something like Nishna, for anyone who recalls that, which seems reasonable as it's in the same region and roughly the same time of year. Nodaway is even smaller and someone could go on about anachronisms and the like... and miss the faire. It won't win awards for re-creating an authentic period look. This was a nice little faire or maybe a sort of end-cap to the season (well, almost, as almost everyone there will be at Riverssance in two weeks). The feel was very friendly and informal.

There was a food vendor and I don't know how much business he got as the folks in the community building did a pretty good job at a good price. And then was the pie. The coconut cream was butterscotch coconut cream. The gooseberry... recall those cartoons with termites swarming around a wood-frame house leaving nothing behind but the chimney and the plumbing? That's about what happened to the gooseberry pie. There was quite a variety of pie and if any were made with any shortcuts at all it'd be a surprise to everyone. These folks take their pie seriously. I ate too much. I suspect everyone did. The "Fireman's Breakfast" Sunday morning was also good. Sausage is something else taken seriously.

There was a pen, or set of pens depending on how you considered it, for an animal/pet judging for the Carnival. A full grown miniature horse didn't pay much attention to anything other than grass. He was chowing down all the time and I suspect he was taking advantage of being on grass for a while. The closest he got do dealing with the goat in the same pen area was, I am told, to cock his leg when the goat got a bit too close and the goat backed right off. The goat, unlike the horse, paid attention almost everything but the grass, coming up close to whoever was nearest the pen. I was told I could climb into the pen and get close and so I did. The mini remained fixated on vegetation and whenever I tried to take a picture, there was a goat in the shot. Or at least there was when the goat wasn't trying to nibble one thing or another hanging from my belt. When I left, or tried to, the goat became very vocal.

Despite the weather forecast which was for storms with hail on Saturday, the faire had nice mostly clear skies. Saturday night it did rain, which made things unpleasant for those camping, but it didn't rain during faire hours as far as I know.