PHOTO TR: A "different" look at the 2010 Strawberry Fest

It is a tradition each year for Stacey and I to go to the Strawberry Festival in Plant City, FL. Mostly it is because it is a chance to eat a crap-load of strawberries in all different forms (which Stacey loves), but it is also comedy gold. Lots of scary rednecks and people who probably have been addicted to meth for 10+ years.

Adam did a great job of showing the midway and the traditional fair aspects, so I thought I would take a slightly different approach..

Enjoy the photos!

On our way to Plant City we stopped in Lakeland to eat at a highly rated hole-in-the-wall called Mr. Fish. I just had to take a pic of the creepy sign!

And we are here! $10 each and the weather is fine... should be a great day!

You know you are at a redneck fair when the first thing you see when you walk in is a booth selling cowboy hats and belts! Yee-Haw!

Clothes with strawberries on them are VERY popular. How about this sexy tie-dye sweats outfit!

Lots of free entertainment including Lumberjack Log Rolling!

Obligatory "Random Fried Crap" shot!

Hulk Hogan has a limited edition Camero.. WTF?!?! Are the American car companies that desperate!?

For $3 you can race an inflatable pig!!! Adults can join in the fun also.. too bad they had a large line.

Confederate Flags are always the theme of the day in Plant City.

Elephant Eggs?! WTF is it with Elephants and Strawberries!?!?

Doesn't she make a cute Strawberry?

They have lots of traditional fair contests including baking ones! These cakes must be stale after 10 days!

The "Ask a farmer" ride didn't have a lot of visitors...

Stacey found her caboose!

I AM EVIL STRAWBERRY MAN!! I AM HERE TO STEAL YOUR SOUL!

It's time for "Make your own Strawberry Shortcake!" There are at least 10 booths that sell strawberry shortcake and you can decide which charity you want to help.

It's like Tokyo Disneyland! You have to find the guy holding the sign at the end of the line.

We go to this booth every year.. First you choose a biscuit or shortcake.. then load up on sliced strawberries, then whipped cream then a full strawberry on top!

You can put as much on as you want!

Awww yeah.. its SHORTCAKE TIME!

Part Deux! It really is an enjoyable event... If you find yourself in the Central Florida area this time of year.. make sure you go!

You do see a lot of this at the fair..

Its racing pigs time! This year they had a round of Pot Belly Pigs. They were so big they walked.

CREEPY HOME DEPOT GUY!

They also had the lamest motorcycle "ball of death" I have ever seen... Only 3 riders in the ball.. The circus does 7!

We were thinking about doing some rides.. but the lines were out of control. Very strange for a Monday.

Is this a children's ride?

WTF is this thing? I took the picture because I thought the name was "Scrotum".

Up next - Sheep Jumping! There was a TON of epic fail with this. 30 minutes later this was pretty much the only jump.

Medieval sheep torture device!

A sheep in humans clothing? I thought it was a wolf in sheeps clothing.. hmm.

A redneck dressing his sheep for a night on the town.. Awwww..

EVIL RABBIT!

You have seen Yetti Ball.... now meet YETTI CHICKEN!

Is this literally the Disc-O from Steel Pier?

What on earth is this? We never saw anyone try it..

Fairs always have classy prizes.

This is what happens when you give your kid a novelty sized margarita!

Dave - is this better than DAK's Dinosaur?

Another creepy strawberry dude!

Thanks for joining us! See you next year Strawberry Festival!

"An 'different'" Really Reed? Lol,

It Looks like you both had a very fun time on Redneck watch lol.

^ Thanks for the catch... Stupid head cold clouding my grammar skillz

This was epic. It makes me want to come down next year and go to this festival with you.

Dave - is this better than DAK's Dinosaur?

IMPOSSIBLE!

dt

That Strawberry Shortcake stand is amazing and honestly, it is a great value considering its a fair. Pretty much all strawberries and whipped cream you can balance on the biscuit/shortcake for $3.50

Great Photo-TR, Reed. It looks like you both had a good time. Too sad we never made it there.

I haven't been to a fair like this in years. This TR makes me want to check out the Va. State Fair this year, but I doubt it could be as awesome as this (hard to top "Yeti chicken"). The old Patterson (Calif.) Apricot Fiesta was never this amusing, but we had great tamales (particularly those from the Mexican Baptist Church).

Mr. Fish looks like Ernest Borgnine, and Stacey is, indeed, a very cute strawberry.

We went on Friday the 5th...Hardly anyone there, and lines non-existant. Was hoping from more rednecks, but sadly non were found during our trip. Indeed the "Make your own" Strawberry Shortcake is the best value at the fair, and is damned good!

^ Its weird - I wonder if it was so busy because there was a ride band special. I don't think there is one on the weekends which might have made a difference. It also seemed like there was a ton of kids there so perhaps there was a school out!

It looked like quite the eye-opening experience...But really, it's cool to get two perspectives. One showin' off rides and fried things, the other showing sights and...strawberry coated nectar of the gods.

The Scorpion is actually a Venture "Cobra".

I hope you got a ride on it, they are pretty rare rides nowadays.

^ I didn't get a chance to! I didn't realize they were so rare or I would have. I did find some good video on youtube of the ride cycle... that looks pretty awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdtOa839Sms

I am pretty sure that most life insurance policies will never pay if at any time in your life you ingest "Fried Butter".

Great TR. Here in Ohio, in the summer, there are all kinds of these festivals...Tomato festival, zucchini, Bratwurst, popcorn, tobacco (yes, very UN-PC, but still thinks this goes on) apples etc.

I often wonder if America's Most Wanted frequents these to catch fugitives on the lamb disguised as carnies.

I know on the day I went, it was Midnight Madness...all the rides were open from 11p-3a for the single price of $20, so that may have had a lot to do with the lesser crowds during the day...as we were leaving around 6p, the temp was dropping, and the crowds were starting a little..Saturday the 6th was Kids Day...I would want to have NOTHING to do with that...

For those looking at the Scorpion/Cobra ride, there is one currently running in at Fun Spot, next to Old Town.

This visit I also tried the Chocolate Dipped Bacon.....OMG!!! It was heavenly!

^ Bacon even makes chocolate better!

That dinosaur ride looks just like the one from RCT3, I thought it was just a made up model but I guess not.

Nice report!

^ Bacon even makes chocolate better!

Sigh! Is there nothing that bacon can't improve?

^Ice Bat.

dt

Tampa and surrounding area schools were out Monday for "Strawberry Festival Day." Sorry you had to deal with that!

^ I didn't get a chance to! I didn't realize they were so rare or I would have. I did find some good video on youtube of the ride cycle... that looks pretty awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdtOa839Sms

That thing was making some pretty sketchy noises.

I thought this was absolutely hilarious. Especially the one with the southern lady's shirt. I see so much of that crap at my school.

I used to love these rides! They used to have one at the Cattaraugus County Fair in Little Valley, NY that I think was called the Grasshopper or something weird like that. I am 99% certain however that the end that up kept spinning while the other end was loading. I seem to have a memory of being on the spinning end while the other side was being unloading and the ride op apparently forgot that the other end was loaded because we were up there spinning forever )

^^I thought that too about the noise- but I think that it might have been something out of field of the camera making those noises.

I didn't know Jimmy Carter was doing the fair circuit.

Great report, reminds of the SC/NC state fairs.

Nice TR.

Oh, and good news on your "Scrotum" ride (maybe). They have one at Fun Spot USA (right next to Old Town, in Kissimmee).

I haven't actually ridden it yet, but I did take a photo.

Ride the cobra scrotum. You know you want to.