So tonight Ray, Jami, Tonya and I braved the weather, mud and psychological scarring and headed south to the Addison County Fair and Field Days for the Figure-Eight and Demolition Derby.  This was my first demolition derby experience ever.

It had poured rain all morning, and looked threatening at mid-day, so we weren't sure if we were going to make.  By six o'clock things looked clear, so we decided to try our luck.  I have to say I was a bit hesitant, as I was unsure what we were going to find.  Upon arrival Tonya summed it up best when she said "I never felt like Burlington was the 'big city' until we got here..."  It was all very small-town USA: the people spoke with that Vermont accident I've only ever heard people make fun of on the radio before, the beer tent was the only close to as popular as the demo derby and everyone seemed to know everyone else (except for us).

We made it in time to watch most of the action.  There were two heats: each heat had two races and a feature (which included all of the cars that could still move on their own from the two races).  The first heat was the double figure eight.  I can honestly say I've never seen automobiles in this kind of shape before, and the fact that some of them could still move was astonding! 

Most of the cars required the forklift to remove them after the race!

After the first heat we decided we were hungry.  As we got up to get our dinner, we noticed one of the lovely side effects of the morning's rain: wet butts. 

Ray decided to remain behind and guard our towel (not that it was doing us much good), so Jami, Tonya and I went off to procure a fair food dinner!

The second heat started while we ate dinner.  No figure eight nonsense this time - this was an all out demolition!  The first race included the 6 cylinder cars and the second heat was the 8 cylinders. 

 
The announcer kept promising the crowd "a whale of a feature" to finish off the race - featuring the still moving 6 and 8 cylinder cars.  Unfortunately, night had fallen at that point, so all of the photos are a bit too dark to share.  I will confess that we stayed until the end and had a fantastic time!  We saw cars catch on fire, go from 4-door to about 2.5-door, hoods crinkle, tunks smashed in and the worst paint jobs of all time. 

The one side-effect of our little trip, and probably the single most memorable part, was the mud.  We were careful at first, but by the time we were heading back to the car, there was no help for us.   These photos don't do the mud justice. 

Our shoes were so muddy that I had everyone sit in the car and take their shoes off before they put their feet in.  The shoes were stored in a lucky orange bag in the trunk - along with the sopping wet towel! 

Jami and Tonya are sooooo happy to have their wet and muddy shoes off!  Unfortunately, there was no help for our wet bums!