Traveling in Place

If you always behaved as if you were in a foreign country, life would be so much more interesting. For example, the Dutchess County Fair is happening now, just ten miles away as the crow flies, and it's a big deal around these parts. There are the usual kiddie rides and pie contests and pig races, with demonstrations of sheep-shearing and horse grooming at certain hours. The biggest pumpkins and the prettiest chickens will be on display, and probably goats, cows, sheep and turkeys raised by earnest young 4-H'ers too. If we get hungry, there's sure to be plenty of sno-cones and funnel cake and french fries and pizza and those aromatic and scary-looking kielbasa, which you hardly see anywhere else except maybe Poland.

Mitch and I don't really want to go but we're going anyway, since it's a spectacle that only happens once a year and we've never been around when it's going on. If we were traveling in Germany or France or any other foreign country, we'd jump at the chance to see some local color and come home brimming with stories and photos. Funny how we all marvel at any old thing when we pack our bags and pay a fortune to fly across an ocean to another continent, but when it's right in our own backyard it's a big yawn.