Tag Archives: Big E

Equine Affaire

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I finally got myself out the door to DO SOMETHING. I’ve been sitting at home watching my pennies because we are in the last quarter of the year and I have a bunch of annual bills that come due. I was in pretty good shape with money in the bank to cover  them but my car had other ideas.thCAB792DQ

After several pricey repairs my formerly comfortable bank balance is back to it’s normal level of no reserve. At least I got one of the 3 bills paid (2 more to go ) and my mechanic says my car should last at least until I hit 300,000 miles.

flyingmoney-0603a

My former job had overtime during the holidays so I usually worked the extra to plug the shortfall but my new job doesn’t have that. Don’t get me wrong, I love not having to “kill myself” and my new job pays about the same as my old job…just no OT which is hitting my purse strings now.

That said I have been playing the hermit, trying not to drive too much (Gas), making a grocery list and sticking to it, cutting coupons etc.; being a good budget minded person (Not my normal way of operating). But eventually that had to give and it did in a sort of big way.

I kept seeing an add on Facebook for Equine Affaire. It was being held at the fairgrounds in Springfield where they hold the “Big E”, Eastern States Exposition . The Big E is a very Big deal out here in the east even though I still haven’t been but a Horsey event… well I might be interested in that so I counted my pennies and bought a ticket for the day and since I was going to be out there anyway…I bought a box seat to the Fantasia Show that evening. (At that point I had no idea what the show would be like but I figured in for a penny in for a pound)

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I hadn’t been to a horse show in years and never to one like this. I took over 400 pictures. Not all are worth the paper it would take to print them but there are a few “keepers”. The photography part was challenging because everything was indoors and I was trying not to use the flash. (More on that later). It took me quite awhile to “sort of” figure it out. I never did get the result I wanted but I had fun and over the next few days I want to share my experience and some of the pictures (not all 400).

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I was pretty amazed. When I pulled into the parking “field” (Only $5.00 for the whole day) one of the attendants said the event had sold over 6000 tickets each day. (A 4 day run!) (That’s $30,000 per day in parking fees only) There were cars from all over… New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Canada, Georgia, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island and of course, Massachusetts.

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So welcome to Equine Affaire!

On the Road to New York

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It was time to hit the road to upstate New York. I’ve been looking forward to this weekend for a year, ever since my niece-in-law posted a picture on Facebook. This event is the 40th Anniversary Adirondack Balloon Festival. 40 years tells me it will be a BIG DEAl.

I’ve never been to a hot air balloon festival. I’ve seen hot air balloons, even rode in a tethered one in Atlanta, Ga. and I saw hot air balloons on one of my trips to Sedona, AZ. as they drifted over the high desert.

Drfting over the high desert. AZ 2008

Now I was heading to my old stomping grounds in Upstate New York for the biggest Hot Air Balloon Festival on the East Coast. To give you a timeline it’s Thursday, September 20 and the opening ceremonies are tonight at 5pm at Crandall Park in Glens Falls, NY.

I got a late start. It seemed like every time I turned around I spotted something that needed doing before I could leave so instead of a 10 am start I didn’t get on the road until almost 12:00.

I was making pretty good time until I got to the halfway point, Springfield Ma. The Big E is in town. The Big E stands for Eastern States Exposition and is the biggest fair in Massachusetts. To add to the traffic going to the Big E there was road work. Only one lane of traffic was moving. It was close to 45 minutes just getting through that section. ETA for Albany was now 4:30…rush hour. Making the opening ceremony was not looking good.

I put the time issue on the back burner and just settled in for the drive. It was pretty uneventful. Even the traffic in Albany was light for a rush hour. I did miss the opening ceremony at Crandall Park. I arrived at my sister’s house in Gansevoort, NY at about 5:30. Once the car was unloaded we dealt with the question of dinner.

The Peppermill Restaurant in South Glens Falls was the winner and we headed over there for open-faced Roast Turkey sandwiches…yummm .

Open Faced Turkey and Gravy Sandwich

Back at the house we reviewed the Balloon festival schedule. Usually there are early morning launches and then again in the afternoon. To our surprise there was no morning launch on Friday. That means we don’t have to get up early and will have the morning and afternoon to do whatever we come up with! Nice.