Several years ago USA Today trumpeted the Iowa State Fair was named one of the Top 100 Things You Should Do Before You Kick The Bucket (or something similar).

Well, heck, I could have told you that.

I’ve been a faithful Fair-goer for well over 20 years. In my formative youth, I eschewed the sights, smells and sounds of all things Fair related, save for my very first concert — Dolly Parton at the Grandstand in 1982. The flip switched in the early ‘90’s and ever since I’ve been obsessed.  (Meanwhile, I’ve always been obsessed with Dolly.)

This year was no different. On Friday, I drove straight from Kansas City to the fairground for a night of food, folks and fun.  My friend Heather enjoys all the same things I do, obligatory people watching, eating ridiculously unhealthy fried cuisine on a stick and seeing friends you see only once a year at the Bud Tent.

Every year the Fair introduces some new must-have food that has everyone clamoring to try. Two years ago was a lethal red velvet funnel cake. Last year was fried butter. (Yes, a stick of butter deep fat fried in French toast-esque batter. It caused cardiologists heads to explode … along with the hearts of those folks that dared eat them.) This year the buzz was surrounding a Bacon Maple Funnel Cake. Yes, I tried it. And, yes, it was beyond divinely decadent.

Oh, Bacon Maple, if loving you is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.

Another tradition I enjoy? Visiting the Fair early on a Saturday morning with my dad. We like to grab a pecan cinnamon roll the size of your head, a cup of coffee and park ourselves on a shady bench and watch the Fair come alive.  At 7:30am, there’s a hint of activity … mostly bleary-eyed farmers traipsing around and older folks trying to beat the mid-day heat.  By 8:30am, over-achieving generational families arrive ready to tackle the day. And by 9:30am, polite chaos, anarchy and mayhem reign as people start lining up to see the Butter Cow or grab a mid-morning Gizmo.

The biggest draw this year?

If you grew up in Des Moines anytime in the ‘70’s or ‘80’s, you’re familiar with the beloved puppet Floppy, a long-running kid’s show featuring a charming, joke-telling, cartoon-introducing dog.  They broke Floppy out of the confines of the archives and put him on display at the Varied Industries Building near the Governor’s booth. I’ll give you one guess who’s the bigger draw … Floppy or Governor Branstad?  Another packed house?  The new Bud stage tucked in the far south edge of the Fairgrounds that looks like it was haphazardly erected in three days.  Skid Row, yes, THAT Skid Row, played a free show on Friday.  Not only was it 1989 all over again, the crowds were enthralled by the has-been rock group who sounded surprisingly tight given that lead singer Sebastian Bach was long gone.

The Fair … a Mecca of fanny-packs, tube tops, Wranglers, deep-fried Oreos, country music, livestock, golf carts, sunburns, ferris wheels, big boars and even bigger pumpkins.  I wouldn’t miss it for the world.