Located in Charlottetown in the centre of Prince Edward Island is a sports complex that is home to a horse driving park and ice hockey rink and for one week in August home to a travelling fair called The Old Home.
I thought this was a misspelling until I realised it was a side business to the one being run from the building then it made sense!
With the complex car park being used to hold the fair the local residents were opening up their gardens to visitors...for a small fee. We managed to get our car into a garden just across the street from the fair, and we didn't mind paying the 4 dollars they were charging for the privilege.
This particular fair has been running since 1888 and started out for the local PEI community to display their livestock and farm produce. Over the years it has stuck to its roots but grown into a full fair and exhibition space.
This fair was run by being run by Campbell's Amusements who are based out of Ontario and have been in existence for around 45 years.
They had a pretty good selection of rides.
and a coaster...but would we be allowed to ride it? A quick ask of the operator and a rather curt but appreciated response of "well, if you give me tickets you can ride" put a big smile on our faces and had us running over to the ticket booth to stock up. It's funny how we regress and act like little kids when we get what we want at fairgrounds.
The coaster "Orient Express" is another staple on the North American fair circuit and I had ridden one earlier in the year at Cleveland so I sort of knew that we'd be OK with this one. The ride is a kids ride and with a nothing hill and single helix doesn't really leave any memories or bruises but that's not the point...:)
Yet again, another Chance zipper.
This gravitron was well themed.
The Mardi Gras funhouse wasn't. Why is the artwork on these so bad?
A baby paratrooper type ride.
The games midway was a bit empty perhaps the fairs pick up at night, although there are events going on in the halls all day.
The driving track was still open and a couple of people were out trotting with their horses.
I couldn't help but think of this seeing one of the more larger riders going around.
Inside the exhibition halls now and this chap was doing some pretty impressive sand sculptures.
These are the outputs of a speed-painter. Really cool!
Being predominantly farming related there had to be tractors on show. I have no idea how good this particular type is only that it is in one (I know nothing about farming)
Sunflowers creep me out. The way they start at you piercing into your soul.
Who doesn't say that we don't learn things on holidays? My mind was blown a little bit by this.
Impressive veg!
The ice hockey rink had been converted into an arena in which, after quite a bit of meticulous pole alignment, they held a contest of what they called pole-bending but what we'd probably call horse-slalom.
This sort of thing. We gave up watching after the 3rd horse knocked the poles down and they had to go through the whole realignment exercise again. I'm not a fan of horse sport and seeing them being made to do handbrake turns was a bit silly.
We finished our visit with a little listen to Scotty and the Stars but their positive messages were too much for cynical me
Nice little fair in a really nice bit of the island...and getting another coaster was a nice bonus!
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