Chicken Riggies – Not The Painter

August 25, 2025 — Day 5

New York State Fair, Syracuse NY

Everyone was on a slow roll today. About 12:30 Susan and Paul headed over to the Chevrolet Court to see Slippery When Wet, a Bon Jovi cover band. Paul can’t name a single Bon Jovi song without Google. Susan knows who they are and some of their hits. Bill tolerates them. Donna loves loves loves them. Donna did not enjoy the concert. She had been really looking forward to it. Susan, Paul and Bill were not available for comment. We got some good photos though.

We forgot to mention what we had observed at the Los Lonely Boys concert. The crowd was of a certain age. Almost all the videos being shot by the audience were taken in landscape not portrait mode. Us geezers know that landscape is correct. But the youngsters, having grown up with phones in their hands don’t think to turn the phone on its side and as a result it’s portrait mode shooting for the younger generations. It’s a narrow view and not at all how your eyes and brain see the world. This audience member sitting in front of Paul is just plain doing it wrong, she is our age and holding it in portrait mode!

This woman just made us all smile. She was old enough to be our mothers and was just wearing her festival clothing and rocking out, dancing to the music, cane and all.

Dark clouds started rolling in near the end of the concert and we were concerned about the potential for rain. Again! Given yesterday’s excitement we headed for Horticulture Building to be under cover. And after yesterday’s weather we wanted to be in a sturdy building. We should mention that Bill stood in line for close to an hour to get one of the $1 baked potatoes with lots of toppings that was being sold in this building. It looked like the deal of the fair. The line was still going when we walked by. Donna said it was really good…

We both wanted to see the Birds of Prey exhibit and that was ongoing as we walked to the maple pavilion. That was fun and super crowded. It was difficult to get a good image of the bird because the people made it difficult to pick out the birds. But an American Bald Eagle is always wonderful to see.

Paul was Jonesing for some over-priced low-taste sugar-laden fair food. He was tempted by the funnel cakes and asked Donna a million questions (she approved). We wandered over to the African Village. Paul had also wanted to see the drumming demo. We’re standing in line for empanadas, watching the drummer. Bill and Paul wanted to drum but it didn’t seem like the drummer would ever let his “students” leave. We found out that the wait for the empanada was 25 minutes! Well then, desert it is! Back to where we had seen rum cakes. They gave us a sample and that small bit must have had 1,000,000 grams of sugar. It was yummy but there was no way Paul was buying an entire cake! (susan here: I noticed that a rum cake, all of 6 or 7″, was TWENTY DOLLARS. Yeah, nope. Not these fair goers!)

We resumed our search for over-priced low-taste sugar-laden fair food for Paul. But first a stop for Bill who’d spotted a cowboy hat store! Bill and the “mad hatter” talked cowboy hats but time was ticking, the Canine Stunt show was going to start in 30 minutes. Thankfully it’s nearby. Susan and Donna went to save seats while Paul and Bill went looking for over-priced low-taste sugar-laden fair food. Paul found a food truck called “A Taste of Utica”. There were only three things on the menu, Tomato Pie, Utica Greens, and Chicken Riggies. The Utica Greens and Tomato Pie were okay but not great. (susan here: our regular readers might recall that Indian gas station pizza. This was slightly better. If you have a choice just say “No!” and make Nancy Reagan proud.) The Riggies were pretty good! Paul got the fair food experience he wanted. Bill had an ostrich burger claimed it tasted like a veggie burger and said it was very good. We may or may not get one tomorrow.

Susan and Paul had seen the Canine Stars at the lame Tulsa State Fair. They were very good. But we think the troupe in Tulsa was better.