Thursday we woke to the smell of bacon (REAL bacon as Meg informed me, fresh from their very own pigs!) we moseyed on downstairs where we joined Meg's mom and cousin for breakfast on the large wrap around porch. Be jealous! Not only did we have fresh, home grown bacon, but we also had Johnny Cake drizzled with fresh maple syrup tapped from the trees on their property! Mm, mm!
Then we went back to the fair and watched Meg's brother show his draft horses, after which we headed out to clean the church.
So several months ago, when we started making plans for this trip, I kept going back and forth on the decision to come, due to the expense of coming back. With some researching Meg found what it would cost to come back by train, a price that was just over what I would want to spend. So things were looking grim, when Meg suggested we raise a bit of money while I'm here! She has a job cleaning her church every week, so she said that if I were to help her with that, we could use the money made there to help pay my ticket! So, we found refuge in the nice, cool church and we wiped down, swept up straightened and vacuumed. Though we didn’t think it made much sense to actually work to get the money, since why would I want to leave anyways?? :-)
After we got the church cleaned in record time, we came back and took a trip on the four-wheeler out to the sugar bush, the part of the woods where they tap for sap and make delicious maple syrup!
Then, to end the hottest of days, we went to the home of Meg’s pastor and I met three of their five girls, and their days old little baby boy. After cooing over the newborn (and he was worth much cooing!) Meg, her mom and I took the three little girls for a walk into town to an old-fashioned ice cream parlor. The girls chatted all the time and promptly stole my heart (I think they would fit in my suit case…). We ate our ice cream then headed back. The walk back had the girls getting slower and more tired, but Meg and I “flew” the youngest across all the streets, and Meg’s mom skipped with the older two to keep everyone having fun. 
When we got back to their house, we hung out, talking to their mommy with some more admiring of the little man, the oldest of the three brought me upstairs to show me her room, and the youngest sat with me while we watched some kids show, counting and learning colors.
I had such a wonderful time; I think I could fit them all in my suitcase, couldn’t I?
Friday had us making the final profit for my train ticket home. We rinsed out several garbage bags full of pop cans and bottles, and then we loaded up about ten bags and heaved them into Wal-Mart. We set up camp in front of the return machines, getting into a sticky system: grab bottle, place in hole, wait, repeat. We made enough off of the returns to finish up the bill of my ticket! (was that a good thing?)
Next, what do we do but head back to the fair! Meg works at the library in Lowville, so she knows people who know people who know people, and those people just happened to have backstage passes to meet Josh Thompson that night before his concert at the fair. (though, of course, neither of us knew who Josh Thompson was, or if we should be excited to meet him or not. But hey, free backstage pass to meet someone whose supposedly famous? Ok!)
So we joined the library employees, and Meg talked her brother Dan into joining us, and we went to wait next to Josh Thompson’s bus. While we were waiting, we were asked to just let their official photographer take pictures, rather then wait for everyone to take pictures with their personal cameras. They would post the pictures online where we could download them later. Since we had no special reason to be impressed by meeting this guy, I talked Meg and Dan into agreeing to make a face in the picture. “He wont even know!” I told them, “Yeah,” Meg retorted, “but his photographer will!” Be that as it may, when it was our turn to go stand next to this slightly famous country singer, we said “hello” and turned toward the camera, and all made a face. The photographer, who had been looking pretty bored up to this point, started laughing “that is awesome!” he said. Josh Thompson looked surprised and confused, “what?” he kept asking, “What happened??” his photographer assured him he’d show him later, and we all walked off, high fiveing each other that we would be remembered. 
The rest of the concert we spent on the bleachers next to the stage (facing the grandstand) we had way more fun people watching the audience then we did watching the show, we also enjoyed poking fun at the rock-star-wanna-be bass guitar player (dude, skinny jeans and cow boy boots? Really?)
After the concert was over, Meg and I made a quick trip to see the polka band, and remember with fondness the short polka lesson one of our Focus classmates gave us. 
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