All's Fair on the Manic Midway

Audrey and Lola Bell couldn’t quite agree on the coolest animal from Australia.

Alyssa O’Dell was fretting whether her sheep, Sweet Pea, would be sold for breeding or, well, to become someone’s dinner.

Chauntae Quintana admitted she was miffed about the price of a wristband to get her 6-year-old son, Seamus, on his first carnival rides.

Meanwhile, two gentlemen with bass and fiddle were pounding the “Wabash Cannonball” almost loud enough to mix with a choir singing Christian hymns about a hundred yards away.

Step right up, folks, and welcome to Wednesday’s opening of the North Idaho State Fair at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds complex.

It’s only a slight exaggeration to say that you could find just about anything at the fair, which was billed as “A World of Fun” in a bow to contributions from 11 countries.

Of course, the feel of Italy was just a little short of Tuscan wines or video tours of Rome.

In fact, what did stand out was a very odd-looking Leaning Tower of Pisa, which was sitting — leaning, actually — on an old trailer.

But hey, speaking of pizza ... you want food?

There was a stand selling chocolate cheesecake just inside the main gate, and almost everything edible (though perhaps a wee bit queasy just ahead of those carnival rides) was available someplace — elephant ears, funnel cakes, lamb gyros, and so on.

Just keep walking and chewing.

“This is food you can’t find anywhere but at fairs,” boasted Amanda Dorame, who was helping peddle foot-long corn dogs covered with chili. “Go ahead and live a little.”

One tent advertised: “Items You Didn’t Have When You Needed Them.”

A needle-and-thread package for sewing up a surprise gash, for instance, or perhaps an Israeli pressure bandage?

Who can live without them?

Or in case you brought some personal issues into the mingling crowds, the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations was set up and ready to help.

In fact, if you didn’t know exactly what your problem might be after you had paid to park and enter the fair, Laura the Psychic Reader was right there to provide some answers.

The carnival rides, which cranked into action at 2 p.m., were described as “bigger and safer” than ever in a fair press release — perhaps not the best wording as it begged the unfortunate question as to whether some of the zooming, looping, spinning rides were slightly less safe in previous years.

Quintana wasn’t particularly concerned about putting young Seamus on some rides she intended to skip herself, but she definitely was perturbed about the cost; specifically, how it was advertised and what actually was being charged.

“The wristbands were supposed to be $25 for each person for the day,” said the Post Falls visitor. “Now it turns out that they’re $35 — and I’ve heard that some of the more spectacular rides require an extra price in addition to your wristband.

“That doesn’t seem quite right.”

Actually, part of Quintana’s objection came from a misunderstanding, according to fair spokesperson Marie Franko.

“We did have the lower price at a discount, but it was only good until 5 p.m. on the day before the fair opened,” Franko said. “On the additional price at the carnival, we have more than 40 rides and there are just two really exciting ones — Vertigo and G Force — that cost $3 extra along with your wristband.”

The issue of nerves takes the story back to young Alyssa O’Dell, a 13-year-old from Rathdrum who has been raising one sheep per fair for the past four years.

Sweet Pea, her Suffolk-Hampshire cross, feels almost like a pet. But the cold business of raising animals on your own means Sweet Pea will be sold at Saturday night’s auction.

“I got lucky last year and had my sheep sold for breeding,” O’Dell said. “But Sweet Pea (dressed in a tight orange coverlet to keep her coat slick), I don’t know.

“Her physical structure isn’t so good, so she might not be considered suitable for breeding.”

Needless to say, Sweet Pea’s other option isn’t quite as appealing.

Speaking of animals, one of the fair’s top attractions is the Aussie Kingdom Kangaroos, a display of various Australian living curiosities — along with a narrator who explained the creatures to wide-eyed visitors packing the bleachers for each performance.

Shasta Bell of Hayden Lake and her mother, Marie, were herding a gang of nine kids from three families around the fair, and both adults and kids were entranced by the animals from Down Under.

Audrey Bell, 10, and her 8-year-old sister, Lola, debated the thrills of an opossum-type marsupial called a “sugar glider” that floats through trees at night, and there were loud votes in Bell’s gang for the popular dingo.

“We all learned a lot, and the kids were fascinated,” Shasta Bell said. “I’m glad there are things like this to go along with all the food and other stuff they want to find.”

Franko said she expected the event would draw around 10,000 attendees on opening day, due to a Sawyer Brown concert with fireworks in the evening.

Fair gates will open at 9 a.m. today through Sunday.