Boone County Fair

Phil has been travelling to and from Florence the past couple weeks for work (Florence, Kentucky, not Italy...) On his most recent trip he got to experience a true piece of Kentucky culture when he attended the localy county fair with his coworkers. They saw everything from demolition derbies and monster trucks to pig scramble (a game where kids swarm around a greased up pig to see who can get their arms around it first!). Phil even took part in a hot dog eating contest!

Welcome to the Boone County Fair...
Of course Phil couldn't be at a fair and not try some of the fair food. Specifically the corn dogs. Here's a picture of him with his coworker, Sarah, pointing at what they'll be ordering on the menu in place of a receipt for their company reimbursement. I'd love to see the expression on his boss' face when he gets this photo attached to Phil's expense report.
Here are a couple pictures of the monster truck show.

Now, on to the hot dog eating contest. Phil's coworkers talked him into joining. Although he seems pertty happy at the registration table. Or maybe he's just happy because he got a free bucket for signing up...
Basic rules for the contest were to eat as many hot dogs (buns included) as possible in 5 minutes. Before they started the contest the announcer went down the line of contestants to find out how many everyone thought they could eat. Some people said 11, some said 15. There was a kid right before Phil that said he could eat 12. Then when the announcer got to Phil he said 5...one for each minute...I can't say those are Kobayashi numbers, but it's his first hot dog eating contest so we'll cut him some slack ^__^

Here he is getting ready to compete. To his right is the kid who said he could eat 12 hot dogs in 5 minutes.
It was a tough competition. First place went to the guy to Phil's left who ate 18 hot dogs. Phil came in at 7 hot dogs, above his expected 5, but he was still beat out by the kid next to him by 1 hot dog.

Phil jammed the 7th hot dog in his mouth as the announcer called an end to the 5 minutes. You can still see him trying to chew as they announce the winner.
But no worries, Phil was content with his Boone County Fair bucket. He even had one lonely hot dog left...