Impromptu outings are the best. Especially when they involve corn dogs, lemonade, funnel cakes, oversized vegetables, animals, and stomach-churning rides.

I thought I liked rides. I think maybe I like some of them. The swings that swung high above the ground at rapid speed were exhilarating. The buckets that swirled and spun and twisted and turned were fun (though a bit nausea inducing. Or maybe it was the corn dog.). The ferris wheel was terrifying.

I was confounded. Why was the seemingly tamest of rides the most fear inducing? I was higher than on any of the other rides, and the most still. It wasn’t a fast ride, it was one that slowly, ever so slowly, rotated, with regular stops for riders to get on and off. We were exposed – the only thing that was keeping us from tumbling to the ground (and to a horrible accident) was a stress-fractured bar (how seriously should I take those cracks?), hopefully locked in place by the nonchalant fair worker. I wanted to take pictures of the fair from above, the dazzling neon lights from high in the sky. I couldn’t open my purse, much less take out my phone, for fear of dropping it. I smiled, I laughed, I persevered.

And then the ride was over.