~~~
While my niece was here, S. and I made sure she got a little taste of the weirdness that is small-town Texas by taking her to the Luling Watermelon Thump.
The oil and gas wells in Luling allow you to smell the town from about twenty miles away; once you are actually in the town, the stench is unreal. But, I digress.
~~~
There was a carnival set up at the end of the main drag and we headed straight for that so that S. could get some pictures. It had rained like a mofo all day so the midway was nice and muddy and steamy, allowing the Luling stench to mix with the sweaty human/fried food stench into something...chunky.
~~~
S. played a dart game and won this delightful sign (modeled here by the niece and I).
Almost all of the prizes were some kind of gangsta sign or emblem, which made me yearn for the days when you could win things like real goldfish or unofficial, slighty-retarded looking Disney characters. *sigh*
~~~
Also featured: the most bizarre toilets I have ever seen in my life. Even they were festively decorated with watermelons...
The toilets were housed in semi-trailers, inside which were plywood "stalls" built around holes in the floor. I really didn't want to think about where the holes lead to...
~~~
...but hopefully it was not into the den of this REAL SNAKE! ALIVE!
~~~
In summary: carnies are scary, Luling is smelly, we had fun.
~~~