Illinois State Fair! Riding a Chimpanzee! Meeting Abe Lincoln! Route 66 Experience!

hey you all carpetbagger here coming to you live from the north more specifically we are in Springfield Illinois and it is a day three of our marathon State Fair Marathon because we are trying to trying to visit five state fairs in five days it is numb day number three we are here at the Illinois State Fair here greeted by young skinny Abraham Lincoln now this is if you're a county at home this is State Fair number 17 and our whole overarching quest to visit all the state fairs uh two days ago I was in the Iowa State Fair yesterday we got the Missouri State Fair in here in Springfield Illinois at the Illinois State Fair please follow me [Music] yeah so very different portrayal of Lincoln than we normally see this is massively tall and he's he's young beardless he's got his ax for splitting rails there he's got a badge that says I'm vexed and protected no way I'm trying to think um was were vaccines around when uh when Abraham Lincoln was alive was Abraham Lincoln vaccinated leave a comment in the comment section I'm trying to use myself comparison I can't walk in the flower bed here speaking of Lincoln look who's look who's here at the uh at the State Fair hello Mr Lincoln howdy how are you I'm doing I'm a little cautious uh when you point a cannon at me oh I'm sorry I did I I know you're sensitive about that sorry at least it's from the front it's from the front Yeah Yeah Yeah from behind come on I mean that's that's not even that's not even fair okay so you having a good time at the uh at the State Fair Mr Lincoln I'm having a reasonably good time reasonably yeah are y'all from Texas no I'm not from Texas I'm uh I'm based out of North Carolina that's a interesting place interesting it is it is I won't go any further than that I know yeah I know the whole uh hold north south thing is probably probably a little sensitive as well the recent unpleasantness we'll call it the recent unpleasantness and I have to get your picture taken with the real Lincoln you can come over here and get your picture taken with flat Lincoln well hey there hey there flat uh flat Lincoln looking extra flat today yes I'm a big fan of Abraham Lincoln whether it be Flesh and Blood 3D or flat says we'll start things out today but heading inside the Illinois Building the center of Youth and Family Solutions that this superhero cut out here of course Superman himself is from Illinois Metropolis Illinois is a real place the Illinois Department of Public Health this lion here with a big set of uh of chompers oh looks like he has a little toothbrush there in order to uh to brush those teeth oh look at this this dog here he's got uh mouthful of teeth here is the virtual reality Bible Museum and they also have a uh a dinosaur display you can see Noah's Ark there if you look closely to the animals gathering in Noah's Ark so there's a couple pterodactyls up there on Deck it's uh some dinosaurs marching in to the ark here a couple of sauropods heading in this dinosaur here has a button oh there we go and look at this we have a Route 66 themed giant slide of course Springfield Illinois is right on route 66. over here we kind of have these smaller Midway there's some a more gentle ride such as this puppy based twirling ride here and it is the summer of carousels here on the carpetbagger Channel and a lot of these a lot of these traveling carousels I do tend to be a little similar but I noticed this one has uh something very interesting on it something very special yes I saw something over here that I've never seen On a Carousel before this may be the greatest Carousel animal I have ever seen look at this it is a angry chimpanzee he says I love carnivals on his shirt I have to ride the angry chimpanzee a little scrunched up but as you can see can you see him do you see the oh my God look at his face this looks like a chimpanzee that would bite someone's face off doesn't it see his little oh yeah it says I love carnivals there on his shirt oh my gosh I have a I've traveled this is the summer of Carousel that traveled I've ridden almost an uncountable amount of carousels I think this right here this might be my favorite uh my favorite Carousel animal that I have come across he's so he's so ridiculous I love everything about it but see there oh my God look at the angry monkey riding on the back I never thought I'd be able to ride on the back of a chimpanzee uh another two pansy wearing us wearing a little outfit this is a lifelong a lifelong dream of mine I was worried I may not be able to ride this one because it's a smaller Carousel but uh behind gentlemen told me ah go ahead hop aboard That Monkey that will do monkey that will do oh there goes my monkey get a fun house here called the Surf Shack you can see all the uh surfing dudes and babes there on uh on the side one guy there actually riding a shark this other guy is surfing with his dog with a uh with a another dog on his head I do like how the barrel here at the end actually has sharks within the churning Barrel it's pretty cool [Music] oh a flip that's pretty cool oh wow and look at this I had no idea this uh actually existed this is the uh Route 66 experience here at the State Fairgrounds a little replica of uh route 66. big mistake many make [Music] rely on the horn instead of the break Burma shave all right we start here in Chicago Illinois you see the uh the skyline of Chicago here that is where the actual Route 66 begins so this is where we will begin says uh welcome to Illinois the Land of Lincoln as we head in through this uh Silo here third generation here we have Bob waldmeier's uh RV it says eat at the Cozy Drive-In that's here in Springfield and uh Bob waldmeier's family owns the Cozy thrive in but he was actually a traveling artist who traveled up and down Route 66 in a uh in an RV I think actually he he actually at one point changed to using a school bus to travel interesting to have all these uh the artistic Renditions of cars so the Route 66 rest area back there if you don't know whose signs these are you haven't driven very far of course they are Burma shave sides they have these Recreations of actual old neon signs set up here we have the a Lincoln Motel I don't know if that's just saying it's a Lincoln motel or a issue for Abraham that second one now that I'm saying it out loud we have the Bel Air Drive-In sign right here you have that big Route 66 Shield there and the Chain of Rocks Motel because we passed through these barns here okay and in here we have all these different locations here on uh on Route 66 as you're walking along the park here you have the different Billboards the Vintage advertisements on it for Wrigley's Spearmint Gum [Music] and look what we have here this towering metal Monument to the Muffler Man well not a Muffler Man itself which are made of fiberglass it's a metal Recreation holding an American flag that's absolutely amazing a very artistic Twist on the Muffler Man and here at the feet of the muffler man we have almost a Illinois Muffler Man Hall of Fame here the bunion Giant in Atlanta Illinois I love that one he's holding the hot dog also the Gemini giant this is an absolute iconic piece on Route 66 the launching Pad Restaurant holding that rocket and uh I don't know I've never seen this one this is left field Louis is after every home run slugged by the Joliet jackhammers Louie emitted smoke and Jack's Jackhammer sounds oh no no he's actually taken to oh he's so he's retired he's gone he was taking down in 2011. that's that's a shame some of the other Muffler Man locations here is the uh the Franken Muffler Man he says he's a heavily modified uh Muffler Man he's I think he's the only uh Frankenstein in uh in the Muffler Man universe but you know Royal girl in Livingston Illinois and then uh Carl soda jerk in Normal Illinois this was made by uh made by Mark Klein oh look Godzilla king of monsters is playing at the 66 Drive-In Theater see a stuck East billboard back there a classic stop on Route 66. this is the Chain of Rocks Bridge this apparently in the 1930s this is what would have taken you Illinois over into Missouri and the Illinois section of Route C6 comes to an end as you cross over into St Louis there you see the that magnificent Arch see the cars parked over here next to the drive-in screen got these uh truck there a classic car what are they watching looks like some sort of uh sort of Western film see the back of the drive in there I think it is time to hop aboard the Sky Lift and make our way to the other side of the fair all right we got this green car there sneaking up behind me [Music] let's go there we go and we head Sky forth as we Glide over top of little miniature Illinois Route 66. [Music] headed over top some of the uh political tents here the sky rides definitely a inversion it's one of the kind of decompress there's nothing terrifying about well I used to be happily terrified of these Sky rides I actually would sit here and shake the entire time ripped onto the handle but uh after about after riding so many of these it's really become just got to be place of peace and meditation and you can see the larger Midway over there all right looks like we're coming in for a landing [Music] we have the state fair hot tub sale here as a tradition at the State Fair always selling hot tubs oddly enough to not see any hot tubs for sale at the Missouri State Fair they actually sell cozy dogs here at the Illinois State Fair that's from the cozy dog Drive-In here in uh in Springfield one of the original corn dogs straight from SeaWorld flippers I see it it's the baby dog baby died all right they're going for the big dive all the way all the way from the top went up on another big round of applause it says first lady MK pritzker welcomes you to the Generation X zone okay we got a giant boom box here and some giant cassettes it says welcome to the growing up X exhibit these these items are very familiar to gen xers now I don't know I can I I guess I kind of fall on the uh in in between area between Gen X and Millennial but probably you know I definitely uh very familiar with these objects remember when you had to do this to a phone then I was really excited when the phone's upgraded to this [Music] set Tate cassette tape player magic eight ball am I am I a gen xer let's see what it says oh my sources say no dang I'm a millennial all right oh look at this this old oh look at this old floppy disk when they made them a little they may change the dish to harder discs they still call them floppies but I remember these they call them floppiness because they're they're extra floppy is this a handheld Oregon Trail we got some Simons Simon's here all right so here's something I'm familiar with I did this as a child steps for shrinky dinking could make Shrinky Dinks now it used to be you'd get the shrinky dinks and they'd have like a almost like a coloring book picture for you to color in and then they would shrink it but here they let you do free form just give you a piece of plastic and you can draw whatever you want so I think I I'm going to make a Mothman [Music] to give him his uh his red eyes there color in his his body [Music] all right there we go we got our Mothman there let's uh let's go shrink him all right guys put it in the there's right there toaster oven there and you can come around and watch it oh yeah it's starting to shrink already there it goes oh my gosh foreign there we have it a little Mothman Shrinky Dink you can see how much it shrank down it's now it's like a solid piece when it was uh like a more flexible piece to begin with there we go and Shrinky Dink all right we're gonna head inside the exposition building here and back here we have the state fair selfie gallery I'm gonna play a game of Twister gear right hand green left foot red left hand blue and left foot yeah it's harder to play on a wall much easier when you put the board on that flat ground surface the big slide here this is fun baseball show tractor here long Dusty six welcome State Fair the road is here now next to the selfie station the Church of Christ has their own uh free photo off a lion here you got Goliath and you have the photo op where you have these uh biblical children uh washing their dinosaur s look inside if you look inside this guy's face here oh okay see the mirror you can see my face near this arcade Council here with a Bible quiz let's see what did Adam and Eve used to make clothing wool fig leaves Papyrus I'm thinking big leaves Iraq rack TIG leave uh where in Jerusalem did Jesus's parents find him uh the temple wow I'm I'm doing better than I thought it was John 1 14 says the word was made blank and dealt upon us word was made flash correct flash which book records a man using a stone for a pillow oh I don't know this one I'm just gonna have to guess incorrect it is not Leviticus the Illinois State Fire Marshal Illinois Fire Service Association in here a giant smoke detector here so we push this to test all right here's the dairy building see if we can find that butter cow and here it is in the center of everything we have our butter cow this one's on a rotating platform see the cow rotating towards us we'll see the butter udders and it looks like in this particular butter cow sculpture we have the dairy worker there with a milking device like a mechanical milking device hooking it up to the cows butter udders yeah it's really fascinating as I travel around to these state fairs you'll learn that the buttercup buttercup was an important part of State Fair culture not every state fair has a butter cow but a lot of them especially out here in the Midwest where they do a lot of dairy farming have the Magnificent butter cow and I'm becoming quite a butter cow connoisseur myself these days yeah just think about that's all butter someone carved that just out of butter absolutely amazing in addition to the butter cow we have a butter calf over here the little butter boy giving it a kiss on its big big sloppy runny nose there over here we have some smaller butter sculptures here is the first place winner we have some butter cows there sliding down the Route 66 slide there it says life without dairy is not sustainable definitely uh definitely don't say the V word in this building [Music] says don't forget to visit the Illinois State Fair Museum good thanks for reminding me because I I almost I almost forgot so I guess the state fair museum is in here [Music] racing I saw outside in the box office and there was no harness racing today but apparently this is a tradition here at the State Fair of all the state fair museums I've been to this one is possibly the largest and most in-depth the full-sized french fry cart in here and then here is the history of the butter cow shows all the butter cows over the years it's a 1948 butter cow here is a tribute to Gene Trimble it's a performing clown here at the State Fair here is the the tuba he would uh he would play you'll see his drum there with the little cymbal monkey and then there is a stuffed Jean Trimble this is amazing this is Billy the singing milk carton he said he would sing and he would talk directly to children and I've seen that you've seen this at some of the other uh other state fairs they have the the talking animatronic uh figures like we saw uh Otto the talking car yesterday we saw the talking Smokey Bear at the Ohio State Fair there's Freddy Farm Bureau at uh at the Kentucky State Fair Big Tex of course at the Texas state fair these are amazing it says he was on display for over 40 years retired in 2002. I I really would love to see them bring back uh Billy the singing milk carton you know this friend here the the cow yeah Billy Billy's pretty amazing the up close and personal look at Billy there it's that mouth that used to move and greet all the children to the fair and let me know are there any other animatronic State Fair icons that I've not had a chance to visit leave a comment in the comment section [Music] [Music] here's a case of petrified Fair Foods this is your favorite Fair Foods preserved forever the mini Donuts the Cozy dogs there have a french fries ice cream I know mini Donuts that are are often popular at uh at fairs some freshly brewed iced tea and some Dippin Dots there this massive Grand horse-drawn hearse here right in the middle of the Illinois State Fair Museum we have the old Sky glider sign tells you have to be 42 inches tall and we also have this old old ferris wheel card as well they don't know [Music] remember that so yeah there's a commotion going on outside of the Illinois State Police office what's your name Cooper hey Cooper foreign [Music] now believe it or not it's hard to find low carb options at the state fair so kind of looking for some uh some meat based options here looks like they got a sirloin on a stick at this stand I guess I will uh try that here we go here's the Sirloin on a stick it does appear just to be a uh a steak on a stick and a little bit of barbecue sauce there to go with it if you can hear me it's kind of loud here at the uh state fair but let's try the uh Sirloin on a stick [Applause] well done I'm a little bit dry but I need a little more a little more barbecue sauce on that pretty good I just generally don't like my meat cooked uh that thoroughly [Applause] cane lean stick Club now it is time to head into the Midway there's the Disco it's spelled d-i-s-k-o because it's not referring to the music it's referring to the giant disc that the people are riding on disc the Disco as it rotates back and forth Pharaoh's Fury there a fun house here the Midnight at the Oasis dance club is what it's called very interesting let's give it let's give it a shot all right watch your feet look at this lady here oh boy here comes the uh the staircase here see if we can do this one foot oh my gosh oh geez oh my God oh my God this is ridiculous oh my God oh it makes your legs it makes your legs like go too high it makes it hard to climb the top of the fun house here we'll peek out onto the porch get a good view of the Midway here very creepy CGI Purple Lady there as we head uh back downstairs all right back down here we got the big skis take it away through here reminds me of Molina from Mortal Kombat and uh some more foot traps all these ones are really sliding there we go unfortunately the Barrel's not turning so we have a nice easy exit [Music] now we have the crystal Castle Mirror Maze and to the bottom go through the Maze of mirrors where it takes you up to the top it'll be a row of fun house mirrors and then you exit through the twirly slide at the end and here in front of the crystal Castle we have the iron Dragon there that winds its way across the track we have the tornado there twirling and whirling and twirling and whirling summer of carousels is winding down of course but you should definitely take the opportunity to ride as many carousels while we still have the chance and see what they have as far as Horses go well they have interesting Saddles the U.S saddle a Texas saddle and then this one has an Angry Birds saddle very interesting and you know what maybe after all maybe maybe zebras do maybe zebras do wear Saddles here we go on yet another Carousel Ride so this one's this one's got a little kick to it see me there in the uh in the carousel mirror sure I mean this is a tame zebra with a saddle or maybe it's just a horse it's someone painted some stripes on I believe this is a ride I've never seen before this is the the Cobra because like the two arms hanging out that whips these people here into a blender I think this is I think my first sighting of a cobra and look at that that looks like it gets some very good uh very good spin action happening there aboard the Cobra wow their music express is known as the Amore Express I guess also known as beloved machine the love machine there [Applause] [Music] okay [Music] another day another state fair tomorrow we are going to be heading eastwards two the Indiana State Fair for day four of this five-day State Fair Marathon thank you so much for coming along with me this has been intense it's been uh I you know do the state fair all day drive four hours to the next state fair and then wash rinse repeat but uh it all it's all worth it if uh if you guys are along for the ride of having a good time so thank you so much for uh watching this video If you like this video consider subscribing I travel around the country I film roadside attractions amusement parks museums haunted houses and I'm trying to visit all 50 state fairs if you'd like to help contribute to the channel consider contributing to patreon three dollars or more which a postcard once a month from me to you also selling enamel pins in the Etsy shop as well as personalized messages on Cameo of course all that goes to help keep this train on the track this boat in the water and the storageible in the air until next time my friends this one's in the bag

Channel: The Carpetbagger

Views: 34,052

Keywords: the, carpetbagger, jacob, vlog, blog, roadtrip, travel, road trip, road-trip, roadside attraction, roadside america, americana, illinois state fair, illinoise, illinois, abe lincoln, abraham lincoln, carousel, summer of carousels, route, route 66, muffler man, giant, strange, unusual, carnival rides, midway, fun house, sky ride, high diving

Id: VfuuEmNW0Ig

Length: 38min 59sec (2339 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 20 2023