Day Trip to the State Fair of Texas 🍻🌭 (FULL EPISODE) S6 E1

Howdy Amigas! Well today we are blazing new trails on the Day Tripper. Usually it's any town, any day, any time of year, but today we're breaking some rules and taking you to an only happens once a year festival. But to be fair, it's not just any festival. It's the State Fair of Texas! This episode was made for y'all with the help of our awesome partners. Check the caption for more info. The Texas State Fair is the festival to end all festivals. It runs for less than a month, but attracts well over three million visitors. Everyone just coming out here to the fairgrounds to live it up in the Lone Star State. Dating all the way back to 1886, the history and legend of the State Fair is almost as big as the grounds on which it sits. Covering over 250 acres of food, rides, entertainment from top to bottom, and lots of friendly folks. Hey, this is Texas after all. But there is one familiar face here that towers above all others. He goes by the name Tex. Big Tex. Howdy folks. Welcome to the State Fair of Texas. Eat yourself a tasty Fletcher's corny dog. Go and see the pigs. Spend lots of money on things you will never win. Hello. Hold on there, partner. That's my job. Whoa. Whoa. Oh, hey, I didn't see you there. You're looking pretty good, Big Tex. Thank you, little chet. Feeling good too. Ever since I burned up in 2012, I've never felt better. I even got me some new boots, a new buckle. Okay, yeah, that looks great. But that's not all. Got my chin tucked and my cheeks done. Oh, okay. Yeah, obviously very proud of that. Oh, I'm not even finished. Got new paws, new elbows. I think I'll just be going. You got this covered, so you're very proud, obviously. You know, there's no one quite like Big Tex, which is why I think I better leave that job up to him. Besides, those are very big shoes to fill. It's a ten and a half foot boot as opposed to my size ten and a half boot. Just a little bigger. You may not know it, but the fairgrounds have eight separate museums on site, one of which is dedicated to the big guy himself and his comeback after the devastating 2012 fire where a single electrical short in his neck caused Big Tex to go up in big flames. But that wasn't the first time Big Tex has had the chance to make a comeback. Since he first stood tall in 1952, there have been seven different Big Texes, each one better than the last, but all with the common task of being the biggest ambassador the world's ever seen. Okay, so this is the original head from the 1952 Big Tex. It's the only part of the original Big Tex that still remains, although he's had a little bit of work done to give him that fresh, young-looking face. And then right here, these are the hands that survived the 2012 fire. Big Tex went up in flames so fast that the hands didn't burn and neither did the belt buckle, which is right over here. It's like in pristine condition. That's amazing. There are few, if any Texans as lovable or legendary as Big Tex, but he's only one small part of the huge state fair experience. So the best way to plan our next move and survey the grounds isn't from the ground at all, but up in the sky. All right, here we go. We're on the Texas Skyway, moving from ground level up into the sky. Oh man, now this is an awesome way to see the park. We're pretty high, but we're only a fraction of how high the Ferris wheel is. And look, right underneath us, Midway with all the rides, all the games. I mean, look, is there a better view of the Dallas skyline in the whole city? I don't think so. Look at that. And then, of course, look at that, the Cotton Bowl right there. Not only is that where Texans and OU play every year, but it's also where the Dallas Cowboys played their first few seasons. Inside of that stadium, you have no idea how big Midway is until you see it from up high like that. You know, it's not just what's happening here on the fairgrounds, it's the fairgrounds themselves. The old buildings, you know, the designated areas, the Cotton Bowl, the concessions, the big Coliseum. Oh, and I can smell the pride, even from up here in the sky. Sort of like a corn dog mixed with a funnel cake. Delicious. Yep, that smell seals it. Our next stop has got to be food. It's the only thing as big around here as Big Tex himself. You know what I'm talking about. From classics like taffy and cotton candy, all the way to modern day delicacies. But did you know that one of the most epic classics of fair food was invented right here at the State Fair? I'm talking about the corny dog, invented in 1942 by Fletcher's. Still serving them up hot and run by second generation corny dog man, Bill Fletcher. Let me, who was the genius that decided to batter and deep fry hot dogs? Actually, it was mutually conceived by my uncle and my father, but dad is recognized in the 1996 book Guinness World Records as the inventor of the corny dog and the man on this planet who sold more corny dogs than anybody else. Oh my goodness, I bet. Look at this crowd out here today. I don't think you can come to the State Fair without getting a Fletcher's corny dog. It's sort of just part of the experience. There's a few folks that don't like corny dogs, but not very many, and we're working on them. We're working on them. Trying to convert them. I don't know who they are, and I don't need to know who they are. No, we don't want to know who they are. Well, hey, could you make one of these for us? I would love to. I think we need to get you to try to cook one, Chuck. I won't pass up a chance for that. Is it more about the weenie or the batter? It's a lot of little things. I think if you had to pin it down to one thing, you got to say the batter. The formula for this mix is in a safe in Denton, Texas. Whoa, so you don't even keep that in Dallas? No, sir. Keep it out of Dallas. Too dangerous to have it. You want to go get that back end covered. Okay, all the way down to the stick. Okay, now wait a minute, and then you turn that tip straight up to the ceiling. Bam, baby. Look at that, a natural. And I'm going to watch mine to make sure I get to eat mine. I think you should. If you cooked it, you got to eat it. I agree. Fletcher sells an estimated 300,000 of these a year to both the ketchup and the mustard types. But me? Yep, I'm a mustard man. You know, there's just something about eating a corny dog inside of the state fair of Texas. That's good. You take this same thing, you walk 200 yards that way, eat it outside the gates. It does not taste the same. Oh, this is so good. So you've probably heard that what started with the corny dog has gotten a bit out of control, spiraling deeper and deeper into the fryer. Because if it'll fit in a basket, fair folks have fried it, pushing the boundaries of fryology and taking taste buds to a gooey, greasy taste of Texas-sized heaven. Fried PBJs, fried biscuits and gravy, fried Nutella, fried pizza, crazy creative stuff. Well, cut me up and deep fry me. The list goes on and on. After all, this ain't the fried food capital of Texas for nothing. Look at all these things. This stuff is insane. But wait, what's that? Fried beer? Is that even possible? Only one way to find out. It starts as a frozen solid ravioli-ish packet. But as soon as it hits the grease, the bready case cooks, the beer melts and it's ready to eat. Or ready to drink. I'm not really sure. Okay, here it is. Fried beer in this little cube. Dip it in some of this cheese. And they said you got to pop the whole thing. That's an experience all its own right there. The second you break the seal on that little package, boom, it explodes in your mouth. But that tastes like beer and deep fried. I wouldn't have believed it until I tried it. That's pretty good. I can't say it's the most refreshing beer I've ever had, but it's definitely one of the most unique beers I've ever had. But good. Heed their advice, pop it all at once, don't bite it, because this will happen. Bystanders beware, there is a splash zone. Now more than just novelty, fried food is big business around these parts and big competition. In fact, winning a Big Tex Choice Award is the pinnacle of deep fried chefdom. And one of the winners of recent past, and one of the most decadent deep fried foods of all time, would have to be fried butter. You know, if you like deep fried and you like butter, there could be nothing better than deep fried butter. They got drizzled with some honey, a little cinnamon and sugar on top. Here we go. The creativity of here is phenomenal. It's not just the butter, there's a whole lot of dough in there, but it tastes like a ridiculously buttery beignet. Healthy? I don't know. Delicious? Most definitely. And now that the frying grease is sufficiently seeping from all of our pores, I think we should saddle up and head across the park. Time to step up to Midway. We now interrupt this programming to remind you to like and subscribe. Now back to the road. Step right up ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Midway at the State Fair Tech. You got a little extra dough in your pocket, we can help you right here. That's right, we got games, we got rides, we got more games and more rides. We got things you can play like games and things you can ride like rides. That's right ma'am, I bet you can go in there and win yourself a nice pretty little princess toy. Wow, do I have to keep doing this all day? This is tough. We've got more games, did I mention all the games we have? We've got the balloon game, we've got the squirt the water bottle game, we've got the pick the duck up and look at the number game. That's right, all the most cutting-edge games right here at Midway. And you sir, oh ma'am, yes have fun ma'am. Sorry about that, absolutely. Ah yes, you sir, why don't you go in there and win something for your mother. Oh well, no that's your wife, I apologize. Yes, did I mention the games yet? Have I, have I talked about the games? Wow, I need some new material, this is tough. I gotta, how long do I have to do this for? Okay, um, oh I forgot to tell you about the games, didn't I? That's right. Yeah, I better leave this gig to the pros and uh stick to the visitor's side. As you probably heard, they do have games, but I think we should start with the ride on the Texas Star. Good for all ages. Hey, recognize this gal? At 212 feet high, with 44 little people buckets, this is truly a view worth riding for, but not worth dying for. Uh, sir, are we supposed to be this high? I'm just kidding, and I've changed my mind. This is the best view of downtown Dallas. And we're down. I think it's time to head to the games. Midway is playtime central at the state fair. Rides that will humble the most daring and attractions that will terrify the most brave. Maybe not. Considering myself more of a man of skill, time to clean this place out of stuffed animals. Oh, come on, and that's it. I walk away. I got this. All you got to do is make it in the hole. How hard could that be? Oh, worse. I'm always best on the first one. Worse. Worse. Maybe a bottle rings is more my speed. I thought I did it on the first one. Oh, do you see that one? Come on, man. Here. Ah, okay, all right. There's a reason that all of these people are playing, and not a single one of us has made one yet. Come on. All right, let's find another game. That one's not bucket. Man, tough luck for me, but it does look like somebody's winning out here. That's the most gigantic Batman I've ever seen. Now, wait, maybe if the whole crew just plays itself, one of us is sure to win, and that someone is me. Now, if you mentioned the state fair to folks, they know the fried food. They know the games, the rides, and big texts, but there's another critical piece to any fair in Texas, and that includes here at the state fair. Despite its size and being located here in the big city of Dallas, at its heart, the state fair of Texas is like many small town festivals, all the way down to its livestock. For livestock raising Texans, this is like the Super Bowl, the Masters, and Wimbledon all rolled into one, and to compete, both you and your furry or feathered friend must be in tip-top shape. Ma'am, I'm next, and I just need a little trim off the top, okay? I'm next. I think my nose will fit in there. To learn more, I'm meeting up with the VP of Ag and Livestock here at the state fair, Daryl Rayal. So, Daryl, as someone who didn't grow up doing 4-H or anything like that, the livestock shows are a foreign to me, so explain how the whole thing works. Well, 4-H and FFA members from across the state of Texas have worked with these projects from three to maybe even 12 months. They fed them, taken care of them, and they hauled them to Dallas to compete against each other, all for the hopes of winning the grand champion prize. Gotcha, and what is that? Is that a big old trophy, a blue ribbon? It's a banner, and a ribbon, and a belt buckle. Oh, nice, of course, a belt buckle. And a And that's no small check. The grand champ steer can fetch upwards of $100,000 in scholarship money. Now, that's a lot of moolah. You know, what sets a lamb like that apart from the rest? Well, first off, these animals, they're going to ultimately enter the food chain, and we raise animals for meat, so we want them to be muscular, but yet we also want them to be balanced, and well-profiled, and well-put-together. For instance, you know, this little goat right here, you look at that as a judge. What do you see? Well, I see a goat that's really muscular down his top, right over his back. He's got a big, bold blade and a big rib to him. When that goat would be set up square, he would look really pretty as well. Okay, all right, we'll make some good cabrito one day, man. Outstanding cabrito. Okay, well, this is cool. I love talking to someone like you who knows infinitely more about this than I do, so thanks, Daryl. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. It's really cool what the State Fair does to support farm and ag. After all, without farms, there's no food. No food, no fair. You get the picture, but more than compete in a tasty beauty pageant, the State Fair also has a contest that doesn't take looks, just speed. And the yellow ostrich takes the lead as we're coming around the first turn, and oh, red, white, and blue takes a tumble, leaving yellow and red down the stretch, and yellow takes it by a beak. That was cool. But next up, it's a pig stampede. And these guys aren't racing for glory, just food. Hey, they are pigs after all. Now, you may be saying, hey, I'm not an ag-loving animal raiser, and I know nothing about deep fried food. Now, don't worry about that, because even you can earn a piece of the timeless glory that is a State Fair blue ribbon. So this is a side of the State Fair that few know exists, the Creative Arts Contest, where over 7,000 entrants compete for the coveted blue ribbon in everything from stitch work to button paintings. Hey, there's a little big Tex, a little big Tex. No matter what you make, from yarn dolls to pickles, chances are they've got a ribbon just for you. It could be edible, it could be art, or sometimes, both. So I've seen big Tex, and I've eaten butter. Here's both of them combined. A butter sculpture of big Tex. Wow. It says it has over two tons of pure, solid butter in it. 4,000 pounds. All it's missing is a little batter and a deep fryer, and we would all eat real good right now. Yeah, what do you know? It only took one big butter Tex to get me hungry again. After all, there are more than a few deep fried goodies left to try. And rather than just pick one for dinner, how about we just eat the entire dinner? The fried Thanksgiving dinner. Yep, you heard that right. All right, so this is Justin Martinez with Lone Star Roadhouse, inventor of fried Thanksgiving dinner, man. It's an honor to stand next to you. Thank you, I appreciate it. How'd you come up with that? Well, it's funny, you know, two years ago, we went with fried bubblegum. We're most creative, so we're pretty excited about that. And so I remember being at the Thanksgiving dinner table with my family, I looked at it, I go, oh my god, how can I do fried Thanksgiving dinner? I stopped eating and started experimenting with the fryer. I was like, putting oil in there, it was wild. So did you just start like, a little bit of this, smash it together in a ball like that? Yes, yes, like I said, we did mashed potatoes, I did a little bit of macaroni and cheese, but I thought, you know what, keep it simple. So we have homemade stuffing, which is celery, mushrooms, onions, minced garlic, then we add diced turkey, roll that in a ball, okay, then we dip it in a southern cream corn, and then a seasoned cornmeal, like a little bit of like, hush puppy to it, fry that, and then we serve it with some orange cranberry sauce, as well as some turkey gravy. Oh, that's awesome. Complete Thanksgiving meal. That sounds amazing. Yes. It sort of sounds like what I eat the day after Thanksgiving, when all the leftovers come out, you just start stirring it up. Yeah, well, exactly. How many of you guys sold this year? Oh, we're up to like 40,000. We're hoping to get, you know, up to 50,000, 55,000. It's been crazy. I have a crew of eight people that are constantly rolling balls, so rolling about 5,000 a day. All right, well, Justin, man, the only thing left is, I got to try this for myself. You got it, let's get one. All right. All right, so it's not turkey day, but I'm about to eat my Thanksgiving dinner, deep fried. Look at this. Here it is. One ball, the complete package. There you go. Look, I see a little bit of turkey, some mushrooms, some cream corn, definitely some dressing in there. That's great. That's delicious. If you like stuffing, you're gonna love fried Thanksgiving dinner. This really does taste like the whole Thanksgiving package rolled into a ball, you know. It's kind of like your second helping on Thanksgiving, when you go back and you're a little too lazy to care where you put the food, and it all sort of mixes together on your plate. I got to hand it to him. That was a stroke of genius, mixing all this stuff together and then throwing it in a deep fryer. I must say, I am impressed. Well, it looks like the day is finishing up. Time to grab my favorite part of Thanksgiving, head out to watch the nightly parade. Very good turkey leg. I wish I would have had those to bring me around the State Fair today. That'd be nice. Hey, Mr. Corny Dog. Oh, these people are cool. Check it out. Look at these things. That is awesome. Oh, here we go. Big tanks. Definitely the grand marshal of the State Fair. Raise the turkey leg to big tacks. So we've tested our stomachs and skill. Let's test our bravery a little bit, as the flashing lights of Midway are calling me in like a moth to a flame. Someone better hold my hat for this. What a day for all its deep fried delicacies and its long tall Texans, its games, its rides, and its prize winning everything. The State Fair is much like Texas itself. A little bit of everything all rolled into one, making this party truly worthy of the Lone Star State. All right, so I think it's fair to say that this is one of the funnest days you can have in Texas. So I'll see all y'all out on the road. Vaya con Dios, amigos. Despite being located here in the MIG, at its heart, the State Fair of Testa...Testas? At its heart, the...I just got messed up. So this is inside of the State Fair aside. I said that wrong. Show them how big your new muscles are. Like, your muscles are big. I mean, I got this, but you, you've got, I mean, your biceps are 20 times the size of mine. Yeah, he got some work done. He got some work done on his chin. Is that why he's so shiny? Yeah, I think so. Or something. He's had one of those little turkey gobbler lifts. I think he sucked that up. His nose isn't as pointy. He's put that back in the proper position. Howdy, y'all. Follow along with my adventures at Chet Tripper on Instagram and at the Day Tripper TV on Facebook and YouTube. Or head to thedaytripper.com for travel guides, past episodes, and info on our mobile app and Team Day Tripper. This episode was made for y'all with the help of our awesome partners. Check the caption for more info. Howdy, y'all. Chet the Day Tripper here. Thanks so much for tripping with us. Remember, while you're here, like this video, subscribe to our channel so that we can stay out there on the road and keep on tripping. Did we miss anything in this town? Leave us a comment. Let us know. We love finding out about new stops with all your tips. And if you love Epic Texas Day Trips, remember to check our channel. We got a lot of them on there. Also, don't forget, if you want some sweet Day Tripper merch or another cool Texas-made product, come see us in Georgetown at the Day Tripper World Headquarters. You can also shop online if you check the link down there in the caption. All right, y'all. Vaya con Dios, amigos.