Spending the Night at the State Fair

I had some close friends that went to state fairs to show their goats.
One year, they wanted me to go with them to the Oklahoma State fair to help care for and show their goats.
The friends brought about 20 goats to show. The huge animal barn areas had hard concrete floors with lots of separate stalls to place animals in.
My friends needed several stalls for all their goats, supplies for the goats and one stall for us to spend the day and night in. It was like camping inside a huge building.
The first thing to do was to put wood shavings or some kind of bedding down in the goat stalls that the goats would be kept in. There were many chores that needed to be done to care for the goats while we were at the fair. Crowds of people were everywhere. It was like having crowds of people come into your home to watch every move you make. It was sort of like living in a cage in the zoo.
My friends brought air mattresses to sleep on. We slept in a little stall right next to the goats. Other show people had their own stalls to live in. They had microwave ovens, small refrigerators, TV’s and other things to make their stay more comfortable. We slept, ate, and worked in our stall area with the goats. There were no bathrooms in the barn. I had to go outside and across the street to go to the bathroom.
Before we even woke up the next morning, fair visitors were wondering around inside the barn looking at the goats and us. I’m sure they were more interested in the goats than us.
What I remember most was the dust. I was covered in dust, even between my toes. The breakfast we found in the morning to buy was awful. The scrabbled eggs in our meal were made with powdered eggs.

It was an interesting and fun adventure, but it was also very challenging.
Ginger