Pork, Peanut and Pine Festival At Chippokes Plantation State Park

39th Annual Pork, Peanut and Pine Festival

Ask a local when the Pork, Peanut and Pine Festival is and you will usual get the answer, "It's on the hottest two days of the year."  And that is usually a true statement.  But thankfully we were blessed with a cold front this week and it was actually tolerable.  Normally we just walk through the craft section and then grab a bite to eat.  By then we are miserably hot and head on home.  But since it was almost springlike, we spent the whole afternoon enjoying the festival.

Farm Animals For Everyone

Pigs.  I love them.   Don't know why.  They had two varieties this day.  Work pigs and play pigs.  I enjoyed them both.  The little feeding pigs were sweet.

But not as sweet as this little cutie.  She is four months old and up for sale.  Definitely hard to resist.

Festival Fun

What festival would be complete without old cars, tractors and the mandatory firetruck?  Hubby was in he-man heaven.

I didn't get any photos of the tractors but I did grab this shot of a  kilted man in the BBQ line.  You dont' see that every day!

Beautiful Countryside

The gardens at Chippokes Plantation

After walking around admiring the beauty we indulged in some BBQ and sweet tea.  Doesn't get much better than that.  Hubby wanted some boiled peanuts.  It's not something I enjoy but he loves them.

We sat in the grass to enjoy our food while we watched the live entertainment.  There was a bluegrass band called Flatland Bluegrass Band playing.  It was just the perfect touch for this day in the country.  I didn't hear why she put that hat on but everyone got a kick out of it.

Boat Party

We took the shuttle (it was a flatbed pulled by a tractor!) down to the river.  I had never been to the river and someone said there were lots of boats for photos.  Of course I wanted to take pictures of boats.  I don't know what I expected but it wasn't a massive boat party.

As I was looking out over the hundreds of boats I saw something way off in the distance across the water.  I had an idea what it was but really didn't think it was possible.  So I got out my biggest lens and zoomed in.  I was right!  It was actually Busch Gardens.  This will give you an idea just how massive these two rides are.  It's amazing that I could actually even see them with the naked eye from this distance.

So after a very enjoyable day and plenty to eat we headed out.  Didn't go straight home though.  We decided to tour Bacon's Castle.  But I'll talk about that another day.

Sharon