This post documents my experience on October 30, 2010.
As I was trying to figure which festivals I would attend in the fall, I noticed that many Ohio farms were having festivals during every weekend in October. These festivals offered corn mazes, hay rides, and various other activities, but it was hard to find much distinction between one farm festival and another.
And, since most of them charged an admission close to $10, I found it to be some costly research in determining that distinction (this is part of the reason I’ve not included county fairs in this blog).
Therefore, I limited myself to two farm festivals…
…Ramseyer Farms being the first.
A fifth generation potato farm in Wooster, the Ramseyer Farm holds different festival themes (potato, pumpkin, etc.) each weekend. Activities over each weekend change, but the principle attractions, such as the mazes, stay the same.
Therefore, as this post is titled, I attended the Fall Fun Festival, their final festival of the season…
…and was it festive!
One thing I really enjoyed immediately about the Ramseyer Farm was just how much thought went into the decorations…
…both in front of their main building…
…and out among the festival.
Through various photo ops spread on the grounds…
…you saw a playfulness come out…
…and a touch of humor.
And even animals seemed to be enjoying themselves…
…hanging out in their rabbit cities…
…or disappearing from their fenced-in quarters…
…and checking you out from above.
Because, honestly, they were probably jealous of all the stuff other kids (pun, intended) got to do, including…
…going on hayrides…
…sliding down chutes…
…peddling carts at the track…
…jumping in the corn…
…pumping water to win a rubber ducky race…
…clanging…
…milking…
…and potato spud slinging.
With every admission, you got one ticket for the opportunity to put…
…two of these…
…into one of these…
…so that you can do this.
(keep stopping the film toward the end to see my potato go beyond 150 yards!)
And when you exhausted your body enough, you had the opportunity to also exhaust your mind…
…through various mazes all throughout the grounds.
I found myself trapped in the most vicious maze…
…the Mind-Bender Maze.
This sadistic labyrinth permitted you to move straight or turn right, forcing you to go in seemingly endless circles to get yourself out the exit properly.
Eventually though, after many trials and errors, I slowly got the gist of it…
…and worked it out through this jumpy and dizzy video (better in full screen mode).
But, honestly, these weren’t the mazes the people came to see.
Ramseyer Farm has two huge corn mazes that are both interesting in their own right.
The first maze…
…the Ohio Maze…
…is a series of trails…
…corresponding both to major Ohio highways…
…and historical pathways.
And while kids seek out…
…stamps at posts hidden throughout the maze…
…they are tricked in the process to learn about Ohio presidents…
…cities and fruit.
Quite the clever trick, if you ask me.
In fact, this was my favorite part of the entire festival. Here I was in the midst of a cornfield, feeling swallowed up by the world, and seeing the last two years of festival hopping all being revisited.
For I had been to festivals about the pawpaw, the Great Trail, coal, and the whitetail deer. These bits of information were like small gifts for all my labors and, after having traveled so much through the state of Ohio…
…I only got lost in this maze once or twice.
My bad.
But it would have been far worse…
…if I did this year’s Mystery Maze.
Always with a different design…
…the Mystery Maze was a time-consuming challenge.
You were even given a phone number to call on your cell phone if you got lost!
I actually didn’t have so much time to take on this challenge (next year I will)…
…but they did have a Mini Maze for those with less time, like me.
Consisting of the turtle in the above map…
…this video should give you an idea of what you were in for.
And why didn’t I have enough time? you ask.
Well, because I needed to put some time aside for some tasty vittles on the farm.
You see…
…apart from the local donuts and snack food…
…you shouldn’t forget that this is a potato farm.
So I took advantage of the very local fries and the local-for-me Elyria cider.
Being that I try not to eat like that every day…
…you can imagine the guilt I felt when I got back in the car.