It didn't take long for Stephanie Harvey and her family to decide that Beef Fest was pretty cool.
"It's fun to come to things like this," said Harvey, who grew up in Emporia and now lives with her husband and three kids in Addy, Wash. The family had come back to town to visit relatives.
"My son is going to do the little tractor pull over there, but my girls are too shy," she added as they waited in line at the Lyon County Fairgrounds for a free hamburger. Then she grinned and said, "But we definitely have to take part in the cow-chip throwing contest. Then we can go back and say 'This is what people in Kansas do.'"
It was a full day for anyone attending the Flint Hills Beef Fest this year, and a surprisingly comfortable one. Scattered clouds and a steady breeze kept the temperature bearable for the first time in days, making it possible to smell the nearby barbecuers without feeling as though you were on the grill yourself.
Despite that, crowds were a little thinner than usual during the day Saturday. The usually intimidating line for refreshments shrank rapidly after an initial rush and while there were still plenty of kids eager to try a pedal-tractor pull and plenty of adults cooking up a storm, the number of passers-by and visitors appeared to be down just a little.
Not that you could tell from the some of the events. The ranch horse show had more competitors than usual this year, allowing separate divisions for older and younger horses. A crowd at the Grandstands watched in appreciative silence as the riders demonstrated their control by putting their horses through their paces, then properly guiding a calf. While not as flashy as a rodeo, the event required just as much skill.
"It's not very common, this kind of event," said Abbey Vogel of Cottonwood Falls, who was out to watch her husband Adrian ride. "This is neat because it shows what they can do, it shows their ability and it shows what the horses can do."
While the Grandstands were as silent as a golf tournament, it didn't take long to re-enter the world of noise. A short distance away, near the Anderson building, parents whooped and cheered as their kids mounted a pedal-powered tractor and pushed away, trying to cover a long-enough distance to qualify for the state fair in Hutchinson.
For one of the winners, Casey Wells of Emporia, qualifying for the state fair has become something of a habit.
"He's done it every year since he was first eligible to do it," his father Billy Wells said. "He's done it every year and he's made the state fair every year. It's one thing he's picked up on and took off on pretty good."
Raucousness was also the order of the day for the cow-chip throwing contest, where cheers and a little bit of teasing accompanied each attempt. The event requires a team of two, one to throw the chip (actually a buffalo chip from Madison) and the other to catch it in a large bucket, with the farthest catch winning.
"It's a time when your kids should NOT lick their hands," chuckled Gary Colglazer, the emcee for the event.
The contest, he said, was inspired by the pioneer families who used buffalo chips for fuel as they traveled the prairie -- and who had to wander greater distances to find them as the number of pioneers grew.
"Catch it!" Colglazer called out as one pair prepared for their turn. "Be ready!"
"And keep your mouth shut!" an audience member shouted helpfully, drawing a laugh.
One 11-year-old pair, Austin Gordon and Elena Flott of Emporia, managed an accurate toss-and-catch at 49 feet, 5 inches. Elena later said she was glad to be the one with the bucket.
"It's harder to throw it than to catch it," she said.
"If you don't get it in the right place, the wind'll carry it somewhere else," Austin said.
Meanwhile, the wind was just right for the 29 barbecue teams in the center of the fairgrounds, one more than last year. Most had been working feverishly since Friday to get the conditions just right for barbecued ribs, barbecued pork and even barbecued banana for a desert contest.
Inside the Anderson building, the judges examined course after course, studying its appearance and even inhaling is scent a few times before taking that first, careful bite. Everything has to be just right --and "just right" can have a lot of meanings, depending on the event.
"When you take a bite out of a rib, only that bite should come off," explained chief judge Dennis Polson of Lebo. "If it falls apart, it's overcooked. And tough is tough."
It's an art that goes beyond the recipe. You have to maintain the right temperature, Polson said, whether it's blazing hot or freezing cold. The wood in the fire or the sauce on the meat can make a difference. Even picking out the meat itself needs to be done with some care.
"You can't make a Holstein into an Angus," Polson said.
And if the smell of the cooking sucks new teams into the competition next year, well, it won't be the first time.
"We walked through when it first started and he thought it looked cool," said Jennifer Ratzlaff, indicating her husband Shawn.
"It smelled good," Shawn Ratzlaff said. "It looked good. And it looked like a lot of fun, a fun atmosphere."
A few visitors had some events they wanted to see revived. Michelle Youngblood of Emporia said she'd like to see the youth rodeo come back, along with the petting zoo that used to be offered. Nicole Hinrichs, meanwhile, missed the hay-stealing contest where a team of two tried to load the most bales of hay in the back of a truck and race across the finish line before time ran out. It was a fun event, she said, even if one of the drivers did manage to hit the ticket booth one year.
"Maybe everyone else was tired of it," Hinrichs said. "But I liked it."
Results from the cattle judging and barbecue contest will appear in the print edition of The Gazette.