Jim Chew started his mission while being bored of retirement.<\/p>\n
DALLAS \u2014 When 77-year-old Jim Chew of Columbus, Ohio put a bow on his career, he quickly grew tired of being retired.<\/p>\n
\u201cI retired and a week later I was bored,\u201d Chew said. \u201cIt was kind of a shock at first. I thought, \u2018ok, now what do I do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
To cure his complacency, Chew\u2019s doing something big: spending his golden years visiting every state fair in America.<\/p>\n
The State Fair of Texas was the 30th where Chew met the people, saw the sights, and tried the food. Back home, Chew always loved visiting the Ohio State Fair and figured the others would be just as fun.<\/p>\n
However, not every state has a state fair, so Chew substitutes either a local or regional fair for those. Every fair he visits, he adds a pin to his hat.<\/p>\n
Chew says, to have a great fair, it\u2019s got to have the classics like livestock, good food, and plenty of live music. But it must also have something unique.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn California, they\u2019ve got the Cannabis village there,\u201d he said. \u201cMarijuana, cigarettes, hash, and all the things that are legal.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also found some of the best food in California and some of the cheapest in Mississippi.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had free biscuits and honey, so that was pretty nice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
After visiting, he gives each fair a rating. But Chew says that no matter the score, at their core, they are one.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a taste of Americana,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can see a lot of patriotism and just a lot of pride, hometown pride, coming to a fair.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chew says a state fair is a glimpse of America at its best where arms are open wide and hospitality is served with pride.<\/p>\n
Everywhere he\u2019s been, he\u2019s been warmly welcomed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fair is the destination, but the fun part is the journey,\u201d Chew said.<\/p>\n
Texas is no exception. No other state fair is bigger, but is any better?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a 9 or 10 out of all the fairs,\u201d Chew said. \u201cYeah, it\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jim Chew started his mission while being bored of retirement. DALLAS \u2014 When 77-year-old Jim Chew of Columbus,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-470675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}