We went to the Martins Ferry Strawberry Festival today. It was one of those small-town events that has that mix of homemade charm and chaotic energy—and we figured, why not? The weather was good, we had nothing else planned, and it gave us the perfect excuse to get Aldo out for some social time.

For those who don’t know, Aldo is our 5-month-old Mini Pincher. He’s tiny, loud, full of attitude, and thinks he’s six feet tall. Today, he strutted through that festival like he owned the place. Kids were stopping to pet him, adults were smiling, and he was soaking it all up like the little celebrity he believes he is. Seriously, if they gave out ribbons for confidence, he would’ve taken Best in Show.

Now, I expected strawberries, food trucks, some local vendors, maybe a cover band playing old rock songs. What I didn’t expect was the full-on freak show that seemed to crawl out from behind the deep fryer and funnel cake booths. It was like all the people who got rejected from a casting call for My Strange Addiction decided to meet up here.

There were bad tattoos everywhere—like, not even “I was young and drunk” bad. I’m talking about tattoos that looked like they were drawn with a Crayola marker by someone riding a unicycle during an earthquake. One guy had a whole sleeve that looked like a prison broke into a coloring book and gave up halfway through. And don’t even get me started on the hair. I saw more shades of pink, green, and something that could only be described as “chemical spill orange” than I ever thought possible. Some of these folks looked like they lost a bet. Others looked proud of it.

It was honestly kind of entertaining though. Like, yeah, it was weird—but weird in a “people watching is now the main event” kind of way. I didn’t even mind standing in line for lemonade because there was just so much to look at. It was like a live-action episode of Cops mixed with a Lisa Frank nightmare.

Despite all that, or maybe because of it, we actually had a good time. Aldo didn’t bark once, which is a miracle in itself. He even got a little dog treat from one of the vendors and made friends with a Shih Tzu in a stroller (because apparently that’s a thing now).

So yeah, we went for the strawberries, stayed for the chaos, and left with a tired dog and some great people-watching stories. Can’t really ask for more than that.