California, Corn, Crowns, and Camaraderie!

Welcome to Huupeston! yes that's what I said! Huu-p-ston. Sweet corn pickin' and tractor drivin'!

Today was one of the most interesting days I have ever had during a pageant! We had a busy busy schedule. We started off the day by going to breakfast sponsored by the Hoopeston Chamber of Commerce. They served three types of omelets, the most delicious potato casserole, fruit, and muffins. I always laugh to myself when I see girls hardly eating anything or being really strict on their diets because I think of Bob Arnhym giving us the annual lecture our first day about keeping our energy up for competition week; “I hate to say it but you missed the train a long time ago if you haven’t started watching your weight yet!” It isn’t time to scarf down anything you see, but enjoy your time at least! I love, Love, LOVE all of my roommates. Our chaperon is Lisa and she is so much fun. We have a great time in the car. She picks us up in the morning, and takes us home at night, runs us on errands if we need and is in charge of us while we are here basically. She monitors phones, cameras (not allowed beyond the stage and in the dressing rooms)for the fabulous four.

We toured Hoopeston Foods, which cans, labels, and distributes millions of cans of various beans. They are a private labeling company, so it was really neat to get to see the “insider’s point of view”! They got a group boo from green California because they don’t recycle, but I had to forgive them because the place really was organized and in very good shape. It was so cool to see all the beans falling down conveyor belts and chili slopping into the cans. We had to wear hard hats, ear plugs, sneakers, and hair nets. It was such a fun experience. We weren’t allowed to take cameras in, so unfortunately I don’t have pictures of the inside, but believe me when I say I have plenty of us taste testing all the various beans after the tour was over and us jumping around in our construction attire. The internet is rather slow here, so it takes too long to upload pictures. Maybe tomorrow? They gave us samples to take home too!

Posing with Miss Georgia in our fun construction hats!


Miss New York and I sampling the delicious beans!


Miss Georgia, Miss Maryland, Miss Conneticut, Miss Kansas, myselt, and Miss New Mexico posing before our tour began (no cameras allowed!)


Miss New York and Bob the Cob! One of my funny memories of the trip: at the local school, “And Miss New York can do a great impersonation of the Statue of Liberty!”… “thanks, Jenna.”


We left to tour a local farm which belongs to the Webber family. They gave us a very interesting demonstration of how corn grows and why the plant looks like it does. He kept saying he was probably boring us but I was on top of the photosynthesis conversations and how pollination works. We even drove tractors! HUGE tractors! I felt like I was in a movie with so much corn around. They produce 8% of all corn sold to Tostidos which goes into their chips, so eat up and save a farm!






We went back to the Civic Center for lunch sponsored by the Rotary Club and then did talent run-throughs. It is actually quite an honor to be in a room full of incredibly talented, beautiful, and ambitious young women. We have so much fun and spent the entire afternoon laughing and having a good time. We ended the day with rehearsals. 41 contestants in 2 nights of prelims--- quite intense. And the theater is so cold. We thought we had it bad in the Saroyan, but this was no comparison! I can’t believe we only got here yesterday. I’m pretty sure it was about 10 days ago. I am off to be and in need of organizing for the day because if we forget something, we are out of luck because we are too far away to drive back and get it! It is fun coming back to the house and chatting with Billy and Monica and their two children because they are so sweet and just so welcoming.

Please stay tuned and I promise to soon give more details!



All my love,
Jenna