The Great Circleville Pumpkin Show's final weekend

The Great Circleville Pumpkin Show is winding down its 119th edition, so if you have not made the drive yet, this weekend is your last chance. The show runs through Saturday, October 24, with the gates open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. It is Ohio's oldest festival and easily its most pumpkin-obsessed, and it takes over more than nine blocks of downtown Circleville, centered around Court and Main streets.

The headline this year was the giant pumpkin weigh-in, which happened early on Wednesday morning. Troy VanArsdalen walked away with the top prize and a new show record, his pumpkin tipping the scales at 2,455 pounds. Pete Bowers followed with 1,709 pounds and David Beyer with 1,657, so the competition was not exactly a one-man show. Beyond the giants, the festival puts more than 100,000 pounds of pumpkins, squash, and gourds on display, alongside home arts and crafts, baked goods, an art show, and canned goods.

Eating is a huge part of the experience. The show sells roughly 23,000 pumpkin pies and over 100,000 pumpkin donuts, and the list of pumpkin-flavored food goes on from cookies and burgers to taffy, ice cream, cake, soups, waffles, cream puffs, fudge, milkshakes, cheesecake, chili, pancakes, whoopie pies, sloppy joes, pierogies, cheese corn dogs, pulled pork, and elephant ears. The center-piece is the World's Largest Pumpkin Pie, which weighs upward of 400 pounds and measures more than six feet across.

For families, Poor Jack Amusements runs 25 to 30 rides for all ages. Ride wristbands are $35 per person per day, sold from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and they are not valid after 4 p.m., so you will want to arrive early. Alternatively, 20 individual ride tickets run $25. Getting in and out is the one part that needs a little planning, because the show pulls in over 400,000 visitors over the course of the week, roughly 100,000 a day. Two shuttles can help: PICCA and AMVETS run from 818 Tarlton Road, and the Ohio Christian University baseball team operates out of OCU at 1476 Lancaster Pike.

If you have never been, the setting is part of the draw. The show is held in the Circleville Historic District, which has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978 and covers 35 acres with 69 contributing buildings. You can walk past the Greek Revival-style Pickaway County Courthouse, the Italianate City Hall, the old sheriff's office and jail, and The People's Bank, the only remaining building with a portion of its property line following the town's original circular pattern. The Clarke-May Museum at 162 W. Union Street is free and preserves the history of the Underground Railroad in Pickaway County, open Tuesday through Friday from 1 to 4 p.m. and Saturdays by appointment.

It is a long-running tradition for a reason, and it is a simple day trip from Columbus. If you go, go early, bring the kids, and come hungry.