Crowds.

This was taken just as the fair was opening at ten in the morning; you can just see the shadows created by the bright-cloudy sky. For some reason—I think because it looks as if it’s posed instead of candid—I just love this 2004 photo.

That’s Sandi near the middle of the picture with her back to the camera.

Did I say it can get a little crowded? That’s the back of the grandstand on the right. From 2009:

Taken from pretty much the same spot, in 2010:

This is the stretch that runs along the racetrack on the side opposite the grandstand. You can just see the track on the left.

This is what you see after one too many corn dogs, one too many Sunset Ice Cream peanut-butter-and-chocolate cones, one too many Buffo shows, and one too many trips inside the Wall Of Death.

I had a doctor’s appointment during the afternoon on the day we went in 2005, so we didn’t get on to the grounds until late afternoon. This is what it looked like; I like to call it “magic time.” 

Around six or seven o’clock, if you’ve hit the right kind of warm, clear, and calm weather, it is—and I don’t know how else to describe it—magic. The rides are going full-tilt boogie, the barkers are crying full voice, Dunk-The-Clown is baiting teenage boys and their dates, babies in carriages are alternately sleeping and crying, the dwarf is eating fire over at the freak show, and REO Speedwagon* is rockin’ from the grandstand. You just want to walk around forever.

*Oddly enough, Reo Speedwagon’s bass guitarist is leaning on a cane, the drummer is in a wheelchair, and the lead singer has a walker with yellow tennis balls on the legs. They have been around a while.