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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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MN State Fair Today's trip was a trip to the MN State Fair. (It is part of the reason we are not on the road) Todays foods included ... Quesadilla from Quesadilla Jct Cinnamon rolls from Cinnie Buns Onion Rings from Danielson & Daughters Strawberry Milk Shake from the Dairy Building Foot Long Hotdog from near the horse areena Root Beer & a Coke from the Root Beer stand Wild Rice Cheese burger from the foods building Meatballs from Mancini’s al Fresco Apple Cider from the horticulture building We got the parking lot a little after 8 am. They must have had a mis-schedule as there was the longest line I've seen since we quite parking on the fair grounds. Another 'Opps' we noticed was that as of 9 am the Glider still was not up and running, I think it is usually running from open to close. The first change we noticed was the old spaghetti / Spam building was gone and a new UofM building was there. We did walk through it later, Just small cubicles of people asking questions/giving info. There were a few election booths up already for the 2018 election ... The shooting range that used to be up in Heritage Square seems to have found a new location on the street north of the Arts building. The largest traveling ferris wheel is now at the Fair across from John Deere. We watched it for a while and it seemed to be always stopped. Not sure how many turns it makes between loading the last person and unloading the first. Sweet Martha's now has a third location on machinery hill. The other two are still open. UPS now has a location where the carousel (until 1989) used to be. Just in case you buy more than you can carry. It's true. Big Bacon has taken over the old Cheese Curds outdoor location. Doing OK, but on the lines like when it was Cheese Curds. Down on the west end of the Fair grounds there used to be a Famous Daves ... it is now RC's BBQ Next to it is now the Old Time Photo's that used to be in Heritage Square. It now looks like a trailer so the building that was there must be gone. Even I don't remember what used to be in Adventure park before it was Adventure park. Now that have put a wide sidewalk at an angle through it. They may have also cleared out some trees, it seemed a lot more open. The Big Bacon location was take over by a ... Dole whip Ice cream booth ... Mike's burgers is still there ... of of the few things I can remember about the State Fair as a kid. Someone had converted their little electric cart so that a passenger could ride facing backwards :) ... also saw some old guy wearing a really tight t-shirt and shorts ... if that wasn't bad enough, you could see he had paperwork, items tucked inside his shirt. The Senior Center is no more ... it is now the Ramber Center. It's changing but some items are still there. We got to see the first baby pigs being born at the Mircle of Birth center today. We were watching it on the screen not realizing until we turned that it was happening right there, right then. I felt sorry for one sheep, it had been shorn, and someone had written on it the different meat parts that come from it. It looked like a Far Side cartoon. Rocky is a 1,400# pig. He just lays there. Hot Dish on a stick is still there, we haven't tried it. The area to the west of the Grandstand ramp was full of science fair booths, usually music is the only thing going on. We walked through it but it was all over our heads. The 'Young Fiddlers Assn' was playing just outside the Education building. We did walk through the building. I only picked up one pen this year ... a huge change from the bags of stuff we used to bring home years ago. (We turned a motor home ... that's what we do when we aren't driving them) :) The Wild Rice Burger area is now three times as large, but there was one section that they were not ever using ??? The cheapest drink you are likely to find is the $2 apple cider in the horticulture building. We did not see any water under $3 this year. We made good use of the discount book. BB got a t-shirt plus we used more than $5 in food coupons. Lots of good music, lots bigger crowd than we were expecting. Beautiful day, I'm guessing that set a new record, beating the old one by quite a bit. We heard something that sounded like there is now something on the 3rd floor of the grandstand again. I don't remember anything up there for the last 20 years. Lots of walking, food and music. |