It's Only Fair

Being away from home four nights a week I am always on the scout for things to occupy my time.   A concert here and there.  An iMax 3D theater movie.  A long public transportation trip to get to a far away sandwich, just to burn up some hours.   Of course the last few months, working on this van, I don’t have as may of those hours to burn.  Don’t think it escapes me it’s possible this is one of The Wife’s motives.   I get in less trouble when I am busy.  But even with my long project list, sometimes I need a little break from the van.  That’s when I am fitting in these concerts, movies and sandwiches.  The thing is, I don’t often I have anything span more than one night.

That all changed though.  The State Fair has come to my big city.   Just to the north of the midway, they have their very own campground!  As soon as I heard about it I knew I had to do this.   I had to put in a camp site reservation way back in May.  The sites sell out in hours so I had three different types of calendar reminders for the opening of sales.  When the hour came up, 10AM on a Thursday, I was busy hitting reload on my browser.  I felt like that time I was trying to get Stones tickets.   The second the sale was open, I registered for a site.

It was cool, having something like this to look forward to the length of a summer.  About a month before fair-time I invited The Wife to join me.  I thought she would maybe do it for a night, two at the most.  She was somewhat noncommittal when I asked her.  But in the interceding time we got the week long sans-kids camping trip.  We got another shorter camping trip with the whole family, the rest of the members all snuggled in their tents.  The two of us sipping scotch as we relaxed on our  wonderful soft mattress.  We were accustomed to having great times and marvelous adventures in the van.  By the time of the fair, she joined me four of my five days.   It was great!  I went to work every day via public transport, then back to the fair each night.  We had a fabulous time wandering around, eating, and people watching.  I think her phone registered nine miles one day.  We literally walked through our feet in the span of those days.  I had one extra night pre-paid for my camp site.  My feet said “go home.”

I was really surprised by was the value for the money I got from the food venders.  I just remember fair food of years ago.  Greasy gut bombs that about killed you.  The prices were high and portion sizes small, the only real flavor was fry oil.  I felt like that was the biggest change of the entire fair.  I thought the food this year was pretty amazing.   Everything I had was very flavorful.   Even the food I love the most, the cheese curds in the food building.  The amazing thin batter.  Salty on the surface.  Not too melted on the interior.  They were perfect.  I had them every single day.

We had fish tacos one night.  She had a gyro one day for lunch while I was at work and proclaimed it fantastic.  Fresh cut fries, great burgers.  I just can’t get over how pleased I was with the quality and value for the money of the fair food.    Compared to normal city prices, fair food was right in line.

…Don’t get me wrong.  I ate mini donuts too.

In addition to all the daytime fair walking, we are nighttime walkers.  I don’t know if y’all realize it or not but, just like looking from your kitchen window and seeing someone walking their dog by your house at two in the afternoon…  There are people walking by at two a.m. as well.  Several times over the years The Wife and I have been driving around town in the daytime and be surprised at the color of a house.   Purple?!  —We had only seen it at night, we thought it was grey!  Let me clue you in on something.   Fairgrounds get weird after midnight.   That’s even coming from a guy who has a pretty high bar constituting weird.  I’ll say no more.

As far as van life, there were about four of us camper vans there.  Plus one cute little pull behind trailer camper.  Seriously, it was just too cute for words.  I’m guessing they had a third less square feet that what I have.  Built in the late 70’s in all it’s round cornered fiberglass glory.    I talked to the owners a bit.  They lived in the even colder, next biggest city to the north.   A young couple with a little baby.  Down for a week that spanned the previous weekend.

They really do look a lot alike.  I never even noticed that
big dent in the front fender until now.

There was one other stealth white van.   I talked to that lady the third day.   I really felt I had to.  You know how it is.  Coming out of the bathroom late at night.  Eyes lock onto a white van.  They really do look all the same.   Lucky in a way, I decided I should grab a bottle of water from the cab and decided to do it via the front passenger door rather than through the bulkhead.    Even when the mind said “key hole seems lower than I remember it being…” I pressed on.   The key wouldn’t fit.  I jiggled it around some, trying to get it into the lock.  Puzzled, I took stock of my surroundings and realized my error. 

So I had to apologize to her the next day.   She was a fair worker who travelled from state to state.  Nice Ford stealth van with the bed setup along the side.  She said she was a sound sleeper and hadn’t heard a thing.  I hope she was sleeping just as soundly two nights later when I nearly did the same thing again.  What an idiot.

I talked to another guy who was driving a dark grey windowless Sprinter van.  God would it be nice to be able to stand up.  This van was the model with the lowered floor so it really didn’t even seem very far off the ground.  Bed across the back and a very small kitchen area.  No real storage.   The center of his van life seemed to be the front passenger seat that could swivel to the back.

The feet of a Keens wearing fair girl!

Otherwise the campground was filled with your typical mix of money oozing gas guzzling buses and seen better days antiques.   Each of us parked just a touch over seven feet apart.  The guy who helped me park told me to be very careful and even ask him for help again should I pull out of the campground and come back.   The fire marshal often makes surprise nighttime visits.   Best time to catch everyone home in their campers at a fairgrounds campsite?  3am.  They have a seven foot long stick.   If they can’t walk it between your campers they wake up both vehicles and sort out getting them moved.  The guy encouraged me to not be involved in such a scene.  I let him know once I was parked I was settled.

The fair was a great time and I can’t wait to do it again next year.   Being right there, with all that entertainment right at our fingertips we found to be lots of fun.  In our van we had the perfect way to do it!