The steamy, stormy weather pattern continued today and my feet and legs required a short recovery window. I blogged all morning and gave myself an hour to get over the Forest for my 2:45 shift. There was no road congestion on my way over, but the time elapsed quickly as I stopped to chat with neighbors. The pedestrian traffic seemed slightly heavier today, but with impending rain, there were more people going out than in.

I set off the primary metal detector, but passed through the secondary just fine. I’d been trying to figure out what I added or changed in my gear bag, until I started blogging and realized it was my little coin purse…read on.

I arrived on the grounds in between the scheduled times for recipe card distribution, but I popped in the side door and lo and behold, one card remained. I grabbed it, took a picture and tucked it away where I hoped it would stay dry today.

I came prepared with sixteen quarters and four pennies tucked in my coin sock. (See the closure…sets of metal detectors!)

I had a few extra minutes before I needed to check in for my shift, so I went inside the Fine Art building to find the penny smasher. It’s located in the artist in residence area on the south wall.

There are four designs by local artists.

There was one person who arrived before me, but no one waiting so I proceeded to smash all four in a row.

The building wasn’t crowded, but it held more people than I was comfortable with, so I decided I’d come look at Fine Art another time.

My uber volunteering friend Bree was head of crown distribution today, I’d be taking over for her shortly! I signed in, got my apron, EpiPen and poncho and relieved her!

It’s been pretty quiet in the Forest this fair, so far. Some people still know to find me here and my former coworker and her son, (my former toddler!) stopped to say hi!

He’s grown just a little in 9 years!!

We spent much of the shift, covering and uncovering games and stations as the rain popped up and dispersed all afternoon. Nothing torrential or severe today, thankfully.

With such thin crowds, I wanted to check out the Fine Art once I finished my shift. Elysia had been out exploring, enjoying what she called her “personal fair” and joined up with me. It seemed that everywhere we went we had a bit more than elbow room!

We masked up and took a leisurely stroll through the galleries. I like to go backwards, like a salmon swimming upstream, but there were no other fish to contend with! It was easy to follow the numbered walls so we didn’t miss a thing.

There wasn’t any one piece of art that jumped out at me, but I’m often drawn to art that involves textures, collage and makes me think the medium used is something different than it appears!

The following installations all required closer inspection!

This piece was being created last fair by one of the live artists. She creates using embroidery floss and glue.

The “red tape cape” caught my eye and also required closer inspection to see the lining sewn together with tax document printed on fabric.

It was nice to have the place almost all to ourselves!

The rain started again so we donned our gear and made our way south. After our Fine Art building experience, I was curious about the Ag/Hort building. There was much more I wanted to see in there, including another pass at the Crop Art. There is always something I miss.

Along the way, we stopped in at the DFL. There’s a drawing for an Apple Watch snd my Fitbit is dying, so the DFL now has me on the mailing lists again, and the Political Plinko game revealed my true future…Twitter bot.

I needed some dinner, so I got myself a giant egg roll at Que Viet. So crispy and delicious!

We entered the hexagonal, six winged building and found ourselves almost entirely alone. The only space where some people gathered was in the crop art area. I’d try that again later.

We could capture full range images of the floral displays without single fairgoer in the shot!

I got to see the Gladiolus Show all alone.

And we waited in line for zero seconds to get our Apple products from the Minnesota Grown Apple booth!

I was sure there’d be a crowd checking out the prize winning veggies, but I was wrong!

Just me & the pumpkins…and eggplant and beets….

Curious as to the true measure of crowds at the fair, we took a stroll down Judson. The street that runs from the Haunted House down to the Coliseum. It’s Saturday night at 7pm and we still had more than elbow room.

Tucked behind the Minnesota Lottery booth is a giant orange Adirondack chair, painted by our favorite state fair artist Adam Turman. E and I climbed in and slid ~all~ the way back!

As we were taking our own pictures, the people that walked past (the few in number that were) all asked if we needed someone to take our photo. After three inquiries, we again declined, but told the next group that what what we really needed were snacks! It would be an interesting social experiment to see if we handed $10 to someone, they would take the money and run, or actually return with food! My guess, since it’s Minnesota, we’d get snacks! One passerby suggest that we “food dude” that. I had to look it up, but it’s a food delivery service outside the metro. It got me thinking about an app/business running state fair food for people on the grounds, or out into the neighborhood! “Go-fer” delivery service, with green/white & blue/white striped uniform!

The view from our chair was great! No people, the rocket launcher ride, and tired feet!

When we told the last photo inquiring passerby about our need for snacks, his response was the best. “You can’t get out of the chair, can you?” We we’re pretty sure we could, it just wouldn’t be pretty!

The rain stopped and so we’d flung our rain gear off again. Every time I took off my poncho this evening, E was there to catch the mask that was dislodged from my face, or from its other position, dangling on my ear. This time was no exception! I was grateful, since I’d just purchased these new masks ($$ and effective) for the fair and they were definitely not disposable.

We thought we’d try our empty building luck with the Miracle of Birth Center. Jackpot again! It did take a few minutes for me to realize that there are no live birth events taking place this year, which is the biggest draw for this space. I’m sure it’s to mitigate crowds and keep all the livestock staff and students safe. There are still lots of cute baby animals, and I’ll try to stop back another time to see the duck slide in action!

The rain started up a bit heavier, and there was a stream of people departing for the Como Gate snd some seeking shelter, but we decided to duck into the coliseum anyway. I bought some of the Simply Nuts butter toffee peanuts that I love so much. With the high humidity and rain, the nuts were super sticky and soggy, but it didn’t stop me from devouring them! E and her son, who just got dropped back at college, typically share the Australian Battered Potatoes. I’ve never had them (battered & fried) but I know there is usually a very long line to get them. Tonight, not so much.

We took shelter under the little food court, provided by the Foot Long Hot Dog stand across the street. As a good, polite, Minnesotan and because I’d eaten too many sweet, sticky peanuts, I felt I needed to patronize the establishment that was hosting us, so I got my second foot long dog.

I did try a bite of the potatoes, but it was a big NOPE. There was cheesy, bacony, starchy deliciousness…but the battered and not fried crispy enough part, stopped me cold.

We put our rain gear on again and just meandered through what was left of the people. Stopping by the Star Tribune, we snagged more cookie chapstick, but also scored the bonus of the 2020 ~fair that wasn’t~ flavor, cheese curds!

The Giant Slide, which is open this year, was once again closed for business in the rain.

I think we can safely say that the crowds typically gathered here on the street are patrons or viewers of the slide.

It was our friend Dave’s birthday up at the Ball Park, so when E made a quick detour for cookies to-go, I stopped up to give my greetings. I found these dear old friends there too!

I was told that there is a new wooden figure up in the Ball Park Bleachers, that I would come back to see in the daylight.

Elysia and I decided we’d done enough and I knew my feet had a couple more volunteer shifts coming up, so we made our way, once again, past the sparse crowd at the Leinie Bandshell, the empty tables at O’Garas and could see through the empty halls of the “Creative A-ties” Building.

As we waited to cross Snelling, I commented on my lonely walk back to the car. E said she’d walk with me if I would drop her back at her park & ride. I jumped at the idea! I guess the bus isn’t always a bed of roses and I was grateful for the company! We walked to my car and E waited across the yard, so I could pull out and let her in. I flung my poncho off one last time, not realizing my mask went flying too. E wasn’t there to catch it.