The State Fair

For the first time in over ten years I went to the Minnesota State Fair. This might sound on the border of sacrilegious, but I have no great love for the fair. I don't like crowds, I'm not all that fond of things on a stick (although, I must admit I still like burning my fingers on the just-out-of-the-boiling-oil mini-sugar donuts), and there's really not a whole lot of new stuff that wasn't there when I was a kid. And the new stuff that was there was close to impossible to get close enough to see. It's that shoulder-to-shoulder crowd thing.

But this year I had a purpose. There's a mystery writers' contest where the plot has to take place at the State Fair. It's a getting to be one of those rare contests that doesn't have an entrance fee. They gave a list of ten clues in which the writer must use at least five. I couldn't resist. (For anyone interested, email me and I'll give you the details on where to find the website with all the info. Before I forget to mention it - you do have to be a Minnesota resident.)

The first couple of hours weren't too bad. I got there early (around 9:30 am) before it got too crowded and too hot. I picked up a map and a pronto-pup (not nearly as good as I remembered) and started trekking. By 11:00 I was ready to go home. I looked at the map and saw that I had covered about 1/3 of the fairgrounds. I had a lot of idea possibilities floating around in my head but I still wanted to figure out how a murderer could get from the midway to the petting zoo with the least amount of foot traffic. So as the temperatures rose to the high eighties and the mass of people seemed like a solid wall, I trudged on.

By 1:00 I just wanted out. Hot, claustrophobic, and ready to drop from the heat, I looked at the map and figured I had covered about 1/2 of the fairgrounds. I didn't care anymore about the rest. I was also about as far away from my bus stop as I could get. I could tell you about the journey back, but that would ruin my story entry. If I win you can read all about it. No, I didn't kill anyone for real, but it did enter my mind. In the meantime - enjoy the Great Minnesota Get Together.