Washington State Fair 2021

With face masks on Meg & I drove down to Puyallup to the Washington State Fairgrounds where we had a great time walking  ~6.5 miles & more than 12,000 steps spinning up the movement, standing & exercise rings on our Apple Watches.

It was my birthday so we went to celebrate & have fun. We stopped at the Grange to fill up our 10 Prius with ethanol free gas & to clean the front wind screen. Meg told me that her car was out of windshield wiper fluid so I went inside & got a gallon for $3.50 & added it & the wiper fluid receiver in the 2010 Toyota Prius was able to take the entire gallon (3.75 L) with room for more amazingly. 

We took interstate 90 west to 405 south to the 167 south to highway 512 to Puyallup. Megs iPhone 12 mini gave us instructions to get roughly near the green gate entrance, where it was $17 to park. At the entrance we encountered a lovely retired truck driver who was working at the event & she told me of her experiences & encouraged me that I would be able to pass all 4 written DOL tests required to get my CMV learners permit on the path to becoming a School Bus driver in the near future! She was a nice Christian woman & wished us both blessings & was super uplifting to interact with right upon entering. I spoke of riding my Yamaha MT-03 with a younger man at the gate, telling him I have to be very careful driving or riding now as any moving violations could cause me to loose my CDL. 

We saw the Budweiser Clydesdales as our first departure from the walking path. Then we ate delicious pulled pork sandwiches with a big slice of pickle as our lunch & drank from an overpriced water from a 20 oz plastic water bottle that we were thankfully able to recycle on-site in recycling containers. 

Water prices turned out to be the most outrageous part of the trip in terms of poor value. We planned on bringing water with us but left early to get an early start & forgot our water bottles. Most places were selling water bottles for $3-5 & we found a cost saving trick by ordering a large ice water in a big paper cup from one of the the Restaurants. We split a $2 scone from the Fisher stand & thought it was tasty. Later Meg had a very low quality corn dog from Sales Family for $8 & I had a jumbo polish sausage with sauerkraut & onions sandwich for $12 that was only ok. We also ate a $12 funnel cake that was good but something we would only ever eat a a fair event since we are both diabetic. 

Meg tall enough to ride the wooden roller coaster

The weather was really nice with light variable thin wispy clouds at first giving way to full sun. We waited in line for the wooden roller coaster as our first ride of the day for almost an hour, in direct sun for a lot of the time waiting, I hid behinds Meg's shadow to seek relief from the direct sun. Eventually we got closer to the cue of the roller coaster where the overhead structure provided shade relief to us both. It felt like it got up to about 78 F peak temps during the day. The 113 year old wooden roller coaster was a blast of fun to ride, all over in just a few minutes. 

Inside the buildings we looked at lots of fine arts, painting & photographs & sculptures. We went to see pigs & dogs & horses & goats & bunnies & huge pumpkins & even a giant pumpkins carved to look like a castle. There was an a pumpkin that weight over 800 lbs. 

Meg with the giant pumpkin :) 

We went to the Hall of Hero's where Meg found a Dr. Who Tardis box & I hung from a timer rack until my forearms became sore lol. There was lots of fun stuff, big statues of popular movie characters like Iron Man & The Hulk, there was a digital light microscope hooked up to a TV screen where you could look at lead or bismuth or uranium ore or silicon. There was an OG Batman car with lights & sounds. Lots of fun for kids! 

We each had 120 "tickets" for rides where each ticket worth about $0.50 - so most rides 12 tickets or about $6 to ride. We spent our remaining tickets on on the spinning elevator swing that was super fun to ride as it spins & elevates you at something that feels like about 35 mph, creating a nice wind in your face flying experience in the chain suspended tandem seats. 

3 rounds on the 1999 Extreme Scream $2 million dollar machine that cost $15 or 30 tickets to ride - it shoots you up over 20 stories in seconds & then you bounce a little bit up & down on a cushion of air, then it lifts you all the way to the top again & drops you making you feel weightless & its fantastically intense. I made a YouTube video about it! <-- Click Link to Watch) We didn't see anyone older in line to ride it, the oldest a man in his late 50's who we spoke with for a while. He was there with his teenage daughter & wife & they were all super nice. Everyone we encountered at the fair from the employees to the other patrons were all super friendly. 

After about 9 hours of fun we decided to call it a day. We stopped to pickup a bakers dozens of scones that my mother really wanted us to pickup! Navigated on foot back to the car & headed home. We were so dehydrated that we stopped at Fred Meyers on the way home for some carrot ginger turmeric juice, some large water bottles & a box of 90 double sealed Kroger branded cheaper plastic sandwich bags :) By the time we made it home we were both pooped, sore & tired & dehydrated, so we hit the hay (went to bed) early! It was fun day & an excellent way to celebrate my birthday. Many people called me or sent me text messages giving me lovely happy birthday wishes & congratulating me for getting a new job with the Issaquah School District as a bus driver. I am hopeful & optimistic that I can completely all the tests & training to satisfactory levels to succeed. 

To help my former employer I agreed to work today to close the store & then to come in tomorrow on Labor Day, normally a holiday we would observe to help with a physical inventory. I also agreed to help my boss a few more times on the next couple of weekends so that he can get a day or two off to rest & recover & relax. Sadly, because I no longer work at Batteries Plus full time, they turned off my medical insurance & dental insurance, but promised to send me something called Cobra information for both since I will be unable to get benefits as a School Bus driver until I have been driving for 620 hours, in perhaps 6 months or so ..