Setup really begins to pick up...

Here is picture number two of my fair transformation experiment. This photo was taken around 7 pm today, almost 24 hours after yesterday's first photo. You can see the midway has really started to fill up with rides and vendors. Just to the right of the Ferris wheel you can see a crane setting up a ride brought in today. You can't tell from the photo, but the chairlift was in operation when I took the shot as well. Off in the distance, you can see some ominous clouds looming. Yesterday's shot had a similar background. We've had quite a few showers these past couple of days, and today we were hit hard by some of the storms that blew across western NC. One of the trees outside our office was even struck lightning. It was the loudest and shortest boom I've ever heard, and the light that came through the blinds was "electric". Pardon the pun. Check back for tomorrow's picture.

Watch the fair take shape...

After riding through the fairgrounds yesterday afternoon and seeing some of the rides, food vendors, and tents take their places, I had the idea to take a picture of the grounds from the same spot over the next three days in order to see the transformation that takes place in the next 72 hours. Here is the first one. You can see some of the rides, such as the Ferris wheel, are already assembled and in place. Others are still mounted on the trailers that brought them, waiting their turn. I wish I could have taken a picture a week or two earlier so that you would be able to see the grounds before any rides or tents had been erected, but this shot along with the ones to follow should be able to give you a good idea of just how much of change takes place in the days leading up to the fair.