Parking Lot Fair

The fair is in town. No, not the reasonably legit county or state fair, but the extremely sketchy and sometimes scary parking lot fair. Since I had never been to one and thought it would make for some nice night time pictures, we gathered up a small group and off we went. Vanessa and I met up with another couple, Alison and Joe for dinner and then all of us made our way to the fair.

The typically vacant parking lot which lays in front of a decaying strip shopping center was full of bright lights, cars, and the sweet smell of funnel cakes. The number of cars on this one night seemingly doubled the number of cars it sees throughout the year. As we leave the dimly lit parking lot, we find ourselves immersed in a world of sensory overload.

Everywhere you look there are lights and sounds of people shouting, wanting you to come and play their game to see if you can win a prize. It only took a short amount of time to realize that we weren’t in Kansas anymore. I soon realized that all the stereotypes of things you see at the fair are true. With heads held high and cameras raised, we made our way around so we could scope out what there was to see. After one loop we all came to the same conclusion, not much.

Sure there were a few rides, games, and food vendors but as a whole there really wasn’t much going on. Sadly, as full as the parking lot seemed there was not that many people walking around. It made an already sad fair seem lonely and worn down. Or maybe it was already worn down but the lack of enthusiasm from a larger crowd made the flashing lights a little dull and sad.

There was one redeeming factor for the fair and that was skee-ball. I mean who doesn’t like to play skee-ball, and at six plays for $5 it was the best deal we found. The two couples each split six plays meaning everyone got 3 chances to get the 180,000 points necessary to win a stuffed animal. Vanessa quickly conquered that feat by racking up 180,000 points on her first attempt. Sadly, no one else, including Vanessa, was able to reach the amount needed to win another toy.

After skee-ball I began to get the itch. I wanted more! I quickly found another game to play, this one was a little more destructive. 100 pellets from a fully automatic air rifle to completely remove the red star from a piece of paper not 10 yards away. Being a decent marksmen, I figured I had it in the bag and of course I figured wrong. Let me tell you, 100 pellets being fired from a fully automatic air rife do not last as long as you thought it would. The game was over after roughly 45 seconds. I not only lost my $3 to play but my will to play some more as well.

All in all the adventure was good fun with good people. I took some pretty decent pictures and got to relax and let loose a little. All I have to say is, thank God for skee-ball.

Here are a few of my shots from the night. You can check out the rest of my pictures from the night on
my flickr page.