Oh, how life isn't always Fair

There’s nothing quite like Fair Season in New Hampshire. Whether you are going with family or friends, it is almost always a good time.

The Deerfield Fair celebrated 130 years this year, and although it was quite busy when I went on Saturday, I am sure they wished they had a sunny weekend to celebrate 130 successful years. With a rainy Friday and Sunday, they certainly have had better weekends.

I’ve been many times and have always had a blast, but this year is one of those to remember, and not in the best way.

I went Saturday night, and had the weather been good all weekend, I highly doubt I would have the experience I did this time. Pulling into the 100 acre field that they call a lot, I thought it wouldn’t be long before we parked, but I was wrong. It took almost 30 minutes to get to the point where I found a spot, as the people controlling the cars and helping them find open places to park, and corralling the people as they cut in and out of traffic to either come or go did nothing to help the situation.

Once I found where I wanted to park, I figured I could easily pull in; however, with the rain from the previous night, it was a mud pit in some spots. It wasn’t going to be fun pulling out of it in my front wheel drive coupe. Sure enough, I got stuck but put it into low and pulled out and parked further away. It would be worth it later.

After getting my bearings and taking a picture in my head of where we were parked, my girlfriend and I ventured to the line that somewhat resembled Fenway Park when Sox tickets go on sale for the first time of the season. I’ve been in the position of walking around for a looooooooong time looking for my car, and I would never do that again. One thing the Fair could do is put up signs marking where you are. There are no poles, or anything that tells you where you park. Nothing at all. It’s terrible, and you could easily spend over an hour looking for your car at the end of a long night.

I had no problems inside the Fair. It was everything it always is for me: Fair food, animals, large crowds of people that have no idea where or how to walk in a crowd, and overpriced rides.

On the way out, we found the car in about 2 minutes once we were in the area. We had a good visual reference and having a car that flashes it lights with the keyless entry helps quite a bit.

We were inside the car at 9.30pm on the dot. We were in the lot for literally 2 hours. Seriously.

The highlights of the wait were actually pretty memorable. There was a truck behind me that was coming in from my left, and a car behind me coming from my right. Both wanted to be right behind me, because obviously if they were that would mean they could just fly through the air all the way home. I’ve never really seen parking lot Fair Rage before, but it made me sad for humanity again. Even though we all sat in the same spot for sometimes 20 straight minutes without moving these people that call themselves “adults” couldn’t help but acting worse than little spoiled brash kids, as they took times swearing at each other, yelling, and both calling the police on one another.

Before we knew it, two cops rolled up on ATVs to hear the dispute. They called two Deerfield cops, and they came over to hear about the issue. It sounded like they resolved it by having the woman in the red Mustang take a different route out of the lot, with the truck being right behind me.

I just couldn’t believe how two grown adults were acting like this. I let at least 3 cars go in front of me, including a caravan with a family and at least 2 kids in it that did a 97 point turn to get out of their spot and come in front of me. It was nice of the guy to offer me some Chips Ahoy for letting him cut in front of me, but I politely declined. In retrospect, perhaps that was my only mistake I made that night…

Just as this drama came to an end, a guy ran up to the police officers there and said something about someone in a car doing something. They ran over, and we watched what appeared to be a drug bust, and the cruiser came up and now had someone to bring back to the station. They completely emptied his car and right around then I realized we moved 20 feet total since we first got to the car…in almost an hour and 45 minutes.

I kept seeing cars flying through the field off to some other exits. As soon as I had some space, I went ahead and gunned it. About 10 minutes later I was out of the parking lot, and on the road to freedom.

If I decide to go back next year, I just might want to take a day off of work, or even a half day. I love going at night, but if the weather is going to act up like it did this time, I’ll be skipping it for sure.