Sunday August 8

I started my morning eating breakfast at the world’s northern most Denny’s. By day’s end my mental glass is so full I could barely function. Today I went to the Tanana Valley Fair. There were so many sights, sounds, and people that I will never be able to properly describe what I saw with words. The Fair was simply a mind blowing experience.

I wondered how many of the people I’d seen over the last month and a half all over Alaska, would pop back up at this official state gathering. The answer was staggering…..there were tons. Football players, coaches, vendors that I first saw 400 miles away in downtown Anchorage, the pony ride people that gave the kids such big smiles on the 4^th of July in Anchorage, families and folks I’d seen and even talked to around Fairbanks.…..the list goes on and on. You stick around here long enough and the world gets smaller right before your eyes.

The most incredible repeat personality was, if you’ll remember, the gold panner, hillbilly guy who helped me fix my tire and offered me weed 250 miles away near Denali. That guy had his own booth at the fair as, of all things, the guy who guesses your weight and gives you a prize if he’s wrong. I was a little disappointed. My image of this guy was now a little tainted. Here I thought he was this wreck loose woodsman type and he’s doing 14 hour days yapping away with a microphone in front of his face.

There were wild rock bands, marching bands, rides and foods of all kind…..all the usual fair stuff. But again, it was the people who stole the show. You can come to a lot of conclusions about a place just by checking out the faces of those who live there. This crowd makes the crowd at demo derby night at the Spencer fair look warm and fuzzy. I look at the kids here and I feel like so many just have no chance to make it. Either they are 2 years old and being sworn at and screamed at by their parents or they are a little older and are part of the incredibly high 50% high school drop out rate. The examples that are set for them are appalling and their role models are nonexistent. On one hand it makes me sad…….they deserve better and I wish they got it. But there sure are times at home, at school, etc., where you see kids get every opportunity under then sun and it’s still not enough, especially for their parents…..and that is even more sickening. Every high school kid from Fairbanks should have to trade places with every kid from Nashoba for a year. Man, what an experiment that would be. Talk about getting a lesson in perspective. All would be better for it.

The highlight of the day was the 63 act “Fairbanks Has Talent” contest. It took all day and I watched most of it. As you can imagine, some of the acts were awful, people who had no business singing or dancing. Some were so whacked out ,like really little kids doing the armpit farting thing for the full allotted three minutes. Other acts were fantastic. They included a ballet trio, a hilarious singer guy who sang songs about what it’s like to be Alaskan, a couple of younger girls singing or playing guitars, and a quadriplegic singing country songs in his wheelchair. All these acts were magnificent. However, one little girl stole the show. She was about 10 years old and did the best impersonation of Michael Jackson I’d ever seen. She’d watched his video 10 million times and had all the moves down pat. To top it off she was the cutest little thing. She had the outfit and everything. She moved around the stage effortlessly and worked the crown into a frenzy. I knew she was good and caught her outside the contest tent after round one and she took a photo with me. Her friends were in awe, they screamed, “You’re like a star!!!!” I even asked her to do me a move and she snapped into one of those famous MJ poses. She was an absolute sweetheart. When her name was announced as the winner she went wild with happiness. As the winner, she was asked to do her routine again which she did with a huge brace filled smile on her face and tears in her eyes. Towards the end she threw in some kisses to the crowd and made a big heart shape with her hands…….She was simply dynamite.

Here’s the story from Monday’s paper if you care…..comments are there also.

http://www.newsminer.com/view/full_story/9047260/article-Tanana-Valley-Fair-talent-show-attracts-Fairbanks--finest?instance=home_lead_story

Another funny performance about living in Alaska here...

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mtsaley

It was a full day, 10am till 11pm. There’s just too much to say about the Fair. It was like nothing I’d ever seen, and it was overwhelming. Today was the sunniest and warmest day in Alaska that I’ve experienced, clear skies and 70 all day long. It was also another full day spent almost entirely outdoors. I’ve never spent more time outside than I have in the last 2 months. If I’m not in the camper, or blogging in some building, I’m outside, and it’s been so, so good.

What an insane last 3 days…….Tomorrow……the Arctic Circle. Can I drive there? We shall see.