We were camped in Minneapolis for two nights. One, RJ needed some time to catch up on work, and two, we needed a couple days to rest from being on the bike. Our first day in Minneapolis, RJ caught up on work and I did laundry at our KOA.
After several loads of laundry, we went into town to a McDonald’s where we had better wifi. We were there the rest of the day. We had plans to go to the fair later in the afternoon but RJ got caught up with work so we were in McDonald’s till the very last possible second before we had to freaking race around trying to get to the fair in time. Around 9:30, we sped back to our campsite -about 5 miles- and grabbed our jackets before zooming over to the fairgrounds. The fair was open till midnight but they only give out tickets till 10pm.
By the time we got through traffic and found a place to park, we were pushing 10pm. We made our way through droves of people exiting the fairgrounds and through a side entrance in search of a ticket booth but a group of police officers stopped us. “Where ya headed, young man?”
“Just trying to find the ticket booth, sir.”
“Oh, sonny boy, you’d be better off coming back tomorrow morning. Most everything is closed down by now and you won’t get to see or do much. If you go in now they’ll charge you the same price as what you’d buy tomorrow but there’s nothing to see.”
So we heeded the officer’s advice and headed back to our bike. On the way, we saw a truck selling cheese curds. RJ went up to the window and asked if they were any good. Of course, the lady said yes. She informed us this cheese was a specialty cheese she gets from Wisconsin. We had never had cheese curds so the lady deep fried a sample for us. We took one bite and told her we would take a plate. She said, “I knew you would. So I went ahead and fried a plate for ya.”
We watched the fireworks which signaled the end of another day at the fair while we ate our greasy cheese curds on the curbside. With those delicious cheese curds sitting pretty heavy in our stomachs, we headed back to our campsite for the night.
The following morning, we headed back to the fair. Now, with this being the 2nd largest fair in the USA, the parking lot obvious isn’t big enough for all these cars. So, the residential area around the fairgrounds will let people park their cars on their lawns for a fee. The police officers had told us we would be better off parking on someone’s lawn and pay ten dollars than try to park in the fair parking lot and pay $14. Depending on how close you want to park, the higher the price. Forty to fifty dollars is not unusual for these people to charge. We maneuvered down the side roads looking for an empty place to park. Even though we didn’t need much room, we couldn’t find any place to squeeze into- without the fear of our bike getting hit or backed into; there were cars parked in every possible spot.
One guy driving in front of us, started backing up and RJ and I both started yelling along with some people on the sidewalk. The guy ended up backing into us anyway. He got out to see if everything was alright. He was going slow enough that it didn’t do any damage to either vehicle. It was funny because the man exited his car and his appearance was a little frightening. He had very large muscles and an aggressive haircut, yet, the moment he spoke, our fears were quickly assuaged. He had a very strong Minnesotan accent and a gentle tone to his voice as he earnestly inquired of our wellbeing.
RJ and I kept our eyes peeled for a parking space. We parked at least half a mile away, in front of a guy’s house. We had to wait a while before we could ask him if we could park because he was chatting up another family that just parked there. This should have been an indicator that the guy would be friendly. Finally, there was enough of a break in the conversation to where we could politely request if we could park in front his place, He promptly got out a day long parking pass and sold it to us for $10.
At this point in the story, we need to take the time and try to describe the man and his friendly personality. Todd was a Minnesota archetype. So amicable, you think it’s disingenuous, but there isn’t a single thing fake about him. He’s just one of the nicest/kindest guys you’ll ever meet. Now, we paid our $10 for our parking pass but ended up getting half an hour of the funniest stories from Todd as he told us all about his time at the fair, and asked questions about our trip. He mentioned how he walked to the fair the other day to check out the food. “Didn’t even make it around the first corner of the fair! There was just too much food to eat! I’m fortunate that my place is on a downward slope from the fair so I could roll on home!”
We took off with the crowds of other people making their way to the fair but not before I found out Todd had a wiener dog so, of course, I had to give that dog some pets and kisses. He was a rescue dog from Louisiana who was missing all but his front two teeth but that made him all the more lovable. Then we got into another conversation about how we raised Dachshunds when I was younger and now I have my own wiener dog, and so on.
I was literally not prepared for the amount of people that we were going to see inside these fairgrounds. The fairgrounds are a whopping 320 acres. Hundreds of thousands of people in the gates at one time. (a record 1,997,320 people attended this year’s fair) We made our way through scads of people to an Irish pub where Todd told us we had to try the deep fried avocado and a beer.
Now, we Garcia’s love food. We plan our trips around food. Our day is scheduled by food. We had no plans to ride any of the rides at the fair. We were there solely to try the different foods. And we did just that.
While we waited in line at the Irish pub for our avo and beer, we were partially deafened by the awful sound of a girl playing the bagpipes. Well, I mean, she was playing them great, but the sound was awful. After a couple of agonizing, ear piercing minutes, we were blessed with our food. I think there’s a Bible verse that talks about this kind of experience. (James 1:12?)
The fried avo was so good. And the beer was the best we’ve ever had.
From there, we walked through the crowded streets to more food vendors. We tried a deep fried Twinkie sprinkled with powered sugar and chocolate. Amazing.
Our next food choice was a Minneapple Pie- a deep fried apple pie sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and served with a scoop of the best cinnamon ice-cream. To die for.
We went to another apple stand where we bought a frozen apple cider stick. It was good; could have been sweeter.
We walked a couple more blocks and found a stand selling a funky scotch egg thing doused in horse radish. It was a hard boiled egg on a stick, wrapped in seasoned sausage, rolled in bread crumbs and cooked to perfection. It wasn’t bad but if they had added a few more seasonings, it could have tasted a little better.
We found another vendor selling stuffed peppers. RJ ordered one and we sat down at a picnic table where a couple from Madison joined us. We got to talking and they told us things to check out when we traveled through their state. -Forgot to take a picture of our stuffed pepper.-
After several minutes of chatting, we continued our food journey. By this time, I was so full I could hardly move. I knew exactly what Todd was talking about when he said he rolled home. But we hadn’t tried even an eighth of all the food at that fair.
After walking another block or so, we found the Pickle Dogs. It’s a pickle slice wrapped in cream cheese and swaddled in pastrami with a jalapeño slice nestled in the middle of it all. I was so full at this point I could only eat one bite. It was delicious, but I let RJ eat the rest.
I thought he was full but RJ had to try one more thing. Todd told us to try a Pronto Pup. He said they are kind of like corn dogs but Minnesotans hold these in high regard and think they are way above corn dogs. Really, Pronto Pups are actually corn dogs but without the sweetness. We thought they were good but prefer corn dogs. Sorry Minnesotans.
After all that carb-loaded, deep fried, sweet food, we couldn’t eat another bite. It was nearly 3:30 and we had yet to tour the capitol building, so we decided to make our way back to our bike. We weren’t sure which way to go to make it to the exit but we blindly walked forward thinking eventually, we would get somewhere. We saw a kid who had obviously eaten way too much food and decided it was a good idea to go on a couple rides. He was throwing up all over in the street and people were scrambling to get out of the way. We fast-walked outta there real speedy-like.
We almost bought an entire tub of cookies as we were leaving but one, we couldn’t eat another thing and two, we didn’t have a place to store them. Our motorcycle was full of clothes and mugs.
To give you perspective on how big this fair is, I had been looking for the Ferris wheel ever since we had entered the fairgrounds. I never did find it, even though it towers above the grounds. We were there for several hours but we covered less than half of the property.
We were sad that we were so stuffed because there were so many different and crazy foods to try. I guess we’ll just have to go back next year for round two.
After blindly walking around, we made our way through the hoards of fair-goers to the exit and back to Todd’s house. He was just getting ready to take his dogs on a walk and he stopped to talk to us some more. He was surprised we were back so soon but he wished us well on the rest of our journey and we exchanged emails and Facebook so we could keep in touch.
Todd told us the best routes to avoid fair traffic and we hopped on our bike and drove several miles down the road to the Minnesota capitol.
Cheers!
em and rj
Up next: Minnesota state capitol and an incident with Moty…