Minnesota

26 Aug. to 1st Sept. 2015, - Minnesota

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From sleepy Tomah, WI we are on I-94 again heading to Maple Grove, Minnesota.  Large tracts of farmland hug both sides of the highway with corn and soybeans being the predominant crops of choice.

This lovely "vintage" car in pristine condition was ahead of us...had to take a photo of it! I am told it is a 1956 Mercury Monterey

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KOA (Kampgrounds of America) at Maple Grove was a hive of comings and goings - forget about getting some sound shut eye! Folks from all over were there for the Minnesota State Fair.

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Well, weren't we the lucky ones...we managed to get parking virtually metres away from the Main Entrance...$11 for a one day entry and $13 for Parking. We got a tip from the folks next to us at the RV park the day before and it worked a treat...take  a left into Larteneur Avenue from Snelling to get to the best parking lots.

The Fair ground is actually in Falcon Heights, a suburb of St. Paul...which was about a 40 min. drive from Maple Grove.

One of the many shows at the fair - this group was promoting craft from Ghana.

It was a fine, hot day and the patrons at Lulu's didn't mind getting "misted" whilst they imbibed their favourite drinks.

More heartstopping foods..there were just throngs of people as it was a Sunday. Definitely does not get the Heart Foundation Tick!

It was a bun fight trying to find seating for a meal, we finally found a table at the Frontier Saloon. Lots of food stalls but mainly, eat as you walk type of foods. 

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I just loved the Games Stalls...so colourful, so many stuffed toys.

Had to get my photo taken with the Minions.

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This is an interesting one - I never knew the customers got loaded into these contraptions this way. They reminded me of fish in a grilling basket...its also cleaner should the kids barf during the ride - bad luck for the folks below though.

And away they go....

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I think the Minnesota State Fair is better than the Iowa S. Fair - there were more "girlie" stalls selling lots of fun things which we just walked by...

We were there mainly because Alan Jackson was playing that night....yes!! Some fun entertainment from a couple of Fair mascots before the start of the performance.

Great seats, beautiful weather (a comfortable 23deg. C)/72F - took a photo of the sun just as it was starting to set.

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The warm up act for Alan Jackson was talented singer,songwriter, Brandy Clark. We enjoyed her performance.

The cool thing about the show was the use of music dvds as the backdrop for each song.

Ah...Alan Jackson, all 6'4" and sounding exactly like he does on disc. We enjoyed 1 1/2 hours of  super entertainment and he even came back for an encore.

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Alan was born in Newnan, Georgia - where we had started our trip from this year..well, close enough. But we did go shopping at Krogers (where they had the Blue Orchids) and Walmart in Newnan. He met his wife, Denise at the Dairy Queen in Newnan - has 3 daughters and 4 sisters.