3 days at the Fair, 48 hour version

48 hours at the Fair

There’s nothing more mind-clearing than seeing the sun set and rise on the same stretch of land, watching the light fade from one side and arise hours on the opposite. The May moon is low, the air crisp, the night silent. At the NJ fairgrounds, the fog stretches across the grass and leaks onto the round airstrip used as a mile-long track. In May, the nights are short though, you can set a timer to the first wakening bird at 3:20AM, all while relieving your senses to pungent honeysuckle weeding from the interproperty forest.

137 times around the loop, the mind gathers more detail an experiences into the task at hand. Is it a task? What is really going on here? It’s not work, but it takes effort. The amount of calories burnt just being awake this long sends the metabolism into overdrive for weeks. It feels good to walk, another 10 minutes, the legs will be able to run faster than walking for another 20 minutes. Walking is time to zone out. Hear the incoming slap of running feet and try to do math on how many sections of 6 hours are left.