The Desk is a resident of the First State.
Delaware, that is.
Delaware has a State Fair in the 'Hub of Delaware', Harrington, every summer.
Compared to other State Fairs the Desk has been to... Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa... It's not much of a State Fair. It is more akin to a large county fair or something that used to be called the Eastern Illinois Expo than a true 'State Fair'.
But. It's the best we've got here.
So... The Desk, family in tow, goes to check it out.
Note: The Desk uses a handicapped parking sticker when dealing with massive parking lots such as the shopping mall and huge grocery stores... and State Fairs. The Desk has an arthritic knee, and its wife has cancer. So major hikes are out of the question.
At the Delaware State Fair they have a specially marked and roped off parking area for handicapped individuals.
Fine. Wonderful. This is a good thing.
The area, the Desk is not kidding here... is a swamp complete with standing water and mosquito larva.
Well. OK, the Desk was driving the old four-wheel drive. A little mud is good for it.
But a lot of mud is miserable to walk in.
Then we were faced with a considerable hike to the gate.
For the main parking area there were those big trailers pulled by tractors constantly going back and forth.
The parking lot guy said there was shuttles running for the handicapped area. And there were. Two little white golf carts that could haul four or five people at a trip were running back and forth. The Desk's party stood there for five minutes or so. One white golfcart pulled up, several senior citizens got aboard, and it left.
Enough is enough. We walked.
Face it. If you are handicapped, the Delaware State Fair does not want your business.
Your money, yes; you, no.
The rest rooms are few and far between, and when you find it, good luck. The exhibition hall under the main grandstand is miserable for healthy people to walk around in. The Desk saw a guy in a motorized wheelchair trying to negotiate the meaningful hill along the back wall. No way. He ended up having a friend back him around so he could get out of there.
As for the shows, they have some designated wheelchair areas, like maybe two, everybody else gets to fend for themselves in festival style seating.
The Desk's number two daughter goes on a handful of rides, and we eat our share of junk food, then it's time to go.
The two handicapped shuttles are still running. But catching one is out of the question. The Desk begs one of the tractor drivers to slow down a little at the handicapped parking so we could bail off and walk the rest of the way. He did.
Bottom line. As far as the fair proper goes. OK, they have tried to accommodate the visitors that aren't in triathlon shape. They tried, the walks are paved, there is wheelchair rental, they have roving paramedics and a first aid station. But the handicapped parking... In a word: Sucked.
There MUST be a better way to do this.
Even for a State Fair.
Even for the Delaware State Fair.