On the vinyl seats across from me, close enough that our knees brush, sit Eric and Mel. To my left, Laura and across the aisle, Michael. We're laughing and chatting on our way to the via the Fair Train.
The trip takes about 40 minutes, and we arrive about 100 yards from the front gate of the fair. I marvel at how easy it was to get there. The pig pavilion is right in front of us, so we make the requisite visit to the . Afterwards, Eric wastes no time buying a chocolate-dipped cheesecake. Michael counters with a battered and fried twinky. "Not really worth the three dollars," he says.
We wander a bit and come across a physics demonstration put on by Purdue Physics as part of . When we arrive, the presenter is demonstrating Newton's third law using a fire extinguisher. He then asks for a volunteer, and when no one raises their hand, he picks Eric. We all clap as he walks up to the stage. The presenter puts Eric in a big blue smock while an assitant brings out a bed of nails. "This will be interesting," I think to myself. As they lay Eric down on the nails, the presenter starts talking about force per unit area. Then he lays a slab of wood on Eric's chest and says, "Now let's increase the force!" He hands a small sledghammer to his assistant and tells her to hit the slab. She gives it a meek little tap while the presenter talks about impulse and inertia. The assistant hits the slab once more and hands the hammer off to a male assistant who gives it a good strong whack. Eric will later say that the hit sent a tingling sensation through his entire body.
We start walking to the arts building not long after Eric returns to his seat. As we walk around the stage we hear "Hi Eric. Good job!" from none other than who is sitting and watching the show. Amazingly, he knows Eric by name from the President's Leadership Class. He doesn't know me, of course, but I still get to shake his hand.
We browse the displays in the art building for a time, then head over to the FFA building. There, we play some free mini golf on a cobbled-together course snaking through the building. Eric gets a hole in one early on; I get one a few holes later; and Laura gets one without using her putter. After the last hole we head back to the train stop for our ride home.
That was a great afternoon and the perfect way to cap off the summer.
Update: Eric now has a and in it he .