The Evergreen State Fair

Lea joined me for a trip to the ESF in Monroe today.   The cool overcast morning warmed up by the early afternoon to a perfect day for a trip to the fair.  We looked at animals, crafts, vendors, canning, gardening  and people interspersed with some fair food then got some trinkets and had a nice time at an not-crowded fair.  We split a king-size corn dog  that was surprisingly good earning the title of “best corn dog ever”.  It was a good day.  One the way home, we stopped at the Maltby Café to get one of their legendary cinnamon rolls.  An empty oil train rolled through Monroe by at a good clip presumably headed back to get more shale oil from North Dakota.

The oil train reminded me that gas prices on the west coast are 50¢/gallon more than the rest of the country.  5 of 12 refineries in California reduced production for maintenance while the 3rd largest refinery on the west coast In Blaine was not restarted as scheduled last week for undisclosed problems.  Looking forward to a decreased dependence on fossil fuels in an age of climate change.  The oil trains have also displaced grain shipments for farmers and the Amtrak Empire Builder train to Chicago has been delayed as much as 36 hours by oil trains.

If oil companies simply build refineries at the source near the Alberta tar sands, we would not have this gas-gouging issue due to lack of production capacity.  Nobody sees that being built.


I am grateful for farmers and all their food grown in Washington State, nice displays and a good time watching others.  It is good to have all the gas I want for my car.  It was good that there were only two days of record high temperatures in Seattle this summer.

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