LAST SHIFT! This evening was my last time on duty at the fair. Labor Day weekend brought more people than I had imagined. Though the day was quite hectic, the house emptied early giving Ty the opportunity to coerce Mike and I into riding the Skyscraper after close. I had resisted the temptation on my walks to and from Eco, so being it was the last shift- I had to. We had all had our share of the fair- but seeing the midway lights upside-down 150′ (if I remember right) in the air was a great way to end the night with a quick thrill.

Before ending this portion of the build, I figured I could reflect a bit on the experiences had over the past week and a half…

There were some interesting encounters over the extent of the fair. To name a few- the guy who compared our design to one of his recent nightmares (thanks!), the somewhat paranoid individuals concerned with the amount of glass and lack of privacy or the impressive thickness of our door that would be the perfect addition to a concrete house (or bunker), the couple who had recognized our program from a conversation they had on a flight with students (us!) on their way to SanFran last fall, the large amount of renovation/retrofit questions thrown our way- not always pertaining to the ideas used in Passive House but still fascinating all the same, the people interested in our schematic design process and how we arrived at the decisions we did (I liked those questions), and the countless questions about… the rocks.

All in all, it was a great experience. So many people, so much food. I think NDSU and everyone that has been supporting us through this whole process might really benefit from the exposure at the fair. There seemed to be a lot of genuine interest and I’m excited to see what comes off it.