For the second year in a row, attendance on the final Saturday of the N.C. State Fair set a single-day record.

Saturday's attendance of 145,955 bested last year's record of 145,461.

Through nine days, attendance at the 2007 State Fair totaled 760,178. If Sunday's attendance reaches 86,547 or higher, the State Fair will set a new record for total attendance.

The record for total gate receipts is 846,724, set in 2000.

The State Fair midways are filling up fast today under with perfect blue sky and comfortable 70-something temperatures.

Don't want to spend a lot of money on rides? Well, there's plenty other entertainment at the fair. Watch the Navy demonstrate deep sea diving, get in the long lines to sample products or watch food demonstrations.

A popular attraction are the chin-up bars outside the Marines exhibit near Dorton Arena. Young and not-so-young-anymore are easily enticed to test their upperbody strength. Most are egged-on by their friends and family strolling with them.

"Come on, let's try it," Stacey Dailey of Henderson urged her friends. They weren't taking the bait, but Daily wasn't walking away. She positioned her tall, lean body under the bar and pumped out a quick three.

"I've still got it," she crowed. Daily, 30, said she played basketball for N.C. Central University in the late 1990s. Nice to know she has kept fit.

If you are bringing the kids to the fair, there is a lot of free entertainment for them, too. The Raggs Kids Club Band draws an enthusiastic crowd every day at 2, 4 and 6 p.m.in the Kiddland Fun Park.

Andy Silver and his impeachment message are back at the fairgrounds today.

Silver was ejected from the fairgrounds earlier in the week for wearing a large "sandwich board" sign calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush. He also was told he couldn't come back because his message may incite aggressive behavior from other fair-goers.

But after the American Civil Liberties Union got involved, citing Silver's right to free speech, a deal was struck that would allow Silver and his message to return.

At the suggestion of the Department of Agriculture attorney, Silver paid the fee and was allowed to set up a booth of his own, Katherine Lewis Parker, legal director of the state chapter of the ACLU, confirmed today.

"She told me the attorney with the Department of Agriculture actually suggested it and I said 'I'll take it,'" Silver said today.

What seems like a victory for Silver, may be a mixed blessing.

With all the prime booth locations bought up before the fair started, Silver's spot is outside the restrooms on the southside of Dorton Arena.

While 4-inch letters beckon passersby to the "RESTROOMS," you have to walk between a large National Guard storage trailer and the G105 bus to reach the door. The only other display nearby is an unmanned education display on the drought.

The foot traffic was very light around noon, but Silver was still happy. His booth will still be there tonight when more than 5,000 rock music lovers pile into Dorton for Chris Daughtry's sold out concert.

If you are walking through the exhibits in the Kerr Scott Building, stop and say hello to Clarence and Helen Oliver of Greensboro.

They're the young couple working the Neese's booth, handing out bite-sized pieces of liver pudding and sousa (it kind of tastes like cold barbecue).

He's 79 years young, and Helen is, well ... she's the senior member of the duo.

Clarence has been working for Neese's for 57 years, he said, starting out as a route driver. When Helen reached retirement age, Clarence was still working, doing the fair gig so she joined him. She's been a Neese's employee for 17 years now, he said.

"We used to do a lot of [other fairs]," Clarence said, but we mostly do just this fair now."

Even though attendance is up, vendors at the State Fair say their sales are down.

"[It's] different types of people," said Ron Robare of Arkansas. "It isn't the numbers, it's people with disposable income that count."

Trains, planes and cars were Robare's product, models carved in impressive detail out of mahogany and birch. His booth is in the Kerr Scott Building just inside Gate 11.

Just before the N.C. State Fair, Robare was selling at "The Big E." That's the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, Mass., billed as the biggest fair in the northeast. It runs for 17 days.

Sales were down there, too, he said, about 20 percent.

Juan Lee, of California, is selling an impressive, colorful display of ceramic art in the Education Building.

The lighthouses and beach scenes do well in North Carolina, he said. Still, his sales are down.

Like Robare, he has been traveling across the country, selling his product. "It's everywhere," he said.

Why are sales down?

"I have no idea," Lee said. "It may be the economy."

Friday morning's drizzle and afternoon downpour did dampen the day's turnout at the State Fair, but total attendance for the first eight days is still more than last year.

Friday's attendance was figured at 63,231.

Attendance records show 81,734 came out on the same day last year. The fair record for the second Friday of the fair was set at 88,822 in 2004.

Attendance figured through eight days of the fair totaled 614,223, compared with 577,120 for the same period last year.

You can sell a lot of things at the N.C. State Fair.

Marijuana is not one of them.

Richard Dickens found that out Thursday night when he tried to sell marijuana to an undercover Raleigh police officer.

Dickens, 48, of 515 Wayne St. in Raleigh, was charged with possession with the intent to sell and deliver Marijuana and booked at the Wake County Jail, where he remains in lieu of $5,000 bond.

To make matters worse, a Wake County Magistrate informed Dickens Thursday night that he would also not be allowed back inside the fair. His face was also added to the Wall of Shame.

— Marlon A. Walker

One of the best things about the fair is the free stuff.

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission has been giving out free buttons since 1981. These buttons are so popular, that many a collector have been hoarding them.

Andrew Mynatt, a gameland supervisor for several counties northeast of Wake, heard about the collecting last year. He checked Ebay, and saw someone selling the buttons on Ebay.

Ken Stott, of Raleigh, has about 10 to 12 years worth sitting in a drawer. He and his wife stopped by Friday to pick up some of the buttons for their grandkids.

This year's button features a Robust Redhouse, one of the largest types of sucker fish and found in one section of the Pee Dee River in North Carolina.

Stop by the Wildlife tent -- it's near the Village of Yesteryear -- and get a 2007 button, as well as stickers, temporary tattoos of sturgeons and frog-lined rulers. That and you get to look at stuffed bears and deer and learn a little bit about the wild outdoors of North Carolina.

Where have all the pumpkins gone?

To a big pumpkin patch in the sky.

At least two of the ribbon winners in the largest pumpkin contest at the Exposition Center rotted and had to be carted off by their owners, who save the seeds to start growing all over again.

In their place are signs informing folks that the pumpkin "isn't feeling well." That's one way to put it.

It's not unusual to have this happen, though, says Joan Balzich, who was tasked with making sure people don't poke the super huge pumpkins. Many of them had been picked months ago. She walked into work yesterday and saw a 400-plus pound pumpkin split open.

It's still a sad site to see.

Rain ponchos are for sale for $2 in the "Got to be North Carolina Agriculture Tent."

They're bright yellow with a green state outline, and one of the cheapest ways to show your state pride.

Although today's rain may whittle down the lead, the cumulative attendance for the first seven days at the State Fair was running 11 percent ahead of last year.

Thursday's attendance was a rain-dampened 88,801, compared with a record 103,323 for the same day last year.

By the time the fair closed down at midnight Thursday, 550,992 people had tramped through the gates.

The Early Bird only made it a week at the N.C. State Fair.

The kiddie ride was disassembled and shipped off to Ohio after it malfunctioned when a group of seven children and three adults were riding it Thursday afternoon, said Jonathan Brooks with the N.C. Department of Labor. A metal sweep arm broke on the ride.

None of the riders were hurt, but the ride operator had a minor injury. He's back at work today.

The Early Bird, which came straight off the assembly line to Raleigh, featured rows of seats in a green and yellow polka-dotted caterpillar that is “chased” by a pink bird and a yellow bird that hold several more riders. It moves in a circle with a wave-like motion.

Brooks said labor inspectors were still investigating the incident, but it looks a manufacturer's error.

When the battle of online voting ended at midnight Wednesday, Garner High School's Trojan Warrior Chicken was victorious.

The chicken defeated 17 other giant farm animals painted and decorated by area high schools in the State Fair's Farm Animal Frenzy competition.

Cardinal Gibbons High School had been the judges' choice in the juried competition at the beginning of the fair. Their entry was also a chicken.

But the online audience favored the Garner rooster.

The art classes of Ben Olin and Samuel Kim chose to theme their chicken after the school's mascot, the Trojan warrior. The chicken is painted to look as if it were made of wood and was dressed with a Roman-style helmet, sword and shield.

The Garner art classes will receive a $200 gift certificate and three art easels from Jerry's Artarama for their creative success.

The warrior chicken is protecting the horticulture exhibits inside the Exposition Center.

The winners of the juried competition can be found outside the Expo Center.

A gallery of all the Farm Animal Frenzy contestants can be see at the State Fair Web site.

Early crowds are sparse today here at the fairgrounds, thanks to Mother Nature.

Still, Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler was tickled pink.

"Knowing what my farm looks like, I wanted the rain," he said.

He's hoping this weekend will make up for the smaller crowds expected today. And, it must may do that.

The weekend is forecast to be sunny, with a pleasant high of 77 on Saturday and 81 on Sunday.

There’s a lot of history on these fairgrounds, and we're not just talking about the fair itself.

Before it was the state fairgrounds, that plot of land was called Camp Polk,a military installation with the purpose of preparing the U.S. Tank Corps for World War I.

But the war ended earlier than expected, and Camp Polk’s construction was halted.

Raleigh resident and history hobbyist Paul Blankinship has collected a lot of Polk artifacts over the past 30 years, including a panoramic photo of the area taken from a tower once located at the corner of Trinity and Blue Ridge roads.

You can get a look at those artifacts and likely meet Blankinship if you visit the state fair history exhibit in the fairgrounds' Heritage Circle.

On Wednesday, Blankinship and his wife Lynn went up 57 feet in a cherry picker at the same spot to take another panoramic photo. It's quite a change from the original picture taken of Camp Polk.

— Samiha Khanna

At the State Fair History exhibit, Paul Blankinship autographs his book on the subject.