"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."
OK, so my final visit to the 2009 State Fair of Texas this evening got off to an interesting start. Specifically, I got in for free.
Now for the record, I've been to the Fair 4 times before tonight, but I've only had to pay a total of $9 for admission (regular price = $15 per visit). I did this by going on the discount days:
- Opening Day: $4 admission with full 20 oz . bottle of a Coca-Cola product donated to the North Texas Food Bank
- Thursday: $4 admission with empty 20 oz. bottle of a Coca-Cola product
- Saturday: free admission with ticket to "Mary Poppins"
- Wednesday: $1 admission with 3+ cans of food donated to the North Texas Food Bank.
Since today was a Thursday, I actually intended to get in for $4 with the empty Coke bottle, and I actually got the $4 voucher after dropping the bottle in the bin. But as we approached the ticket booths to pay our admission fees, a man and woman who were just finishing up at the booth saw us walk up and asked if we'd already paid. When we said we hadn't, they said "Here" and handed us each a companion ticket to their season passes.
So we put away our money and walked in for free! Isn't that amazing?!
So that was 5 visits to the Fair -- a $75 value at the regular price -- for only $9. That comes to less than $2 per visit. What a bargain!