Breaking down the Mesa County Fair

Nearly all of the vendors who spent their week at the Mesa County Fairgrounds have to either drive home or to their next destination Sunday night. And many say it's the worst part about their jobs.

the mesa county fair ended it's 125th celebration saturday night with a firework show. And now vendors are spending their Sunday packing everything up.

"The tearing down is the worst," shaved ice vendor Sheri Self said. "The excitement is over the fair is done and we're on to the next fair."

It took days to transform these fairgrounds into a full-on carnival, but just hours to break it down.

"We have one day tear down, next day travel and then set up. we have two days off basically," shaved ice vendor Jody Russell said.

The next stop for these carnies is yet another fair.

"You're thinking about how everything is going to fit in the truck," Russell said.

It's not much different for the kayakers, either. Setting up and breaking down both take some time.

"It's pretty time consuming, it's quite an ordeal," Events Director at Avid 4 Adventure Robb Green said. "More so to set up. it takes some man power and we fill the pool with 14,000 gallons of water."

And after the tank is emptied and everything is loaded up, they too have a long drive.

"Three hours back to the Denver/Boulder area is where our company is out of," Green said.

"First we're going out to dinner, a lobster dinner," Russell said. "And maybe having an adult beverage, and then we're off to the next one."

Vendors say attendance at this years fair was way up compared to years past, and they say participating helped bring their businesses a profit.