PACKING UP SIGHTS, SMELLS COUNTY FAIR SEES FEWER PATRONS.

Byline: Jennifer Klein Staff Writer

VENTURA - The morning after the Ventura County Fair officially closed for the season, the parking lot was retaken by trash-scavenging sea gulls and semitrucks preparing to cart away the carnival rides and booths.

This year's fair did not break any attendance records, but officials said Monday that final figures were in line with previous years, with an estimated 247,900 people attending the 12-day event.

``(Not having the carnival rides) certainly made a difference in the first two days, but the negative effects we felt were outweighed by the positive effects,'' fair spokesman Devlin Raley said.

``I think those first two days gave them an opportunity to spend time in the exhibits buildings that they might not have been able to otherwise.''

During the opening days, attendance was off by roughly 11,000, compared with 1999. However, last year's fair hit an all-time high for attendance, with 276,859 fairgoers.

Thanks in part to the Mad Science show and the bands at the grandstand arena, the numbers regained some ground the second week, Raley said.

For Dippin Dots owners Karen and Jan Gary of San Marcos, business was great.

The booth selling ``the ice cream of the future'' has done well since the Garys first started coming to the Ventura County Fair five years ago.

``We love this fair,'' Jan Gary said. ``It's close to the ocean, cool breeze and everyone is so polite."

After the fair closed on Sunday night, the couple stayed up until 2:30 a.m., taking down one of their booths and were up early on Monday to haul away the second one.

They said they didn't get too much sleep Sunday night because everyone was working overtime to pack up all the rides.

By 8:30 a.m. Monday, the giant Ferris wheel was well on its way to being just a pile of metal pylons. The cabs were no longer dangling in the air and the spokes were stripped of the vibrant multicolored lights that dazzled drivers on Highway 101.

The animal pens at Uncle Leo's Barn were also half-empty early Monday morning as many of the owners came the night before to collect the family pets. Leo Vanoni and his wife, Rita, who have worked the fair for 45 years, estimated the barnyard would be just a memory by noon.

``It's just an old routine,'' Leo said about cleaning up the day after the fair closes. ``We really have no big stress, because our kids do it all."

Tom Thurman, who owns Suzy's BBQ, said taking down his food booth is always a lot easier than setting it up, which takes several days. The Ventura County Fair is the only one he still goes to because he now runs a Peruvian horse ranch in Paso Robles. But he continues to make the trip to Ventura because of the friendly atmosphere.

``The booth will be here forever,'' Thurman said. ``I don't know about me.''

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(color) The giant Ferris wheel at the county fair is well on its way to being just a pile of metal pylons.

Lilly Barrett/Special to the Daily News