Today's rainy weather forecast wasn't enough to scare off folks determined to avoid crowds at the N.C. State Fair.

Traci and Matt Townsan of Cary weren't about to let the threat of crummy weather change their minds about hitting the fair on what is typically the event's least attended day. Dreary or not, they thought it was the perfect day to bring their 5-year-old son Noah to take in the sights and ride some rides -- without waiting in lines.

"We weren't even looking at the weather," Traci said. "We looked at the crowds. We hate coming when it's crowded."

The 10-year average attendance for a Monday at the fair is 59,140. A good Saturday or Sunday can see twice that many people. 100,744 people attended the fair yesterday.

The Townsans, who each took a half-day off work for their Monday trip, arrived at the fair around 9:30. By 11, Noah, pictured here, had the Dumbo ride in KiddieLand almost all to himself.

Ray Tucker, a retired agronomist for the N.C. Department of Agriculture, has been working the Public Address Booth at the N.C. State Fair for at least ten years now, reading official announcements, paging parents separated from kids and helping fairgoers locate their lost keys, cell phones and wallets.

The Public Address Booth doubles for the fair's Lost & Found office, which is housed in the lobby of the Exposition Center. The staff of 5 trades off 8-hour shifts throughout the 11-day run of the fair. This year, they added a fluent Spanish speaker.

"It's interesting work," Tucker said. "You meet all kinds of people and situations."

Tucker and his wife Sue, a retired Wake County Schools administrator, live in Raleigh. Sue also works out at the fair in the Education Building, assisting with home economics submissions.

Attendance at the N.C. State Fair yesterday was 118,433. The 10-year average for the first Saturday is 107,370 and the record attendance for the first Saturday of the fair is 131,699 in 2010.

Francine Francis, a Raleigh seamstress well known around the N.C. State Fair -- and the nation -- for her precise replicas of costumes from the movie "Gone with the Wind," has done it again.

Francis once again won first place in the "Adult Clothing Construction - Period/State Wear: Dress" category, and the Best in Show prize for any adult garment. And once again, she won for a beautiful gown from the classic 1939 film starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable.

This year's dress is a white organdy number with a red belt worn by Scarlett O'Hara (Leigh) in the opening scene of the film. Francis used 33 yards of white organdy and 140 yards of lace on the gown.

Starting Friday, October 12, you can visit the N&O booth at the N.C. State Fair and chat with N&O reporters.

The N&O booth will be set up near the front of Dorton Arena, on the Kiddieland side.

The full schedule is below. Come by and say hello!

Bill Jones from Barnardsville pocketed $35,500 at the N.C. State Fair Junior Livestock Sale of Champions on Saturday.

Bill, a first-year student at Asheville-Buncombe Technical College, had the fair's grand champion Steer ($22,500) and the grand champion Born and Bred in North Carolina Steer ($13,000). The grand champion was purchased by Harris Teeter and the NC Born and Bred steer was purchased by Martins Meats.

Bill also showed the Reserve Grand Champion Market Steer and the grand champion Angus at the N.C. Mountain State Fair last month.

Bill's brother Derek Jones was helping him handle his champions on Saturday, and said the family owns about 30 head of cattle that they use for embryo work. Derek said his brother has been showing animals since he was about 2 years old, when he first showed sheep.

The crew was hard at work early Saturday morning feeding animals and freshening pens at the FFA Children's Barnyard, one of the most popular exhibits at the N.C. State Fair.

The workers, busily shoveling soiled wood chips and pressing hay into feed bins, aren't employed by the fair. They're all high school students who belong to Wake County chapters of the Future Farmers of America.

The first Saturday shift belonged to the Fuquay-Varina High School FFA chapter, supervised by agriculture teachers Michael Bowder and Katie Duff.

Matthew Stephenson, a sophomore at Fuquay-Varina High, helped shovel a calf's pen Saturday morning. Stephenson, pictured here, said being in the FFA is something other family members did before him. "All the men in my family were in FFA," he said. "I'm following a family tradition, I guess."

Friday’s perfect weather drew lots of people to the N.C. State Fair. Attendance yesterday was 67,508, which was the third-highest attendance number for the fair’s first Friday since 1986.

You may notice something a little different when you visit animals in the Exposition Center or Jim Graham Building this year: an extra bit of barrier separating touchy-feely fairgoers from the show animals.

The added layer of protection is a result of an e-coli outbreak at last year's fair, which made 25 people sick.

The physical barriers added this year are extra hay bales set a few feet away from the pens, with an additional gate to prevent any overeager animal lovers from crashing the pens. The outer gates are plastered with signs instructing fairgoers not to touch the animals.

The friendly fellow pictured here is a Toggenburg goat belonging to Cole Younger of K-Bar-C Farm in Nashville, N.C.

Attendance for yesterday's N.C. State Fair preview day was 42,854.

The fairgrounds box office opened at 3 p.m. on Thursday. Last year's preview day attendance was 44,167.