Mason - They are the nameless carnival faces who cry at you to buy their sweet candy apples, fresh-squeezed lemonade and play their seemingly impossible skill games.

Few, if any, visitors seem to know where they come from or where they'll go at carnival's end, and few people seem to care.

But, by all accounts, carnival workers are a jovial, familial bunch who like traveling across the country, cruising the open road between spurts of sugaring fried dough and lemonade squeezing.

"I love it," said Tampa Bay, Fla., native Beverley Nardine, as she stirred the hot, red syrup used for candy apples Monday at the 150th Ingham County Fair. "You get to see different places."

But the work can sometimes be grueling, especially for those assigned to control the rides, and who often are responsible for rebuilding them at each location.

The Ferris wheel, for example, takes six to eight men about eight hours to construct, or about 55 total labor hours.

At each location they travel to, the crew will stopping numerous times to set up shop for local fairs and carnivals.

John Dryja is in his 22nd year as the concessions manager for Wade Shows, Inc. - the company who brought in the rides for this week's fair.

To prepare, he worked 22 straight hours, getting everything from a festival in Ionia, Mich., to Mason - and setting up the trailers that hold the games, concessions and rides, in place on Sunday - before finally getting some zneeded sleep.

"It's a lot of hard hours," he said. "My job is very time consuming."

Even so, Dryja said he likes the fact he only has to work nine months of the year.

"To me, it's exciting to travel," Dryja said. "It gives me time to fish."

For others, who might stay in the business for as long as Dryja, carnivals offer job security and an accepting environment.

"It's like a big family out here," said Keith Stewart, a game operator and Jackson, Mich. resident in his second year with Wade. "Everybody looks out for each other out here."