For 4-year-old Joey Tyler, it wasn't the carnival's exhibits, magic shows, games or gobs of cotton candy covering his sticky cheeks that would be missed. No, it was the large, smiling yellow-jacket ride.

As Georgia State Fair visitors began to trickle toward the exits Sunday, Tyler took one last look back at the carousel and waved goodbye.

"This was the best year yet," said his father, David, a Warner Robins resident who admits to calling every year the best. "I think he rode that thing about a 100 times."

Once again, the fair that has come to Middle Georgia for 148 years came to end Sunday.

But instead of thinking about next year, or comparing it to the upcoming Georgia National Fair in Perry, visitors wanted to talk about the time they had in Macon.

And what a time it was, said a crowd of Middle Georgians who spent their day taking in the food and fun on the fairgrounds just outside Luther Williams Field in Macon.

From the soft feel of the well-worn sod under their feet, to the wafting aroma from the grilled Polish sausages, fresh cut fries, well-done hamburgers, chicken-on-a-stick and Mama V's homemade pizza sauce, Sunday's fair-goers said they were relaxed and well-fed.

"I really don't have much time to get out, so this was it," said Kyle Smithe, a Mercer University student who says he "spends most of my time studying."

"Everyone said this was really cool, and it is," he added.

There were the various food-eating contests, the magic shows ("How did they do that?" one child was overheard asking his parents), and even Gloria, the "World's Smallest Woman," billed at 29 inches short, according to the fellow trying to entice visitors to take a peek.

There was the mechanical roar from the whirling blades of a helicopter where folks enjoyed two-minute rides, to the "clickety-clack" of a small roller coaster to one or two good-natured screams from a trio of teenage girls who just got off one of the many vertigo-inducing rides.

And of course, there was music, specifically loud tunes, blasting the Gravitron - a colorful and hypnotically flashing and spinning ride that made at least one person question whether he should have eaten before hopping aboard.

"That ride is just intense," said Jerome Hawkins, a 19-year-old Macon resident.

Succumbed from watching the various food eating contests, the exhibits - the train was his favorite - and playing the games, Hawkins was going home.

"I'm done, wiped out. It was fun, though," he said, stumbling slightly from the affects of the ride.

As the sun dipped behind the clouds, Susan Stewart, watched the Fire Ball ride, a swinging hexagon that could be seen across the fairgrounds, and clutched a stuffed red bear that her boyfriend won by "popping a bunch under-inflated balloons with dull-tipped darts."

"Everything here is so bright. It's a very fun and happy place to be, especially knowing that the weather is going to get colder soon," she said.

Ah, the weather.

That was another thing on the minds of fair-goers Sunday as they lapped up the last day of carnival rides, video games and exhibits.

Although the fair kicked off Monday with a dreary downpour that produced almost an inch of rain and washed out the possible fun, the fair's final day was what at least one Macon residents called "the best day all year."

"You feel that," said Charlie Michaels, pointing a finger at the sun for emphasis. "It's what 85 (degrees) out right now - it just doesn't get any better."