Amen!
Amen to all that has been said! Connie and I just got back about an hour ago. What a drive! In two weeks I drove from Houston to Rapid City South Dakota where Connie was visiting her mother, then on to Oshkosh, and then back to Houston. A total drive of about 3300 miles.
I am pooped, but it was worth every minute of driving. We didn't arrive at Oshkosh until Tuesday morning. At first I was disappointed we couldn't get there earlier but after hearing and seeing the results of the hurricane that hit the camp Monday night, I am glad we didn't get there earlier. The weather the rest of the week was text book perfect. We walked our tails off but had a great time.
The Warbird display on Friday and Saturday was just aswesome. Seeing 200+ (I don't exactly how many) planes in the air at one time was a site to behold and hear. Seeing the last flight of the White Knight and seeing the global flyer was an added treat. Hearing the talk about how they recovered glacier girl was very awesome. OK a plane got lost and got dug up from a glacier. No big deal right? Yes a very big deal! Under 200 feet of ice and working in 20 below zero temps is a very big deal. Setting up a boiler to create 185 degree water to pump into a big cylinder lined with copper tubing to melt a huge hole down into the ice is a big deal. Then creating an ice cavern around the plane and then disassembling it to hoist the pieces up through the hole is a very big deal. Then having a refrigerator sized chunk of ice fall into the hole and totally crush the cockpit is a big deal. Then totally taking the plane apart piece by piece and restoring it to a flying airplane is a very big deal. Just awesome!
The forums were outstanding as well. We learned enough to be dangerous about gas welding, TIG welding, sheet metal work, fiberglass work for RVs, subaru engines, aerodynamics 101, plane insurance, RV Building Tips, Top 10 reasons engines quit, first flight for homebuilts, and we laughed our butts off at two sessions by Rod Machado. There were others forums we attended that I can't even remember at this time.
The vendor booths were good. Everyone I could think of was in attendance. It was good to see and touch the "stuff." Some of the new light sport aircraft are pretty neat although I think a bit pricey. They made me appreciate the value of an RV. To be fair these are certificated and fully assembled aircraft but still most of them were in the 75K+ range. We saw some pretty cool personal 2 place jets (if they can be called that) that I drooled over. I would love to get behind the stick of my own Viper jet.
The camping was good, the hot dog BBQ sponsored by Bob Collins was fun, and the food was par for a major event. We started every day at 5AM with hot showers in the camp showers, a quick campfire breakfast, and cleaning up the camp. Then we started the 1 mile (exactly) walk to the front gate (We have to get there earlier next time to get a closer camp site). We didn't get back to camp until about 6 PM, had a quick hot dog or burger and then off we went with another 1+ mile walk to the Theater in the woods for the evening programs and entertainment. We usually got back to the camp at about 10 or 10:30 PM and were ready for bed. Then we got up with the sun the next day and did it all over again.
We are definitely pooped but we were sorry to see it come to an end.
I didn't take many RV pictures but it looks like everyone else covered that area pretty well. I have a few pictures I will post tomorrow after I get a good night's sleep in my own bed.
I only have two suggestions. These are not gripes, mind you, as we were 100% happy with everything:
I would like to see more variety in the food. I know the service is let through a bid process but I think there could be more than one vendor to provide a little more variety and spur the competition. I would like to see some of the local fast food places such as McDonalds, or Wendys, or Arby's, or Chick Fil-A, get a shot to participate. Maybe this is not possible but I would like to see it happen if it is possible.
The transportation could be better. There were busses and shuttles running but they never seemed to be available when needed. We got caught at Van's tent one night at 8PM and of course all of the shuttles quit running at 8. It was about a 2 mile walk back to our camp site. Again not complaining as I can use the exercise but I would like to suggest that they take a lesson from Disney and have continuous shuttles moving up and down the main east/west street in the campground. Every morning and every evening there was a large and constant flow of people walking up and down this street which is about a mile long in itself. There should be several trams doing nothing but going up and down this street to shuttle people from the ends of their camp rows to and from the main gate.
Everything was really excellent. There was so much to do and see that we never got bored. We were constantly being challenged to figure out how we could see everything we wanted to see and do. Next year we will not try to see everything and we will do a better job of prioritizing our agenda. We will try to relax a little more and just shoot the breeze with fellow builders. We will also volunteer to help out now that we have an idea of how it works.
I didn't get my tailkit ordered at the show as I had planned but I am really pumped and plan to order it this week.
Overall we were thrilled with our experience and we are already looking forward to next year.
My advise to everyone is go early, stay late, and volunteer. Oh yeah, if you plan to arrive Tuesday or later, be sure to pack your ear plugs as you will be camping close to HWY 41. The road noise can be a little disturbing at night without earplugs. Fortunately, we had ours with us in anticipation of some loud military jet demonstrations. We never gave the road noise a second thought.
Back to the grind and saving my pennies for next year's trip.
