LettersFromFlyoverCountry
Well Known Member
Wednesday July 26, 2006
Darwin and I formed up and headed to Appleton for BBQ shopping. Now keep in mind I called Darwin a few weeks ago and said, "man, 150 people are coming!" and he said, "ahh, don' worry about it, I cook for that many people at family reunions."
So we arrived at Sam's Club in Appleton and started the shopping. We got to the meat department and he said, "how many brats do we need?" "138," I said. "Whaaaaat?" he said.
"I told you," I said. We bought about $600 worth of meat and potato salad and cole slaw and hoped the thunderstorms wouldn't return, leaving us to foot a very substantial bill.
I dropped Darwin off at his campsite and headed back to the "Collins compound" to start setting up. I did the "preicing" on the beer and soft drinks and continued setting up. The clouds began to darken. Our plan was to start the grills at 5, get some stuff made so when
people started showing up, we'd have some food for them.
As I arrived, the clouds opened up. All I could think of was what I was going to do with 60 pounds of cole slaw and about $2,000 worth of food.
We huddled under our canopy when Frank Swart of Portage Michigan and his new bride, Joyce, pulled up in their RV. Frank and his brothers camped next to us last year and were a big help getting our BBQ pulled off last year. He saw what was happening and, like a pro
trucker, brought his RV around to the back of the compound and unfolded a big awning. The 50 or so who had already shown up, including the folks at Trio Avionics, had a place to stay
dry. Sort of.
We moved the coolers around to keep people happy with beer and suddenly I was in a wet t-shirt contest as the rains came down and I got drenched. Anything's better than eating 50 pounds of cole slaw.
Terry Frazier came by and quickly volunteered to help cook so we now had three cooks -- Howard Kaney, Darwin Barrie, and Terry Frazier.
And the people kept coming.
Larry Frey, who is a saint, pulled up with two big roaster pots full of baked beans. I finally got the tables configured, stacked high with buns, next to a table of beans, salads, cole slaw, potato salad etc.
And the people kept coming.
Bill Near started organizing the canopy operation and Rick Belsaas manned the sign-in area where people could pick up their name tag and, hopefully, make donation.
And they kept coming.
Then came tragedy. We were running out of beer...and maybe food too. So I grabbed $100 from the donations and Dave Domeier, UPS pilot and RV builder, headed to WalMart, stocked up with two shopping carts full of beer and got back within a half hour. "Who wants beer?" I said as came back in the compound which was now filled with more than 200 thirsty -- and hungry folks. "Forget the beer," Terry said, "we're running out of food."
I hopped back in the car and headed back to WalMart. When I got there, my phone rang. It was Darwin. "We've got at least 100 people still in line to check in. WE need food and get all the beer you can and get back here FAST." We started out providing Corona and Leiningkugel, but we were now in Miller Lite and Budweiser mode. I picked up 3 additional watermelons, more buns, beer, 40 pounds of chicken and another 150 hamburger patties.
I got back in time to run into Dan Checkoway and it was a distinct pleasure to have him, and all of the RVers. It was cool to see the plane certainly to meet Dan. Dan sent a check before the barbecue, which is going uncashed, of course, because that man's money should be no good whenever he's in the company of other RVers. I can't imagine anyone who's done more for the rest of us except maybe Van himself and I'm not even sure if that's the case. I was sorry I didn't have more time to chat with everyone and I was just hoping everyone was having a good time. Since someone else had made another beer run, it appears they were as there were smiles all around. I think some people in line finally gave up on signing in and just came in the compound to chat becuase suddenly our food line disappeared and there we were with 4 cases of hamburgers and 12 cases of unused beer. Oh, and I'd also forgotten to get the rest of the potato chips out of the tent, along with two other cases of beer. Watermelon had already been cut so the the three I brought weren't needed.
Things had slowed considerably and Darwin, Terry, and Howard could now relax a bit, I hoped, and get a chance to talk. There was applause all around, smiles everywhere and I was asked to say something. And here's what I said. "Someone had just reminded me that a few years ago, as I struggled with some parental issues, I'd lost enthusiasm for plane building and put my tail and wings up for sale. They talked me out of it and I'm glad they did becuase the fatherhood issues that demanded my time were resolved -- as they usually are -- and I can thank my fellow RVers for that. And while I'm here at Oshkosh by myself, I feel I'm also here with my family and I hoped everyone else felt the same way. But the folks who
LITERALLY pulled the barbecue out of the fire were Darwin, Terry, and Howard for cooking, Larry Frey for doing just about everything a guy could do, Rich Emery for constantly showing up and bringing stuff, Bill Near and Rick Belsaas for pitching in. I can't possibly thank them enough.
I then thanked Stein Bruch at SteinAir, who gave us a donation a few weeks ago "becuase that's what RVers should do." He didn't want any advertising. He didn't want anyone to even know what he was doing. But I put the STeinAir logo on all the nametags and it was the least
we could do. I very much enjoyed meeting Stein and the gang he brought over from Direct To Avionics and TruTrak and Chelton.
IN talking with him afterwards, we agreed that the barbecue should stay in Scholler because it's essentially for the "family reunion" vibe. This is really just a grassroots operation that just took off this year and clearly we're going to need bigger digs and a big tent and more grills -- and more beer. Oh, and we're going to need a better count on who is coming.
I was taking Brad Oliver back to the blue lot late in the evening. He's heading home today and he was telling me everything he saw on his first trip to Oshkosh and he was very excited and then he said, "but tonight was the BEST part of being here."
And that is why we do it and we thank everyone who came or wanted to come. You really ARE all family.
Postscript. The campsite is almost all cleaned up. I got most of it done last night and Larry and Rich and Terry were all back this morning to finish the job. We ended up giving the left-over 10-12 cases of beer to Larry for a family reunion he has. We dropped the
watermelons off over at the Civil Air Patrol kids' tent. As it turned out they lost their breakfast so they were hungry. We gave 'em the potato chips too. We had leftover single beers and stacks of buns and condiments that I put out on a table at the compound with a "free" sign and they're slowly going away.
I haven't done all the financial stuff yet but with the expenses of about $2,000, the cost of the campsites and donations of about $2300, it looks like we're going to break out about even or slightly in the hole, but by a negligible amount.
(More below)
Darwin and I formed up and headed to Appleton for BBQ shopping. Now keep in mind I called Darwin a few weeks ago and said, "man, 150 people are coming!" and he said, "ahh, don' worry about it, I cook for that many people at family reunions."
So we arrived at Sam's Club in Appleton and started the shopping. We got to the meat department and he said, "how many brats do we need?" "138," I said. "Whaaaaat?" he said.
"I told you," I said. We bought about $600 worth of meat and potato salad and cole slaw and hoped the thunderstorms wouldn't return, leaving us to foot a very substantial bill.
I dropped Darwin off at his campsite and headed back to the "Collins compound" to start setting up. I did the "preicing" on the beer and soft drinks and continued setting up. The clouds began to darken. Our plan was to start the grills at 5, get some stuff made so when
people started showing up, we'd have some food for them.
As I arrived, the clouds opened up. All I could think of was what I was going to do with 60 pounds of cole slaw and about $2,000 worth of food.
We huddled under our canopy when Frank Swart of Portage Michigan and his new bride, Joyce, pulled up in their RV. Frank and his brothers camped next to us last year and were a big help getting our BBQ pulled off last year. He saw what was happening and, like a pro
trucker, brought his RV around to the back of the compound and unfolded a big awning. The 50 or so who had already shown up, including the folks at Trio Avionics, had a place to stay
dry. Sort of.
We moved the coolers around to keep people happy with beer and suddenly I was in a wet t-shirt contest as the rains came down and I got drenched. Anything's better than eating 50 pounds of cole slaw.
Terry Frazier came by and quickly volunteered to help cook so we now had three cooks -- Howard Kaney, Darwin Barrie, and Terry Frazier.
And the people kept coming.
Larry Frey, who is a saint, pulled up with two big roaster pots full of baked beans. I finally got the tables configured, stacked high with buns, next to a table of beans, salads, cole slaw, potato salad etc.
And the people kept coming.
Bill Near started organizing the canopy operation and Rick Belsaas manned the sign-in area where people could pick up their name tag and, hopefully, make donation.
And they kept coming.
Then came tragedy. We were running out of beer...and maybe food too. So I grabbed $100 from the donations and Dave Domeier, UPS pilot and RV builder, headed to WalMart, stocked up with two shopping carts full of beer and got back within a half hour. "Who wants beer?" I said as came back in the compound which was now filled with more than 200 thirsty -- and hungry folks. "Forget the beer," Terry said, "we're running out of food."
I hopped back in the car and headed back to WalMart. When I got there, my phone rang. It was Darwin. "We've got at least 100 people still in line to check in. WE need food and get all the beer you can and get back here FAST." We started out providing Corona and Leiningkugel, but we were now in Miller Lite and Budweiser mode. I picked up 3 additional watermelons, more buns, beer, 40 pounds of chicken and another 150 hamburger patties.
I got back in time to run into Dan Checkoway and it was a distinct pleasure to have him, and all of the RVers. It was cool to see the plane certainly to meet Dan. Dan sent a check before the barbecue, which is going uncashed, of course, because that man's money should be no good whenever he's in the company of other RVers. I can't imagine anyone who's done more for the rest of us except maybe Van himself and I'm not even sure if that's the case. I was sorry I didn't have more time to chat with everyone and I was just hoping everyone was having a good time. Since someone else had made another beer run, it appears they were as there were smiles all around. I think some people in line finally gave up on signing in and just came in the compound to chat becuase suddenly our food line disappeared and there we were with 4 cases of hamburgers and 12 cases of unused beer. Oh, and I'd also forgotten to get the rest of the potato chips out of the tent, along with two other cases of beer. Watermelon had already been cut so the the three I brought weren't needed.
Things had slowed considerably and Darwin, Terry, and Howard could now relax a bit, I hoped, and get a chance to talk. There was applause all around, smiles everywhere and I was asked to say something. And here's what I said. "Someone had just reminded me that a few years ago, as I struggled with some parental issues, I'd lost enthusiasm for plane building and put my tail and wings up for sale. They talked me out of it and I'm glad they did becuase the fatherhood issues that demanded my time were resolved -- as they usually are -- and I can thank my fellow RVers for that. And while I'm here at Oshkosh by myself, I feel I'm also here with my family and I hoped everyone else felt the same way. But the folks who
LITERALLY pulled the barbecue out of the fire were Darwin, Terry, and Howard for cooking, Larry Frey for doing just about everything a guy could do, Rich Emery for constantly showing up and bringing stuff, Bill Near and Rick Belsaas for pitching in. I can't possibly thank them enough.
I then thanked Stein Bruch at SteinAir, who gave us a donation a few weeks ago "becuase that's what RVers should do." He didn't want any advertising. He didn't want anyone to even know what he was doing. But I put the STeinAir logo on all the nametags and it was the least
we could do. I very much enjoyed meeting Stein and the gang he brought over from Direct To Avionics and TruTrak and Chelton.
IN talking with him afterwards, we agreed that the barbecue should stay in Scholler because it's essentially for the "family reunion" vibe. This is really just a grassroots operation that just took off this year and clearly we're going to need bigger digs and a big tent and more grills -- and more beer. Oh, and we're going to need a better count on who is coming.
I was taking Brad Oliver back to the blue lot late in the evening. He's heading home today and he was telling me everything he saw on his first trip to Oshkosh and he was very excited and then he said, "but tonight was the BEST part of being here."
And that is why we do it and we thank everyone who came or wanted to come. You really ARE all family.
Postscript. The campsite is almost all cleaned up. I got most of it done last night and Larry and Rich and Terry were all back this morning to finish the job. We ended up giving the left-over 10-12 cases of beer to Larry for a family reunion he has. We dropped the
watermelons off over at the Civil Air Patrol kids' tent. As it turned out they lost their breakfast so they were hungry. We gave 'em the potato chips too. We had leftover single beers and stacks of buns and condiments that I put out on a table at the compound with a "free" sign and they're slowly going away.
I haven't done all the financial stuff yet but with the expenses of about $2,000, the cost of the campsites and donations of about $2300, it looks like we're going to break out about even or slightly in the hole, but by a negligible amount.
(More below)
