My week off in the US was spent mostly in WI. My family went to the EAA Airventure Convention, Fly-in, and Airshow for almost the whole week.
As those who saw me will attest, the week was great – other than getting more sunburned than planned. Normally I like to get a light burn so it will tan. I got a light burn the first day. Then again the second. Then I had the brilliant idea of finishing the light burn process Wednesday.
Bad plan. Well, good plan – poorly executed.
The problem was that it was far and away too nice out. So instead of spending half-ish of the day indoors in the hnagars or forum tents.. I was outside all day. And didn’t put sunscreen on at lunch time like I should’ve – nono, I waited until mid-afternoon. Bad decision. I didn’t get all blistered like I did one other time, but that doesn’t mean the upper arms and shoulders weren’t complaining the next morning.
Moving on from the unpleasantness of sunburn – the convention was a blast. We got to see the A380 make its North American debut – didn’t do the tour because of the insanely-long lines, but still saw it fly.
WhiteKnightTwo flew – the mothership for SpaceShipTwo for Virgin Galactic. That is a dorky looking plane, but it flies so gracefully, you’d think it was a performance sailplane.
My dad and I listened to Burt Rutan talk about the history of the Ansari X prize which Scaled Composites won with SpaceShipOne a couple years ago. He’s a captivating speaker, but does have a tendency to meander in his speaking like Garison Keilor in the News from Lake Woebegone. But you can’t really tell him he’s gone over on his alotted time because, well – it’s Burt Rutan, and it’s just so interesting!
Possibly the coolest part of the week was Friday morning when my dad was able to take a ride in the EAA 1929 Ford Trimotor airliner. For you movie buffs, it’s the same one used in Public Enemies with Johnny Depp. He loved the 10 minute jaunt out over Lake Winnebago, and was none too thrilled about having to get off when it was over 
This year, as opposed to the last two times we went (1989 and 1998), we stayed at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. Previously we had camped at Circle R. The University’s accommodations were nothing amazing – two beds in a dorm room with shower/bathroom facilities on each floor (separated by gender, of course). But the price was unbeatable: $50 per night per room. The four of us were able to stay comfortably for a week for $700. The cheapest hotel I had found was 25 minutes away and $175 a night. That could be because of the closeness to which I looked for a room (~6 months out), but all in all, the University was a great place to be – close to the grounds, easy access to other points of interest, etc.
And I must give recognition to the organizers, the city of Oshkosh, and [almost] everyone I saw there: it was amazingly clean, smooth to move around, and pleasant to be in/around. For there being ~250,000 people on the grounds on the peak days, you wouldn’t have known more than a couple hundred were there for the trash NOT lying around.
It continues to amaze me every time I go to an airshow how clean the grounds are at the end of the day. Everyone cleans up after themselves, and they’ll cleanup after others if something blew out of a trash can, or off a table, or out of someone’s bag. Almost like the folks who go actually care about humanity
