Month: July 2006

After a couple of days of walking around in the hot sun, i’ve come to a few
conclusions:
– opportunities to sit down are to be seized on and treasured, and air
conditioned ones are three times as good.
– in spite of that, 45 minutes in an air conditioned shuttle bus is not
really a good trade against 5 minutes of walking.
– the tram system inside the show grounds are quick, efficient and fun, and
the shuttle bus system within the campgrounds are none of the above.

There is some really cool stuff here and it’s really hard to resist the
temptation to try to see it all at once.

I had lunch with some of the guys from the First Of Pryor piper mailing
list. Nice to see Les again and meet Bill and … Darn I spaced on the
other guy’s name. Sorry, guy.

We’ve been here 8 hours and after checking out the local grocery stores
(the famous Piggly Wiggly just outside the airport gates is no more) and
walking down to Aeroshell Square to watch people setting up displays, I am
tired, my knees are sore and my arms feel sunburnt even though I used
sunscreen.

I’d better use the trams a lot to get around.

After all that adventure, we’re finally here. We’ve got a camping spot
with no shade, but we brought a big awning some club members bought when we
came in 2003.

We’re listening to the tower frequency, and there are a surprising number
of people who either didn’t read the notam, or their instinctual need to
read back tower instructions is too strong.

It’s 91 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, it’s (not) dark,
and we’re wearing sunglasses.

Hit it!

We should be at Osh in just a few hours.

It wasn’t possible to get the plane fixed without either paying ridiculous
shipping costs (4 overnight shipments from 4 different locations) or
cutting corners (re-using washers and bolts and gaskets). So here we are,
*driving* to Oshkosh.

Sigh.