Highlights of Oshkosh-10

The biggest highlight or accomplishment from Oshkosh was really just getting there😊. 10 days, 20+ hours (still need to add that up) and thousands of miles, but we made it!

I’m proud of our crew and especially of our little lady Eska. She consistently had a good attitude and flexibility on this big trip.

Little girl, big adventures!

We parked or airplane near the end of runway 27 in the North 40. As we were pulling in we spotted a family camping nearby with two kids about the age of ours. Before our campsite was fully set up the kids were introduced and playing together. Joe, Dorothy, and their two kids were from Chicago and planning on staying till Tuesday just like us.

We also met the couple parked across from us and enjoyed getting to know them. The next morning they brought back doughnuts for the kids.

After breakfast and doughnuts we took a short ride on the bus, then the tram to the Airventure grounds. As we were riding the tractor trams we saw two familier planes demonstrating short take off’s and landings on the grass strip.

We saw the experimental chinook we had seen at the Valdez fly-in many times, and we saw an orange and gray carbon cub we had camped next to in Port Allsworth this spring. Kathy, the owner of the carbon cub, Remembered us and we found out she had met our friends the Bonieks in Glen Allen on her way to Oshkosh. Such a small world!

In the heat of the day the girls and I walked to Goodwill and Target which was only a 10 min walk from the North 40 parking. Melozi found a beautiful dress at Goodwill, and with a price tag of $3.99 I couldn’t resist buying it for her. That evening was filled with the kids flying their new gliders, golden dresses, and Atlee staying up late to read by lamp light.

The next day we headed to Kidventure where the kiddos enjoyed driving robots, shaping wooden props, coloring balsa planes, and experiencing a demo rocket.

We headed back to the airplane to watch the airshow from our airplane and and enjoyed Oshkosh Final Appraoch beer while watching planes come in on final approach.

Many people camp out for more than a week at Oshkosh, but kids definitely dictate the pace for our adventures. We decided to stay three nights, which meant we missed some of the main events and air shows. Knowing this season of life is short makes it’s easier to be content not getting the full experience, but having the opportunity to land in Oshkosh, camp, meet fellow aviators, explore the grounds, have mild weather, and run into familiar faces made us content with our Oshkosh experience.

On the morning of the fourth day we packed up camp and taxied out to take off on the orange dot.