This time my internal alarm clock didn't go off, my external human one did. Steve flipped on a light and said "time to get up!" The numbers on the clock still had a six in them, which is better than 4:41, but still pretty darned early for ole Laura. :) We got up, slathered on the sunscreen, put on our hats, and headed down to the lobby where the Davis boys were already waiting in the mini van outside the front door. We stopped at McDonald's on the way to Sun 'n Fun for breakfast, and then went on to Lakeland. We'd been warned that it was really muddy there, but really, it wasn't that bad. The parking was a little muddy, but that was it.
I was actually a little surprised when we arrived, because it really did look like a mini Oshkosh. See, I haven't been to Sun 'n Fun since the early 1990s, and back then it was really...tiny. Kind of boring, to be honest. But this was set up like Oshkosh with the flea market tents and the big hangars of displays and vendors, the food tents, and all the airplane displays. It's on a smaller scale, but it's still at least *something*. Last time I went I was so unimpressed I haven't really cared to go back. I hear it's declining from what it was a few years ago, and it is totally lacking in the warbird arena for various reasons, but it otherwise looked pretty good to me.
We went through the Light Sport aircraft display first, checking out the options. Nathan and I sat in one of them. Man it's hard to get in there gracefully, but once in there is actually as much room as there is in the Baron cockpit-some of them have more room. As we were walking out of there, a lady came out and got our attention and offered to let us use their port o potties. That might not seem like much of a draw to you, but you see, they were Air Conditioned potties, and looked like real bathrooms on the inside. With mirrors and sinks and normal looking toilets and potpourri dishes and what looked like marble walls and wooden floors. So by golly we went for it. Best rest stop of the day By far. ;)
Next we went through all the hangar displays. These are big buildings filled with vendors who have purchased space to display their wares. Anything aviation related you can imagine is there. Software, instrumentation, pilot supplies, flash lights, simulators, manufacturing stuff, parachutes, gauges, places to have your pilot's license engraved onto a large marble slab to hang on a wall, airplane jewelry, chicks fly t-shirts, jackets, hats, whatever you can imagine and a whole lot of stuff you can't imagine, it's there. The kids quickly tired of the displays. We were at one display for a long time because Nathan is considering putting this system in his Cheyenne, and the kids were at the end of their patience rope. Across the aisle from us was a display for a place you could live and fly out of-an airpark-called "Heaven's" something. They hired a woman to dress up like an angel, and the kids were rather fascinated by her for awhile. The poor girl was in 3" high heeled shoes and standing there for a couple of hours. I hope her paycheck covered foot aches and a lot of double-takes. Anyway, once in awhile we'd be by an exit, and we'd let the kids sit outside on the grass and relax for a few minutes. It took quite awhile to get through all four of the hangars with all the rows and rows of displays in each. It's shopping sanctioned for guys too. ;)
After we left there, we decided we needed food, so we went to the food tent where the meal for Kaylee, Steve and myself cost $34.00. That was for a hot dog, doritos and a water for Kaylee, a chicken sandwich, coke and a brownie for me, and a burger, fries and a coke for Steve. Best $34 we'd spent that day though, sitting in the shade with a drink, live music nearby, and getting to people-watch. ;)
From there we hit the flea market tents, which is more guy shopping only it's all outside in tents instead of in the hangars. You can get some really good deals sometimes at these things, so the guys always have to check them out, and it usually goes pretty quickly.
We were walking around afterwards, and a man stopped and said "Hello, Nathan!" Nathan says "Hi Tom!" and they chat for a few minutes, I shake his hand, say hello to his wife, there's a little talking. They go inside, and I walk up to Steve and Nathan who both seem to know who he is, and I say "Tom who?" Steve starts laughing at me. Well, it's not like I've looked up a lot of pictures of the guy, how was I supposed to know it was Tom Poberezny, the current president of the EAA? He seemed like a very nice man, I must say.
Next we went to the warbirds ramp. There were only a few planes there, but we wanted to see if some of the people we knew were there and check out what was there. Tim, the man in charge of building Nathan's T-6 was there with the yellow T-6 they had finished first (a really nice looking airplane). The man that flew it down was there too, and I knew his name was Rick, and he talked for awhile too. Steve enjoyed telling me that he was Rick Siegfried, the president of the EAA Warbirds division. Actually, I'd known his brother was one of the Bonanza pilots last weekend. Another apparently very down-to-earth and friendly man.
After we'd gone through all the shopping areas and the warbird and the Light Sport sections, we decided we'd pretty much seen what we wanted to of Sun 'n Fun, so we stopped back by the food tent (it was in the mid 80s for temps, so it was plenty warm) and got a drink and watched part of the air show for awhile. The jumpers with the flags, a formation of T-6s, Julie Clark, several routines. Our feet were all killing us, so sitting in the shade with a cold coke and watching people and planes go by seemed like just the antidote.
When we got our second wind, we headed to the "Flying" tent where they have the best quality t-shirts and gizmos, and we bought a few shirts for the year. They had some P-51 shirts that we got. Kaylee bought a blue shirt that says "Chicks Fly" and a fan that displays whatever you want (right now, her name and a heart) on the blades in red lights when it is on. That was actually pretty cool for $6. :) Oh, and she got a little flying bear too. We stopped at the FAA building, where there was a guy outside giving free weather briefings to all the pilots who stopped, so we found out when the weather was supposed to be moving in to Kokomo and all that good stuff, and then we walked back to our car. By this point the mud was a tad worse in some areas after having been smushed around by a lot of cars. We passed one car getting towed out by a tractor after getting stuck. But our row wasn't bad, and we were out of there and on our way back to the hotel in no time.
Once we got there, around 6 pm, we just broke ranks and went to our rooms, took showers, and chilled out for awhile. We had 8:30 pm reservations for the Bonefish Grill. Man was *that* good too. I had a lemon butter salmon with jasmine herb rice, Steve had a fillet, and Kaylee had (can you guess?) macaroni and cheese. Oh well, at least she ate crab last night. ;) Oh, we also had a delicious thing called "bang bang shrimp" and some calamari. Warm bread, and you bet I had dessert. Macadamia nut brownie. Hungry, anyone?? We waddled out of there around 10 or so, and the kids had HAD it. Well, Kaylee had had it anyway. I pretty much carried her to the car, we got back to the hotel, and again, boom, out like a light before 11 pm. All of us. We'd decided that the one day was about perfect to see Sun 'n Fun.
We came, we saw, we conquered, and we got the t-shirts to prove it. ;)
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