Air Show Day

We had a really fun day. This morning we leisurely got ready, sunscreened up, and took the car to the "Red Lot" over by warbirds. I opened up the Mustang canopy while Nathan went to registration, the kids played, and Steve and Nathan and I wiped down and dusted off the Mustang to get it ready for the day. As we were standing there, several people we know came up off and on, and it was nice to catch up with them, too. We wandered from there over to the T-6 range, where we again ran into a few people we knew. Nathan was doing a good job being a salesperson for the T-6 Restoration guys. ;) When we finished up there, we did the walking thing, and we walked around Oshkosh for awhile. It was another gorgeous day for it, too.

It put a smile on all our faces to see the mass of planes going up, coming over and around, in formation, smoke on, jumpers away, Air Show Day. We found some shade, we sat on the ground, and we enjoyed the show. At one point we moved locations, had ice cream, had drinks, found more shade, and relaxed and enjoyed the show. It was really nice.

We topped off the air show day by going for a plane ride of our own. The five of us (Nathan & Jamie, Steve, Kaylee & myself) all went on the Ford Trimotor. Steve and I had never been on a Trimotor, and Nathan had only ridden on one once, decades ago. So we decided this year we'd just do it. It was a little more complicated than it looked-you had to wait in line for a good amount of time, and then you went and did something else while they worked through the people. We went off and watched more of the air show in the shade, ourselves. ;) But finally it was our turn, and we all really enjoyed the flight. It's a neat airplane, and we had a great view. I took a couple of video clips and still shots from my seat in the back of the plane. The nice thing about the Trimotor is that every seat is a window seat, so there is no jockeying in position to get a 'better' view. It was a really neat little ride and we all gave it a thumbs-up and a "that was worth it" rating. :)

We wandered from there back over to the Mustang where we wiped off fingerprints and dust and sealed up the cockpit and did all the night "prep" work. We got back to our car and drove right into town to eat dinner, all messy and sweaty, but we weren't the only ones! Most of the restaurants around here have "Welcome EAA!" on their signs. They're prepared for us. ;)

Another stop at Fleet Farm (the guy shopping place), another stop at the gas station that had fire wood, and now that it was dark we were ready to come home and have ourselves a little camp fire and, well, relax. So that's exactly what we did. It was a perfectly lovely air show day.

Tomorrow Nathan flies the Mustang in the warbirds show, and I think Steve will probably go out with him early in the morning to get the Mustang ready for judging. A busy day coming, I'm sure...