OT: A belated (long!) trip log, since it's not busy

[roccit_53 at scirocco.cs.uoguelph.ca (C Boyko)]

I always used to tell tales of my adventures, and this one has some list
content, since it started in Wilmington, a place near and dear to us all!
4am Friday I arose, hopped into Klaus, and headed south. I was at Daun's by
noon, the only A1 of note I saw was a camo green Caddy headed North, I'm
certain it was the "Hill Folks" dirty fast 1.9 diesel I'd raced with at
Waterfest, 14.5 in the quarter, so no slow ride.
Of course, I was greeted quickly by a second Bunny truck, not as fast, that
of Daun's dad Daun. It was good to see him and that cute truck again, the
five speed transplant Drew did at Cincy seems to be working well. Departure
was delayed by the fact that Brad was armpit deep in the engine bay of
another Osh Kosh bound aircraft, so it needed approval and testing before
we could get going. What to do? Tech procedures of course, Klaus had a new
set of H4s waiting, these had city lights, so a fat step drill was needed
for some "clearancing" of the buckets. By 6 pm I'd had the ride to town in
the silver 86 (which was also apart last time I saw it at Cincy,it's
running well), and we'd packed the poor Cessna to the gills, and hit the
runway. We made it as far as Knox IN before weather/O'Hare
airspace/darkness forced us down for the night. Our courtesy minvan was a
"delight to drive", and had that "self releasing seat belt" feature. I love
DC products, cough. And the local pizza place had "both kinds of beer" (Bud
Light and Budwiser), which was a bonus.
Saturday the weather let us fly past Chicago IL and up to Burlington WI for
fuel, where a group of ERCoupes was gathering, it reminded me of the
increasing number of VWs you see as you approach Waterfest (and they're
such cute planes too!) Then to Osh Kosh. Traffic control in this area is
incredible to listen to, they get about 13 000 aircraft in there for the
week, and we slid in just before they shut runways down for a group of 100
Beech Bonanzas. Seeing/hearing them come in is an experience I'll never
forget, it was awesome. We regrouped, tied the plane down and Jim Jarrett
took us to Madison.
Jim of course, has that eight car garage, and we parked the new Golf beside
some familiar faces, his 16V Cabby and the red 16V he brought to Cincy.
He's a great host and tour guide, and Wisconsin is beautiful (we did the
Dells boat tours, lots of film died). Ellen (Tonee's significant other)
joined us for dinner, and I tried deep fried chese curds, and a Buffalo
burger. Other entertainment included watching the guys nosedive on Jim's
flight simulator, yeah, as in tail deep. I got a chance to see Dave's car
collection too, his pretty S10 with the V8 (oh my!!) his RIP Camaro, and
finally his big Mercury land yacht took us back to Osh Kosh.
Camping with Daun (okay, what's wrong with that combination of words eh?)is
an adventure, and he can sleep through any kind of weather, unlike Brad and
I. If you get a chance to go, do it, and camp for the week. Its like a
really big Cincy with props, the people are friendly, and there's a never
ending hum of mechanical music. Or in our case, live polka music, courtesy
of the next row over. Everything and anything in the way of aircraft too.
Oh, I'd be neglectful if I didn't mention that it was really all a big
birthday party for Daun's plane, she's fifty this year, as is the Cessna
172 in general. It's been a very successful aircraft.
We headed out and got as far as Rensselaer IN before we saw lightning, so
that was the stop for the night. We had a Crown Vic as a courtesy car, it
had this special time warp radio, volume was preset and it was dialed into
the 80s. As was most of Renssalaer. Bowling/the battle of the bands was the
hot ticket on a Thursday night. We all looked fabulous in those bowling
shoes! I have to say, the girl at the motel looked really confused when we
all checked into one room, poor thing. It seemed spacious and luxurious
after the tent. But the prospect of staying even one more day there was not
appealing, we flew out over the cloud tops, and landed safely home Friday
late. Klaus and I headed out Saturday morning, I got home in time to
repack, and sleep, then headed out for Grand Bend (3 hours from here).
There's an active airport on the track property, so it was a gentle weaning
for me, with light aircraft overhead all day. I ended my day at the track
in eliminations. It rained before we finished.
So, are you noticing something missing here? Yeah, I'm waiting for the ball
to drop, my cars have been behaving WAY too well, that's 2600 hihgway miles
in my 79 in the past few weeks, and 1300 of it with my 16V alongside. Time
to change something, hehe...
Anyway, I doubt I'll get to go again, hubby may remember that "the weekend
that turned into a week", but it was such a blast, I had to share.
Cathy