In the past I've been accused of being hopelessly starry-eyed about
Oshkosh, to the point of waxing poetically sappy.

Just to prove that I'm not all sniffly about leaving OSH, I thought
I'd list my Top Ten List of things that suck about Oshkosh. Feel free
to add yours.

10. Seaplane Base Boredom. This year we inexplicably headed to the
Seaplane Base in the morning, rather than the afternoon. This would
have been okay, but the wind came up, whipped up whitecaps on Lake
Winnebago, and stopped all operations. There is, quite literally,
NOTHING to do there when the planes can't fly. This is okay for a
couple of hours, but not for more than three. Since we had tickets to
the fish fry, we didn't want to leave and come back (it's 20 minutes
from Wittman Field), so we were stuck. Mistake noted, not to be
repeated.

9. Dirt. It's everywhere at OSH, except when it's raining, and then
it's mud. It's the kind of dirt that, when you itch your arm, your
fingernails are instantly black. Sweat turns it to goo, and it's
usually hot.

8. Showering one-handed. Using a sink sprayer to wash is an exercise
in frustration, at best. Learning to shampoo with one hand whilst
spraying with the other is a skill no one should have to learn.

7. Idiots In Golf Carts. There is simply no excuse for them being
everywhere. You can't walk ANYWHERE without being forced to move
aside for them.

6. Idiots on Scooters. This is expanding exponentially, at roughly
the same rate at American's waist lines. The Korean War vet with no
legs deserves a scooter. The guy who hasn't seen his knees in 20
years should either walk or stay home.

5. Eating Late at Night. Because everyone wants to make every day
last, we often ended up eating late in the evening, followed by
collapsing in bed. For my system -- especially when eating like we
eat at OSH -- that means essentially living on Rolaids and Tums all
week, or suffering terrible acid reflux.

4. Being Bald. In the intense sun at OSH, being bald can be a very
painful liability. Your only hope is to wear a hat all the time,
which is a pain. (I suppose one could simply shave your head and wear
sun screen, too.)

3. Wearing Sunscreen. Each day, after showering off the topsoil, the
next step was to reapply sunscreen. Mix with Oshkosh Dirt (See #9,
above), and you've now got creamy mud. Worse, it must be reapplied
every few hours, so you're putting fresh cream on top of mud.

2. Distance. Everything is far, far away, no matter where you are.
We thought we were "close" to the restaurants, being camped on the
fenceline, when in fact in "real life" breakfast at the Hilton was
still over 5 blocks away, each way. Bike help in the North 40, but
can't be used on the show grounds. (But scooters can?!) We probably
walked over five miles each day -- some days much more.

1. NOT flying. This may sound counter-intuitive, but we fly less
during the week of Oshkosh than any other week during the year, simply
because it's SUCH a pain in the butt to fly in that area and return to
your campsite. (Just ask the guys who went flying Friday, and then
couldn't get back to their site when the airport was closed due to the
Mustang collision.) By the end of the week I find myself looking
forward to the flight home, just cuz it's FLYING.

So there you have it -- there really ARE bad things about Oshkosh.

God help me, I miss it so already...

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"