Tuesday, July 29

In the morning we all loaded up in the car and drove to a lot that had a sign next to it that said EAA BUS.  A bus came up that said “EMPLOYEES/VOLUNTEERS”.  We asked the driver if there was another bus we should wait for, but she said we could ride her bus.  When we asked what bus we should take, she went on and on about how everyone was trying to save a buck and she’d take people as long as she wasn’t full of volunteers.  (It was only when we came back home, we noticed that the other side of the sign next to the parking lot said “EMPLOYEES/VOLUNTEERS”.)

The rest of the week was a series of attempts to solve logistical issue of getting all of us to the event grounds in the morning and back home at night.  We settled on whoever wanted to get there early and leave late would take the bus. Unfortunately, the city bus stopped running before 7 pm, so Randy would pick us up in the car wherever the bus ended up if we couldn’t get the bus drive to stop at 6th Street.  To get there in the morning, we had to leave the house at 7, walk the four blocks or so to the city bus stop at 5th Street, wait for the 7:23 bus, take that to the bus terminal downtown, wait there another 20 minutes for an EAA bus that would then go by the college to pick up a ton of people and then take you to the event bus stop. That would get us there in time for the first workshops of the day at 8:30 a.m. On Tuesday after the air show it started raining while we were in line for the bus to the airport terminal.  Fortunately, I had carried two umbrellas and my waterproof jacket with me, enough for Uncle Stacy, Berck, and me.  It started pouring as soon as we got on the bus, and Randy picked us up at the airport.

We ate a lot of terrible vendor food at the event center.  All they had available to drink was Pepsi products, usually just Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, and Mountain Dew, but you could get a root beer float at the A&W stands.  There was a concession tent at the far parking lot just outside the event area that had pretty good brisket sandwiches, fried cheese curds, and beer.