Day 6 of 9

And I'm sure hoping that tomorrow brings that hootchie-mama Jeri Ryan (aka 7 of 9)
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Well...... even us geezers can dream.

My motel area was fine after the big storm, as was Oshkosh, but Ripon got its butt kicked. It's about halfway between my motel and Oshkosh. No power at all in town when I went through at about 6:30 a.m. Many streets closed with fallen trees and detours. Don't know if it was an actual tornado or just high straight-line winds, but it was a mess.


Drove back through Ripon at about 5:30p.m. and the roads were opened back up, but still NO power in town. LOTS of tree limbs remain all over folks' lawns/yards/sides of streets and many utility repair trucks were to be seen. Hopefully they'll get all the power restored to the town before too long. Mother Nature can sometimes be fierce.

The AirVeture grounds were again packed. We worked the Red Route today. It brought to mind the ideation that the difference between a Warbird owner and God, is that God doesn't think He is a Warbird owner - lol The passengers seem to be a lot "easier-going" and fun on Blue, but maybe that's just me? I dunno.

Still quite a lot of planes on site though traditionally 'bug-out' Friday and Saturday can be expected. It doesn't look like weather 'should' force any early departures though. So we shall see.

So until tomorrow -

"Growing up, my neighborhood was SO POOR, that after a storm, when the sun came out, the rainbow was only black and white."

and

"My idiot brother in Indiana was supposed to drive up and meet me here, but he was driving West on the Indiana toll road and saw a big sign that read "Chicago Left", so he got disappointed, turned around and went back home."

and to end it for now-

"I was going to tell you a terrific story about time travel, but you didn't like it."

I neglected to add, in general the new tram terminals seem to be working out just fine. Speaking with some of the teams who worked Blue today, the unhappiness over the whole no Vintage/Boeing Plaza stop remains, no surprise there. For a whole lot of non-youngster EAA members, adding a block or three extra walking brings no joy.

The loss of the tram stop has really affected me this year. I am using a walker get around, hopefully just this year, and usually take the blue tram. Now there's really no point, because walking to airshow center from the Hangar Cafe, where I usually board, is about the same as walking from the exhibit hangars. In fact it's probably closer. I get that there are a lot of oblivious people walking along the route, and having tram stops at Vintage and the Theater in the Woods just adds more crowding, but eliminating those tram stops was an idiotic idea. I hope they are back next year.

Were it not for my Chicago-rented mobility scooter, I would pretty much only be seeing AirVenture from the seat of a tram. The "irony" of the on-site mobility scooter service at AirVenture is that you have to walk North of the Main Gate to rent one, and then walk back to your car after you drop it back each day..... and if you can do that much walking? You probably don't NEED a mobility scooter in the first place? I'm speaking of course of solo visitors like me who don't have anyone along to do all the schlepping for them.