Airports En Route to Oshkosh?

[Bill Greenwood]

For those who flew into Airventure, I wonder if you found good places to stop along the way?

We stopped at Norfolk, Neb on the way out, Fuel was discounted to $5.18 inc tax, which was good, but the atmosphere inside was sort of cold and blunt. The line boy that did the fueling refused to clean my windsheild, said they did not do it there. There was some free food, like chips and spicy salsa or similar. They do have a free WSI computer which is my favorite weather source. Years ago they had a real restaurant in the terminal with commuter airline service. The terminal is vacant and run down now. I used to have good friend who was the line man there. It just felt like the economy there must be pretty slow and the people were sort of down too, not much spark or smiles. It was busy. There was a CAP plane there that I didn't recognize, it was sort of like a 3/4 size Caravan. I asked the cadet that was marshalling the plane out of the parking space what kind it was and he got a vacant look on his face and said he was new and didn't know. Maybe they keep that info secret from the kids for awhile?

Next at Prarie du Chen on the Mississippi River. Can't recall the fuel price, but at very nice guy at the FBO and a loaner truck if you wanted to run over the fast food place. Use care on the approach as it is a little tight with hills and antennas around. A pretty area.