Ice water at Airventure 2013?

The heat this year has me concerned about next year and whether I would survive Airventure 2013 (did not attend 2012, but usually go every other year). I live on the west coast and it rarely gets above 65 degrees in the summer and I am NOT as acclimated to the heat as any midwesterner would be.

My first question is this: would access to continuous ice water (to drink) help for the heat?
Second, could crushed ice be provided at the EAA water fountains for adding to my water cup? This would make the water taste better and add much to the Airventure experience for those that stay several days.

I can get a free cup of self serve ice water here at McDonalds or any fast food place like Taco Bell. Is this possible at the Airventure food service buildings?



p.s. I did see that someone mentioned ice water was available at the Aeronca center. But need some more options, I think.

Vintage had a big container of ice water at their door this year that you could dunk in your hand and pull out an ice cold bottle of water. One of them I got from near the bottom was half frozen and perfect for the hot airshow. $1 and it goes to the vintage group.

Bill Berson, first of all, I don't think it was anything out of the ordinary hot at EAA this year, EXCEPT for the 102 degree record on the first Monday. It cooled off as the week went on and I know Fri and Sat were only about low 80s and there were some showers to keep things ok.

As for all the free water at McDonalds, I was just in there the other day and asked them the price of their cold bottled water, and found it is $2.06 vs the $2.92 at EAA. I can't believe this is that major a point to some visitors to EAA.

Let's say you stay at EAA for 3 days and buy and drink two bottles of cold water a day. So you spend $17 on water for your stay. And by the way there are some free cold water fountains on the east side of the commercial hangars as well as other places.

When it was so hot that Monday we found a couple of forums to attend in the shade and pretty much stayed out of the sun. I also see people out in the sun with no hats and sometimes worse with small kids, even infants with no hats or sun protection.

Mr. Greenwood,
I am not talking about cold bottled water.
My question was: is it possible to get a glass of water with ice? A large glass of ice water will stay cold for an hour or more while your cold bottle of water has gone warm in a few minutes.
If your point is: I should just shut up and buy a bottle of water and endure the heat... well then, I heard you. But I would still like comments from others about getting a small amount of ice.

My decision about attending Airventure does include the problem of heat. When I attend, I prefer to wander all day, rather than stay indoors in a chalet or whatever. Just looking for ideas to do that with comfort.
Surely providing ice is cheaper than an air conditioned chalets.

Mr. Bill Berson,

I am not suggesting at all that you "just shut up and buy bottled water". You are certainly free to complain as much as you want as some other have done. And if you come for a week, you can probably find a day that is too hot. And it is not my bottle of water, I don't sell water or anything else there.

About the only theme I try to "sell" is to come to EAA and have a good time. But hey, if someone wishes you, "Have a nice day" , you can always respond, "Not if I can help it."

You will likely be in the minority, but if you try you can probably find many things wrong at EAA, and maybe your best plan is not to come at all. I know there is one EAA gathering at Arlington in your part of the country and it may be cooler and wetter there.

I don't know if you can get a free glass of ice at EAA,but I think it is likely that if you were willing to pay soft drink prices or lemonade prices at the vendors you could buy a cup of ice with or without water.

I am not complaining about EAA and the price of bottle water (that was some other thread). This was a suggestion to improve the experience for everyone. (at small cost, I think, compared with fans in the forums) I just wanted something better than bottled water and offered the idea here for comments.
Yes, I thought about standing in line and buying a large Coke with ice and ask for water instead. Is that the procedure to get ice? I just need to know.

I do attend Arlington and yes it is cooler.

edit: Nor did I request free ice, I only mentioned that ice is normally free.

Another option would be to purchase a bag of ice. I could carry a thermos and fill it with ice in the morning. Does ice come in smaller bags or just 10 pounds?

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Originally Posted by Bill Berson

Another option would be to purchase a bag of ice. I could carry a thermos and fill it with ice in the morning. Does ice come in smaller bags or just 10 pounds?

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For some reason, my thermos doesn't keep coffee hot very long. So I would imangine, it wouldn't keep ice very long either.

I have some insulated Coleman back/shoulder packs that look like camera bags. They'll hold quite a bit of ice and all kinds of "goodies" and keep it cold for a good while. The only problem is they get heavy after a while. Now, I know some people don't mind carrying, or dragging stuff all day, but I don't really want to. Heck, I don't even pick up much stuff at the vendors booths because I don't want to carry it around.

I think I figured out this year, (after 10 years) there's really quite a few places you can get cold bottled water for a $1 donation. You just sort of have to "find" it.

Having fun here now, so don't hammer me too bad............102 isn't hot. It was 115 here (OKC) Monday.:D

Yeh, I don't like carrying much either. A cold bottle of water is refreshing but gets warm in a few minutes. I just thought it would be convenient to get a large glass of ice (with water) and sip on it for the next hour or two at the forums.

But since I never tried this, I don't know if it would help with the heat or not.

This year was my 25th straight convention. Every year brings new pluses and minuses. One of the few minuses for me this year was at the Aces Cafeteria, where I chose a bottle of orange juice and asked for a cup of ice to put the juice in. I was told that I'd have to buy it (ok, sure) and that the cup of ice would cost the same as a Coke on ice (no thank you).No problem. I don't need much encouragement to drive over to Ardy & Ed's drive-in for dinner!So there's ice available, for a price.

I would guess you would most likely have to buy cups of ice, with or without the soft drinks, from the food vendors. Large, movie theater sized cups were $3.35 this year. For $2.95 you got a considerably smaller cup.

The heat can be nearly overwhelming on any particular day. While ice cold water would be refreshing I think just staying properly hydrated might be the goal on those days.

A hydration pack, Camelbak or equivalent, might be an option if filled with ice. Not sure if the effort of carrying it around all day would outweigh any benefit but it's a thought.

Plenty of cool to cold drinking fountains on site, I'll fill up a couple of bottles, throw them in my backpack. As long as they stayed out of the sun, they'd stay cool, possibly all day. If it gets way hot like monday this year, the beach isn't that far, and Winnebego stays COLD.

If you volunter, operation thurst would bring you ice water all day long. If not, I guess it all comes down to Pay $3.35 for a cup of ice or tote a water jug all day.

Here's another option: For my 16 years of AirVenture I have always made the occasional run to WalMart. It's within a few miles of the airport and if you make a left out of the campgrounds and go to Hwy26 then double back on the freeway, its a short drive.

If you don't have a car - maybe you can find someone who would head that way with you. During the show and out at Camp scholler - people are always willing to help out. Nine years ago I borrowed a hammer from a stranger, now we are like family staying in touch throughout the year and always camping together at AirVenture.

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Originally Posted by AzScottS

Here's another option: For my 16 years of AirVenture I have always made the occasional run to WalMart. It's within a few miles of the airport and if you make a left out of the campgrounds and go to Hwy26 then double back on the freeway, its a short drive.

If you don't have a car - maybe you can find someone who would head that way with you. During the show and out at Camp scholler - people are always willing to help out. Nine years ago I borrowed a hammer from a stranger, now we are like family staying in touch throughout the year and always camping together at AirVenture.

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Heck, that's the main reason I go back every year. I go back to see my friends that own the campground (Sleepy Hollow Farm), maybe ask a vendor a question, I do look at some panels for ideas. I even look at paint schemes for ideas & such.
If I'm not interested in somethhing or another........I go look at something else. To me, it's sort of worth $40, or whatever it was, I've forgotten already, to see ALL this in one place. I'd hate to imaginge what it would cost to drive or fly all over the country to see or find out all this stuff.

As far as the cost of food goes........I'd be willing to bet almost everyone on this board, with the exception of those with meddical issues, could probably really stand to go WITHOUT lunch. That'd be like a $10-$15 bonus right in your pocket. Or, for the entire week, that's free admission to the show.:)

OK, it looks like my best option is to buy ice at Walmart. Maybe one bag of ice would last a few days in a foam cooler?

Then I could fill a light thermos with ice for the day and refill it with the water at the EAA drinking fountains.
I have been to Oshkosh many times and I drink about 6 bottle refills of fountain water a day. (I would not say that the fountain water is very cool). So I think the fountain water would taste much better with ice.

But my final question- would sipping ice water help with the heat much or not? Or just make it taste better.
I just never tried it. The Merck manual says: "people that must work in the heat should drink plenty of fluids and mist the skin with cool water".
I suppose I could mist my skin with ice water from the thermos also. Anyone try this?
Just need to get through the afternoon, the morning and evening is usually quite pleasant.

My brother and I both flew our Cubs up this year and spent a fair amount of time sitting under the wings in our lawn chairs. I recall a golf cart coming by selling large bags of I e for $3 or so.

Fortunately, we also had a ground contingent drive up. We stayed in the Marian University dorms in Fond du Lac where we had a freezer. We would freeze several water bottles each night and use them in lieu of crushed ice for out cooler of Gator Aid. As they melted, we had ice water to drink. I'd typically carry a frozen one with me as I mover around the site. We staged at the planes and just left the cooler under the wing and no one touched it.

Frozen water bottle.... another neat idea, except I would not have access to a freezer.
But that gave me an idea. Maybe buy frozen orange juice at walmart and put that in a thermos of water. Might last all day.

If you are camping on the flight line you will see the ice cart people several times a day. A bag was $3. If you are camping elsewhere the camp ground just outside the gate at the ultralight barn had ice for $2.25 and there was another place by the ultralight tie down area that had it for $2.50. I would suspect there is ice available at other camp sites farther north, we just always camp down around row 90. Best seats in the house, see everything and a lot less noise. The price of water varied around the grounds. L

I am guessing that the $3 bag of ice is the usual 10 pounds. Can't use 10 lbs.

That's why I started this thread. One pound for 50 cents ( or even a dollar) would be nice.
A vending machine would be even better that dispenses ice into my container. Just an idea.

Vending machines spread throughout would be great, as long as the price was reasonable, of course. I'd be willing to bet a vending company would jump on rent some to EAA for the week, or however many days we'd need them.

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Originally Posted by malexander

Vending machines spread throughout would be great, as long as the price was reasonable, of course. I'd be willing to bet a vending company would jump on rent some to EAA for the week, or however many days we'd need them.

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Good outta the box thinking. I think EAA sells vending rights (no telling how long the contract is), so don't count on it for next year. ;-)

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Originally Posted by Bill Berson

I am guessing that the $3 bag of ice is the usual 10 pounds. Can't use 10 lbs.

That's why I started this thread. One pound for 50 cents ( or even a dollar) would be nice.
A vending machine would be even better that dispenses ice into my container. Just an idea.

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You could always buy the 10 pound bag and share with your fellow eaa'ers . My scholer neighbors love me, ten pounds won't fit in my cooler, so they always get a couple of pounds free.

As I learned in the Army back in the day, I can drink water a lot faster when it's not ice cold. I just feel ice water is over rated when it comes to hydration.

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Originally Posted by Joe Delene

As I learned in the Army back in the day, I can drink water a lot faster when it's not ice cold. I just feel ice water is over rated when it comes to hydration.

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I don't care for drinking warm water. I'd rather just sip on a cup ice water over a period of time. I'm not into speed drinking...........water.:)