Oshkosh Or Bust 2021 The Blog - Synopsis
Oshkosh or Bust 2021 The Blog – Synopsis September 11, 2021
Well here I sit at home on September 11, 2021, the 20th Anniversary of the Twin Towers, Pentagon and Flight 93 attacks on our country. It is also the birthday of our Cousin Alaina Howard and that of some of our friends. Happy Birthday you guys.
Today I’m writing this to keep my mind more occupied than anything and yet still here I sit outside in my back yard surrounded by my bird Apollo (he’s an African Grey and a kick ass bird), music (Bryan Adams – Summer of ’69, takes me back to Middle/ Junior High School) a beer (drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon just to turn the screws on friends and family) and of course a cigar. It gives me a chance to kinda reflect on this odyssey that we took for three weeks.
So here is my observations of what I think I should have done and such.
Trip Planning:
Unlike the trip that I took about a year ago to Colorado, where I planned out every route and goals for the day and mapped everything out this was something I didn’t really do exactly for this trip. I planned but not like last year…
Not only that, I also had a 26 foot camper/ rv on the back of my truck this time, so adjustments needed to be made.
So here is my list of things to keep in mind for better planning for a trip with the camper:
1. Make sure you review the routes your are thinking about taking.
a. Remember that not every route you take is Camper/ RV Friendly.
b. Look at the Bridge/ Tunnel Heights on your routes, they’re not all designed for Campers/ RV’s and especially big 18-Wheeler Trucks. You don’t want to be that person that looses his top cause of a low height. And YES!, it happens.
2. Make sure you look at the road construction/ conditions.
a. Keeping with the theme of the routes you plan to take. If there is construction and detours, you may want to look at alternate routes and of course ensure that the roads are Camper/ RV Friendly.
3. Take into account weather.
a. If you begin to see the big 18-Wheeler Trucks get off the road and there is a storm coming, yeah you may want to do the same. Make sure you find some place safe when you pull off.
b. Wind Conditions are something to look at no matter what size Camper/ RV you are driving. It can be a little intimidating while driving and a wind gust hits you and your Camper/ RV and everything begins to rock and roll a little bit.
4. Make sure you perform Preventive Maintenance before getting on the road.
a. EVEN if you just purchased the Camper/ RV from a dealership!!! They don’t always catch everything. Murphy’s Law Sucks ASS!!!
b. Highly Suggest getting additional road side coverage for when you are on the Road, we are kinda overkill right now. But make sure you read through all of the documentation too, especially if you have to use it. We have:
i. AAA
ii. USAA
iii. Good Sam – These guys saved my behind on this trip!!!!
c. Look at alternative routes and places to stay in case “Murphy” screws you up.
5. Reach out to your friends that have RV’s and Campers and get their thoughts and suggestions on things you should do or not do when travelling. This can be a life saver.
6. Expect the unexpected, as said above, don’t screw with “Murphy’s Law” he will always screw something up. ALWAYS!!!
7. Remember too you idiot (talking about me BTW) that your gas milage is going to drop way (WAY) down when you hook up a 26 foot camper to the back of your truck and it shouldn’t shock you. So you will end up spending more on gas.
8. Look at alternative campgrounds to stay at when you are on the road, I was going to try Harvest Hosts campgrounds, but got hosed cause of that unforeseen maintenance issue with the burned out bearing and such. But that shouldn’t stop you from checking out other places. Thankfully the internet works from the road and allows you to research as you drive places to stay, and my wife bless her hear was able to find some pretty good places for us to stay..
9. Something I didn’t think about that I did do on my trip last year was hit up the off the beaten path places to check out and stay. You come across some really great towns and locations when you get off the main highways and routes and you also end up seeing things that most people don’t even think about.
10. Plan out the amount of time you want to drive each day and try to plan to stay at least a day or two during your stops.
a. The thing that I probably should have planned better for was stopping for a few more days than I did while driving out and back from this trip.
b. I thought I had planned my trip out a little better with stops and such at least on the way out and I think on the way back home. But soon realized that with the gas milage that I was getting, that I wasn’t going to necessarily make it as far as I thought.
c. Don’t try to drive 12 hours a day, unless you have planned for it and are switching out drivers. Most of the RVer’s that you see on line and talk to drive about 8 hours a day and then find a place for the evening. My problem honestly is I like to drive and I’m that guy that has a the tendency to not allow to have others drive my truck (I drive it better than them!!!, it’s my truck after all. Yeah I can and am like that). My wife is a great driver and I should have let her drive the truck with the Camper/ RV on the back of the truck while on this trip to give her some experience and give me a break.. But nope, I’m too stubborn.
A new Truck?
After having utilized my 2016 Dodge Ram 1500 with 5.7 Hemi truck to tow a 26 foot camper cross country and home, and some discussions with my wife. I have decided that eventually (not right now) to see about trying to obtain a new(er) truck and probably a diesel engined truck.
Why a diesel truck? According to what I have been able to research and based on discussions with friends and family, I can get better gas milage with these trucks, and haul a bigger load (no I’m not going to trade in the current camper, it’s perfect for me and the wife)
The biggest draw back right now, is the cost of buying a brand new truck. Do I want one? WELL DUH!!! Yes I would take a new truck, but can wait it out a little bit longer in the hopes that pricing will eventually drop and I can get a better deal, hell I might have to go out of state to get a new truck. Anyone got a suggestion there? Keep in mind that most of the new trucks, depending on which one you try to get can cost up to $75K. Yikes right.
My wife has already told me to start looking for a new truck, but this will wait until at least next spring. I have begun to price out what I want and such between Dodge and Chevy, trucks and like them both, but man I just got my truck where I want it and don’t really want to trade it in and start over, but then took I’m not willing to shell out an arm, two legs and my wife for a new truck either, maybe the wife. LOL
Air Venture 2021 (EAA/ Oshkosh)
Don’t get me wrong here, going to Air Venture 2021 (Oshkosh) was the highlight of this trip, even when I thought seriously about turning around and heading home after the incident in Wyoming (thank’s to my wife and my brothers Mel and Cliff for convincing me otherwise)
Here are my thoughts on attending an Air Venture (EAA/Oshkosh) Event:
1. Highly Recommend that you plan to attend the entire event (one week)
a. Seriously if you are going to fly/ drive/ travel in general to go to Air Venture, you need to go for the entire week. You can miss a whole lot if you don’t.
2. Look at your options for places to stay whether it’s a hotel or if you are going to Camper/ RV it.
a. Hotel’s in the local area tend to become very (VERY) expensive when Air Venture is happening. We have seen pricing as high as $250.00 per night and after talking to some folks about $500.00 a night for a hotel. YIKES!!! And that’s before you pay for food!!
b. If you are looking to camp out, check out all of your options. There are plenty of local Camp Grounds to stay at and a lot of them are reasonably priced too. Some are a little bit of a drive from Air Venture, but seriously a little bit of a drive in the morning can be worth it to save a buck.
2. Staying at Air Ventura Camp sites.
i. Yeah we looked into getting a camp site at Oshkosh Airport for the week we would be there.
ii. A Couple of things to keep in mind here:
1. We had to wait until the 4th of July weekend (July 2nd, I believe) to try and get a camp site. We woke up at 0500am to get on line to try and get a camp site, the website was freaking jammed up and it took us almost an hour and change to get through finally. EAA may want to get a better server to deal with the amount of traffic here.
2. Look at the cost for staying at the airport, while it would be worth it. What they don’t tell you is that you must get the site for the entire month of July. So $70 per night with full hook ups for the campers was going to cost us about $2,100.00. Now granted the cost is for the entire month of July + Air Venture, so from some people it’s worth. Not to me. Your choice BTW.
3. Access To Air Venture
a. The first day of Air Venture be prepared to sit in some traffic. There is NO way around this.
b. Access to the parking lot(s) will take a little bit of time and you will probably eventually have to take a bus to get to the main area so you will need to be patient.
c. As Air Venture has been going on for many many years, they have the parking thing down pretty good, but with the access to the actual lots only accessible via a couple of roads, it can get to be a little crazy and SOME people can become jerks while driving.
d. Highly recommend that you plan your times for arrivals accordingly and such as some days are easier to get into unlike others.
4. Getting Into Air Venture:
a. Tickets:
i. Highly recommend that you obtain your tickets for Air Venture on-line and get them in advance. Why?
1. If you get the week pass, you end up with one Wrist Band for the entire week and don’t have to keep going back and getting a new one, duh!!
2. EAA is really good about providing discounts for everyone prior to Air Venture and if you’re an EAA member you get more of a discount too.
b. Parking Pass:
i. Okay seriously, if your going to Air Venture for the entire week and don’t get the week long parking pass, well I can’t help you. Seriously though, get the week long pass if your going for the entire time, it will be cheaper in the long run.
c. Security:
i. Your walking onto an airport so yes you are going to get your stuff searched. There is NO way around this.
ii. The people that are searching through your stuff at the security check point are really nice people and are trying to go as fast as possible so don’t give them a hard time.
iii. When we went through the security check point, we had the same gentlemen that check our bags each day and he always left us with a smile as he always told us a joke.. Great guy.
5. Your Day at Air Venture:
a. Schedule:
i. Plan your day out when you attend Air Venture, there is a lot to see and do.
ii. Highly recommend that you download the free phone App from EAA that gives you up to date information on the daily schedule of events and flights.
iii. Keep in mind that the various hours of the airport and the event. I always assumed that the airport was Open 24/7 during Air Venture. (who wouldn’t especially if your camped on the airport itself). This is NOT the case. The airport grounds open at around 0700 and close I believe around 2100 (9pm for you non-military experts out there). SO pay attention. It sucks for us photographers that are trying to get that killer sunrise picture!!! ARGH!!!
b. Getting Around:
i. Plan to Walk and then some. This is an air show/ event, you need to understand that you are going to walk. So please for the love of pete (I hate Pete BTW) make sure you wear shoes that are comfortable for you.
ii. There is some on site shuttle services provided by EAA with stops all over the airport, so make sure you grab a map of the airport or use the Phone App to find a place to pick-up the shuttle to get around.
iii. MAKE SURE YOU DRINK PLENTY OF WATER!!!!!!! IT gets hot out there!!!
c. Food:
i. Highly Recommend that you bring your own food and drinks. It’ll save you some serious dollars.
ii. If you don’t bring your own food, be prepared to fork out some serious dollars. Here is a couple of examples of what I saw while there: (my memory is a little hazy now for pricing but I believe I’m very close)
1. Hot Dogs were about $6.50 each
2. Chick-Fil-A Chicken Sandwich was $8.00 each
3. Chicken Fingers/ Fries were about 13.50 per serving
4. Drinks were about $3.50 each (depending on what you got) – we didn’t buy any beer while we were there, and you couldn’t buy any until 1700 (5pm) anyway.
5. Breakfast Sandwiches were about $3.50 each
6. Individual Pizza from Papa Johns was over $10.00
iii. They have a ton of different food to select from and many of the local businesses are represented both inside the airport and out by the parking lots. My partner in crime Rob went outside the airport to a local group that was making breakfast and got a lot of food for just under $10.00 that included pancakes, sausage, eggs and toast, plus coffee.
iv. NO, I didn’t see a Starbucks Coffee on site at the Air Venture 2021, If I had seen it, trust me I would have to make sure that I obtained an Air Venture 2021/ Oshkosh coffee cup for my wife. (Yeah she collects them, and has amassed an impressive collection of these cups.)
d. Weather:
i. Make sure you check out the weather forecast each day you attend Air Venture.
ii. Make sure you bring the sunscreen and plenty of water to drink, as it can get very hot and humid out at the airport especially if you out near the flight lines and the ramps. Remember concrete gets hot as hell.
iii. Make sure you bring your rain gear too, it did rain for a few hours on Wednesday morning and we actually took shelter under the wing of a Douglas C-47 Dakota (Gooney Bird) to wait out the weather.
iv. Expect the unexpected with the weather, on Wednesday the word was out about an incoming storm to the local area and it was said that it was going to be “A Bad One”. With that being said, we watched close to 200 – 300 airplanes depart that morning for a safe place until the storm passed. A lot of them did not return.
e. Finding your place to hang out:
i. Once you are past Security and get yourself some food now it’s time to find a place to hang out and basically set-up camp for the day.
1. Having been here a few years ago, both Rob and I had a pretty good idea of where we wanted to go and hangout and headed back to the basic area.
2. Once you have found your spot, put your chairs out and either stay there and chill out or at least leave your chairs and go walk around. However:
a. If you choose to go wander around the airport (and I highly recommend you do so), you need to make sure your chairs are laying flat on the ground and not standing up. The rational for all of this, is that if a plane taxi’s by you can get propwash and that can propel objects and injure someone and or damage the various airplanes in the parking area.
b. If you do happen to leave the chairs standing up, the local Security people whom are riding scooters up and down the flightline will stop and walk up to your chairs and lay them down for you.. Be nice though and help these folks out and if you see people leaving the area and their chairs are standing up, ask them to lay them down. Most people do it and understand why.
3. One of the things we should have done better to be honest with you is we should have moved around a little more than we did. Since we were there for an entire week, we should have moved up and down the flight line a little bit more and probably gone to a different to get the various perspectives of the operations of Air Venture.
f. Watching The Planes and The Air Show:
i. So your at Air Venture right, what do we do while we are there! WE watch the planes..That’s what you are there for!!
ii. As you hang out at your chosen spot or as you wander around Air Venture, make sure you have your camera (bring extra batteries and memory) and or your phone and take lots of pictures.
iii. There are so many different types of planes to see, make sure you get pictures and talk to the owners of these planes too. There are some great people and are happy to talk anything aviation related.
iv. Hang out by the taxi ways and watch the volunteers and the FAA Flight Controller’s work their magic. They are great at marshalling the planes, moving them on and off the taxiways and then getting the planes into the air. Remember that for a week Oshkosh becomes the busiest airport in the world and they handle a boat load (I read somewhere about 10K) of planes. That’s a lot of planes..
v. Afternoon Air Show:
1. The Main part of the airshow/ flight demo’s began at around 1430 so make sure you get back to your spot or find one so you can watch everything.
2. Remember to go back and use the EAA App to see whom is supposed to be performing and when, the schedule is always changing and updating.
3. The one thing that a lot of us complained about on two days of the show was the amount of oil smoke that some of the flight demonstration teams were putting out especially when the winds at ground level were calm and the smoke just wasn’t moving out of the area fast enough.
a. Yes I get why the teams use smoke, but there was just way too much from everyone flying around.
4. One of the things I liked about EAA (and the Planes of Fame Air Show is like this), is the continued fluidity of the show. The folks that set-up the running of the flight demonstrations do a great job of keeping every minute of the show packed with flying. It’s awesome.
5. The one thing we didn’t do was stay for the evening portion of Air Venture, which is really my own fault as I had made commitments with a number of Brother Marines and Corpsmen to hang out with which thus had us leave way way earlier than we probably should have. My plan is next time we go is to stay for the evening shows. I really would like to see them. My own fault here.
g. Departing Air Venture:
i. Yeah getting out of Air Venture was pretty easy and these folks again have everything set-up like clockwork.
ii. There is an area outside the main gate where you can get picked-up and dropped by the busses for each of the parking areas. So make sure you pay attention to that.
iii. Driving out of the parking lots are pretty easy and was really no issue as the local Police and State Troopers kept the traffic moving on all of the city streets. I think at the most it took us about 15 minutes to get on the interstate once we got out of the parking lot.
6. Camera Gear/ Downloading Your Pictures:
a. This little bit of information is more of criticism of myself, so bear with me as I write this I am being hard on myself.
i. Camera Settings:
1. Over the past year I read a number of books on photography by various photographers many of whom are well known. I wrote down some information from them and wanted to try and utilize the settings they recommended.
a. I should have practiced more with these new settings before leaving to go an event like Air Venture. Don’t get me wrong I got some really great pictures (I’m still going through them BTW), but I am deleting more than I really want to. Argh my fault.
2. Don’t always rely on the lens extender. Dummy!
a. This past year, I traded in a few of my camera lenses and procured myself a Canon 100-400mm Version II lens. It’s a great lens and I’ve gotten some really great shots with. However as I have been reading books and watching some YouTube videos a number of people suggested that I procure a 1.4x extender for this lens. The rational being given was getting in closer to your subjects as you shot the pictures. Did it work? Well kinda yes and no. Again this goes back to my dumbass not utilizing the settings properly on my camera bodies, and of course not getting enough practice in either with the use of the lens or the extender. BIG MISTAKE
3. I should have listened to Jarod Polin (you know the guy “FroKnowsPhoto”you see him on YouTube) when he talked about not using the bloody Extender. He had some really great valid points on why you shouldn’t use the Extenders. So thanks Jarod!!!! (http://www.froknowsphoto.com )
b. Downloading Pictures/ Back-Up
i. At the end of each day of Air Venture when Rob and I got back to the Camper, the first thing I did was download the days’s pictures and then make sure they were added to an external drive that I take with me everywhere. (Didn’t forget it this time did I)
ii. When you are downloading the pictures from your memory cards you MUST take your time and ensure that you download all of them. And if you should double check to make sure. Why do you ask?
1. Well this dumbass (me, BTW), wasn’t paying attention one night and I ended up losing an entire card of pictures, these pictures included the shots that I really wanted of the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk and the Russian MIG-17 flying over the airport and I’m sure more. So yeah pay attention Frank!!!!
iii. Once you are sure you downloaded your pictures from the cards, make sure you format the cards and put them back in the camera for the next day of shooting.
Okay I think I have rambled on long enough (8 pages worth, at least it’s not front and back and I’m not on a break!) Again this part of the blog is just my synopsis of the trip and a lot of this is more criticism towards myself on what I should have done better.
I do hope however that people do read this and get something out of it or at the very least get a great laugh out of everything.
Well that’s it for Oshkosh or Bust 2021, we may look at doing this again in a couple of years..
The next very big trip looks like will be up north towards Canada and then back down the coast, via Washington and Oregon..
Thanks again to my wife, daughter’s, cousin, mom and my Brother Marines and Corpsmen and family friends for their support during this three week trip.
AND I AM OUT OF HERE!!!!
Semper Fi,
Frank Sellin
1/9 Everywhere