I've only been once, 2006, and things have changed in some ways I'm sure but I would hope the one major suggestion I have is still possible.
The single best part of my several days at Oshkosh was my good fortune in getting there two days early. It's not officially open yet - if you're two days early - so you don't have to pay for your early arrival. The daily charge only starts once AirVenture officially starts. To get in you'll have to buy a ticket - the ticket kiosks are open several days before the official opening. There you'll buy tickets for however many days you'll want to stay. You don't have to pay for your early arrival days. I truly hope this opportunity to get there early hasn't been affected by some new change in procedure. I happened to just be lucky in getting their early. I didn't realize, at the time, what a wonderful advantage it can be to be an early bird at Oshkosh. Getting their two days early allowed me to find a spot in Paul's Park. Very conveniently located near the inner entrance gate and close to the section where the beautiful old "Classics" park. It's also close to the showers & bathrooms. Your generator won't be appreciated probably - they seldom are - but who knows. Go with whatever feels okay to you. Paul's Park is the best camping location of all, I think everyone would agree. (If things haven't changed since I was there.) The majority of the camp sites at Paul's Park are reserved, sometimes years in advance, but if you're there two days early you're very likely going to find two or three unreserved or cancelled reservation sites to pick from. The second, and most important, treat in getting there two days early is you get to wander freely around the whole place, talking to vendors, aircraft owners, volunteers, etc. There's no crowds. The Main Thing however, is you get to spend your two early days sitting on the bleachers watching every kind of plane imaginable landing, one and two at a time, one after the other, non-stop. Even more fun if you have a handheld. After AirVenture is officially open, wandering among the parked planes is fine of course, but to actually see them flying as they come in for landing is truly the most enjoyable and interesting "event" of the whole show . . . at least it was for me. All sorts of unexpected things go on. Go rounds, mis-communications, confusion, anything can happen during the frantic lead up to the show's opening. If a person going to Oshkosh misses those first two days of watching the hundreds of planes coming in, they'll spend their time navigating crowds of people, lots of noise, paying extravagant prices for everything, and leave having missed the best part of the whole thing. Many people arriving "on time" at Oshkosh have no idea they actually got there too late. It's true about "Everyone needs to go at least once." Once was certainly enough for me. EAA headquarters avarice, forcing vendors to charge high prices, together with their ticket prices, parking prices, breathing-the-air prices, and charges for everything else they can think up to charge you for, was annoying, especially since all the work that goes on around there is done by volunteers. With all the donations, legacy gifts, and free labor they get, there's no call for the over-the-top greed I experienced there and at Sun & Fun as well. Many who go to Oshkosh perhaps don't care about the rapaciousness of EAA central, but my impression was that it was quite tasteless. Take a fold-up (or regular) bike if you can. You can't take them within the gates once it officially opens but in those two days before the opening you can ride everywhere you want and that's really a treat, having a bike. Hiking around in the hot sun gets old quickly. Keep in mind rain is very possible. I'd say a bike is almost a necessity since it's a huge area, especially if the seaplane base is included in your ramblings. With a bike you can even ride into town for whatever reason you might have. Wal-Mart has Oshkosh-market pocket T-shirts for $5 or less. On-site it's more like $20 or more. Everybody in town treats Oshkosh attendees with a huge welcome. It's a lovely little town too. That's my take anyway, Mike StirewaltKSEE ________________________________ -Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html -Change list delivery options at https://list.krnet.org/list/krnet.list.krnet.org/ Affinity List Info Board -Search recent KRnet Archives at https://list.krnet.org/empathy/list/krnet.list.krnet.org/ -Search John Bouyea's decades of archive at https://www.mail-archive.com/krnet@list.krnet.org/
