July 22 Oshkosh arrival - A draining experience

We drove from Kewaunee to Oshkosh mid-morning to avoid any traffic congestion in and around Green Bay. It worked great and it was really easy to find the EAA site here in Oshkosh as they had lots of informational signs on the highway as well as a special radio station broadcasting a welcome and directions.

This place is enormous. They report that last year they had 30,000 campers here and now I can see why they virtually run it like a little city.

As points of interest,in 2004 they had
**More than 10,000 airplanes from N America, Europe, S America, Africa & Australia
**802 commercial exhibitors
**70 reporters from five continents, sending coverage worldwide
**In excess of 4,000 volunteers who contributed more than 250,000 hours of service
**A total of 1,429 international aviation enthusiasts from 61 nations (top three nations: Canada 438, Germany 14, Australia 17)

We were so glad that we got here early so we had a good pick of spots. We do not always avail ourselves of the handicapped parking facilities but in this case it makes a real difference in being closer to the main flight line and having more frequent shuttle service to get around.

They have 20' x 30' spaces marked out for camp sites but everyone kind of "does their own thing" staking out a reasonable amount of space, most using the yellow "crime scene" tape to mark off their territory. Lots of groups with tents and RVs in clusters with awnings, sun tarps, chaise lounges, ice chests, signs, etc,etc...you get the picture. Many groups go all out with potted plants and decorations of all sorts.

All we wanted was a long narrow spot (we are 51' total with the trailer hooked on plus need extra room to drop the ramp and off load the bike).

Found the spot and got settled but had a bit of a problem offloading the bike. We sometimes encounter difficult angles and have a tendency to "hang up" the bike when we offload it if the level is not just right. Well this time we were really hung up and when I got down looked down under the bike to see what was the problem I could see anti-freeze leaking out onto the ground. There is a plastic "overflow tank" right there in a very vulnerable area and we had popped a hole in it. Yuck...now in this day and age of environmental awareness, you don't just stand up and announce to those around you "Oh my God, we are leaking anti-freeze onto the ground". However we quickly got a plastic bowl under it...just in time for the last few drops to be collected rather than go onto the grassy area below where it might kill some unsuspecting little spider or ant who would eat it.

Next step was for the two of us to get down on the ground from either side of the motorcycle (I fit much better under the sidecar than Gary does) and diagnose the problem and attempt to fix it on site. This must have been quite a sight...legs sticking out from under the motorcycle rig (in the middle of the handicapped camping area no less) as we drew quite a crowd of willing helpers.

I have gotten fairly handy at this sort of thing so, between the two of us, we got the tank unhooked and out. Next problem was fixing the hole. Seemed reasonable that if they fix aircraft here we should be able to find a solution. I stuck a few dollars in my pocket and took off on foot to search out a solution. Not too far away I found a maintenance shop for their vehicles here and a very nice man who bought into my sad story and proceded to put something called "JB Weld" on it. End of the story was that it set up great, held water, we got it reinstalled on the bike and made friends with all the campers around us.