We drove about seven hours on Sunday, planning to spend all day Monday at AirVenture. It was a rough start for the work portion, with FedEx losing our equipment, and then Monday morning the support team arrived two hours late... Nick claims I planned that on purpose to throttle his fun. But he got his time in, wandering for a couple hours on his own while I worked with Suzanne to set up the team (once I got them in, running around with passes and cash). Nick and I got about four hours of the day to walk around, enough to have sore feet. We saw warbirds, small aircraft, vintage aircraft, and a few classic cars at the Ford display. The formations and fly-overs went on all day, and were amazing. Nick was able to strike up a conversation with all kinds of people, because he knows the planes, especially the military folks.
Our hotel in Fond du Lac wasn't bad, we had to share a bed (the hotels sell out a year early), which was better than all the tents onsite at EAA that got washed out in heavy rains. The food wasn't that good (our pizza at Ala Roma was excellent!), and the crowds were overwhelming, but the weather was perfect. If you've never experienced AirVenture, it's one of those places you need to see at least once, even if you're not into planes.
And there's always a 'Nick moment'... I told him we were working, so no clothes with logos or pictures on them because others could recognize those and be influenced; we represent Ford, must remain neutral. On the morning we go onsite, he packed, and was wearing, a Morpace shirt (the former name of my company.) He says, "No one will know what this is now!" Sadly true.
Jason
