| mattwood1221 |
 Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 1:13 pm
 Subject: Operation Airventure - College Station, TX to Oshkosh, WI and back |
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- Where: Between College Station, TX and Oshkosh, WI
- When: End of July, beginning of August
- Experience Level: Any and all
I am riding my motorcycle up to the annual Airventure airshow in Oshkosh, WI for the week, and I would love to meet up with ninja people on the way there or back, or even at the airshow! My plan is to leave College Station the evening of the 21st of July, stay in Dallas that night, ride to somewhere in Missouri the following night, and arrive in Milwaukee on Friday night. Saturday I will be attending a high power rocketry launch (http://tripoliwisconsin.org/), and then Sunday afternoon head up to Oshkosh.
I will be camping with a couple friends at Camp Scholler on the airshow grounds for the week, but will probably be riding around the back roads of Wisconsin when I get a chance. My tentative plan is to leave WI on Monday, 2 August, and stop somewhere in Iowa or Missouri that night, then ride to Oklahoma City the next night, and finally back to College Station on the 4th.
Here is my tentative route - http://tinyurl.com/2986olm I have a place to stay in Dallas and OKC, but the other two nights are still up in the air. If anyone wants to ride along for a bit, or meet for a meal, or even offer me a place to stay, that would be great!
PS - a couple of pictures from previous years -
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| mattwood1221 |
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| Swoosie |
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| Dakotamatt |
Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 1:03 pm
Subject: Those 3 pictures are: way cool, very cool, excellent. |
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Did you get to see the White Knight 2 up close? How about the P38 lightning? The plane on the right in the 3rd picture is the Sabre, yea? VERY cool to see that formation. Funny to see 2 jets (one old, one new) keeping station with a prop plane (even though it's awesome... and my fav)
Texas to Wisconsin is not exactly nearby... but you are riding near Chicago. When would you say you'd be passing through that area on your way home?
And how did I not see your post before today? odd... |
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| mattwood1221 |
Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 1:54 pm
Subject: A few more for your enjoyment... |
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I did get to see White Knight 2 up close - they didn't have any barriers around it, so everyone got to walk right where SS2 would have been! The 3rd picture is a Heritage Flight - a F-22, a P-38, and an F-86 Sabre (yes). The P-38 is decently fast for a prop plane, but definitely not near what the jets normally cruise at The P-38 is also one of my favorites, and they had two of them there (Ruff Stuff and Glacier Girl). Both were parked with no barriers as well, so I got up quite close to them as well! Airventure is definitely the place to go to see awesome planes
I actually had planned on avoiding Chicago altogether to try and stay out of traffic, but here is my route - http://tinyurl.com/2wew8py. I'll be passing decently close on Friday as I'm going from Missouri to Milwaukee, but on the way back to Texas, I had planned on stopping in Iowa City the night of August 2nd and then Oklahoma City the night of the 3rd, so Chicago would be pretty far out of the way. Your profile says you are over in eastern Michigan - were you thinking of riding over that way sometime? |
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| Dakotamatt |
Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 2:24 pm
Subject: I enjoyed those pictures as well |
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Neat that they let you wander near the planes. I've never been to an airshow (museums only) so the thought of seeing planes like the Sabre and Lightning flying is crazy cool.
Well, Chicago is near enough to SE Michigan to be a decent day trip. Plus my favorite sushi restaurant is there (Oysy). My brother and I have been talking about a longer trip for a while and when I read your trip plan I thought "Hey, that's an idea."
Iowa City though... that's a 1250mi round trip (or so.)
Either way, have fun at the airshow! Take lots of pictures  |
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| mattwood1221 |
Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 6:08 pm
Subject: How about somewhere in north central Illinois? |
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Someplace like Rochelle, DeKalb, La Salle or Rockford wouldn't be too far out of my way, especially since Iowa City isn't that far from Oshkosh. If we were to meet somewhere along I-39, it would cut down on your trip by a couple hundred miles each way then. I could definitely make it somewhere along there by lunchtime, if you don't mind not eating sushi  Traffic in Chicago scares me (I've driven in it a fair amount), and a fully loaded ninja just doesn't jive well! |
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| Dakotamatt |
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| mattwood1221 |
Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:57 pm
Subject: Oh sad :( |
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| I am traveling on kind of strange days, so unfortunately stuff like this won't work out, but the airshow pretty much dictates my schedule, and I need to get back to work ASAP. Perhaps some other time! |
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| mattwood1221 |
Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 11:32 pm
Subject: Made it home! |
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| I got back to College Station today after 14 days, 3,300 miles, 3,100 pictures, and 4 new GRR points! A full writeup will be coming soon, complete with pictures, once I sort through them all... |
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| Dakotamatt |
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| mattwood1221 |
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| jfadool |
Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 10:50 pm
Subject: sweet.... |
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| Dakotamatt |
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| mattwood1221 |
Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 12:07 am
Subject: Patience young grasshopper... |
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I'm about 1/3 of the way through the pics, which is pretty good, considering I've only been home about three days since I got home from the ride (went to California for an interview, and am currently in Atlanta for work). But, to satiate your desire for pictures, here is another -
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| mattwood1221 |
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