It was a quick drive up, past Milwaukee, to meet up with mom and dad. We've got a place overlooking Lake Butte des Morts, which, I believe, when translated means "Lake Dead-Butt." As you can see from the photo, it is literally above a bait shop. Needless to say, mom was very happy to see us again.

Windmills	Windmills	Our luxury resort above a bait shop	Matt and Dad
Matt and I	Reunited!	Draw bridge outside our window	Our waitress who kept giving dad a hard time

Our odd northerly detour into Wisconsin is for one good reason - The annual EAA Airsshow at Oshkosh: Every year, thousands of people fly in to this tiny airstrip next to Lake Winnebago, and camp out under the wings of their planes, spread across the grass near the airstrip. The overflow of people fills hotels, motels, resorts, and campgrounds, months in advance for an hour in every direction. It is incredible. You have to believe me, because there is no exaggeration here. The place is wall to wall carpeted with airplanes and airplane enthusiasts. There are whole sections of the field devoted to restored warbirds, homebuilds, ultralights, etc. Four huge hangars are filled with booths like and aircraft trade-show, and the the whole week is filled with events and forums with guest speakers such as Chuck Yeager, Harrison Ford, Burt Rutan. You can learn anything you ever wanted to know about building your own airplane at forums such as, "Composites 101," "Dynamic Propeller Balancing," and of course, "Suborbital Rocketship Development." You walk through the gates and are completely overwhelmed with too many interesting things to see all at once, and all the while, white smoke trails are being painted across the sky by a barrage of acrobatics and shows. One of the highlights this year was the arrival of White Knight and Spaceship One, winner of the Ansari X-Prize, as the world's first civilian-built spacecraft. The Global Flyer, which also made headlines with the world's first nonstop, non-refueled solo flight around the world, was parked right nearby.

Old Crow	WWII Army Truck	Attack Squadron	Formation Overhead
Memphis Belle	Bombing Run	Smoke Rings	T33 Shooting Star
Checking out a plane	"This looks like fun!"	Long-EZ	World's busiest control tower
Monster wheels	F16	Global Flyer	Space Ship One
Matt and I and a spaceship	White Knight	That's just so cool...	"Matt, why don't we take THIS one to California!"
nderneath	Getting up close	Underneath	Too small!
Matt and Dad and one of a few remaining Bearcats	Bearcat in sunset	Considering flying a jet

Back at the place, there was a nice sunset on the lake. We could see the fish jumping out of the water as we stood on the docks.

Sunset on lake

Silhouette

Mom and Matt