Airventure 2025 | Day 8

July 23 | Wednesday was another day of my regular routine of breakfast at the Tall Pines, a few hours on the flight line, a few hours at the youth activity center, and another light lunch at the Vintage volunteer break room at the back of the Vintage Hangar.

I had been taking my laptop with me to the Flight Line Ops building hoping to work on the blog, but it just wasn’t working out. All the best intentions, etc., etc.

I was setting up my computer in front of my tent when Jim Roberts called and invited me to dinner with his Swift friends, all whom I had met last year. Paul and Sandy Mercandetti are from down in Knoxville with Jim, and Wade and Terry Gillaspie, and Dana and David Clark are all up from Texas.

Jim Picked me up at Gate 21 and we went to Parnell’s Place, where we met the others. Jim and I got there first, so we ordered drinks while waiting for the others and Jim went out to the car to call Carolyn, his wife while we waited. Two other couples came in, so I slid down to another stool so they would have room. It was Wade, Terry, Paul and Sandy. Not seeing them for a year, I didn’t recognize them until Jim came in and loudly declared “There you are!”.

We had a lovely dinner, with me getting the traditional fried perch. Jim ordered the same, but said it wasn’t as good as Wentz’s, and had bones in it to boot. I figured out after supper that was just Jim’s excuse to stop by Ardy and Ed’s to get an ice cream on the way home.

After dinner we stopped by the terminal at the north end of the field to pick up another of Jim’s friends, Don, who had just flown in. Now, I’ve known Jim since he came to Sonoma Skypark in about 2002. He’s always seemed to be a relaxed, easy-going guy.

As we were leaving the terminal, we were waiting behind one of the school busses used to transport people around the field. The bus was waiting to turn left across both lanes of traffic. As the wait stretched from a couple minutes, to five and finally ten, Jim got more and more agitated. I was worried that he was going to take the rental car over the curb in front of a policeman parked there and get us all thrown into the Oshkosh clink.

The bus finally pulled out, Jim turned right, and then I realized why he was so anxious. He wanted to get to Ardy and Ed’s for that ice cream served by the car hops on roller skates.

I had brought out a game of Volopoply and a bottle of wine for Jim’s birthday, whenever that is. I had taken some classes at the University of Tennessee when I was teaching the electrical apprenticeship, and had picked it up on one of my trips. UT’s mascot is the Tennessee Volunteers, thus the Monopoly game based on the UT campus.

One of the high points of my trips to Oshkosh is the chance to see Jim again. I hope he enjoys his birthday present.