Cook’s Tour: Oshkosh Again

After parking on the sacred turf of Wittman Field for more years than I care to count, its still like Christmas morning. What will we find under the tree (tower) this year? What will the weather, crowd and show be like? And Oshkosh, nee AirVenture, never disappoints.This year promised to go down as one of the wet ones, with showers and lightning-laced thunderstorms wetting down Day Zero (the Sunday before Day One, the 27th) and coming back to shorten the airshow on Monday. Tornados were even spotted in Dodge County, near Juneau, Wisconsin, just southwest of Oshkosh.Still and all, its Oshkosh, and the crowds are here, sick economy or no, gnarly weather and all, crowded parking and reshuffled facilities notwithstanding. There are new streets to get used to, the diagonal lines that proved disconcerting until we memorized some reference display booths. It is necessary to reorient north and south when entering and leaving the new angled streets, much like when driving in one of those small towns that grew up initially oriented with the railroad tracks.And there are indeed new flush toilets to augment the myriad porta potties that are Oshkosh icons. Also supplementing them are some nicer Kohler portable trailers positioned near high-traffic spots. I can get used to that.