Epilog:

At dinner on Thursday night I made the mistake of eating way too much beef, and in the middle of the night I woke up with a severe ache right below my rib cage. Having had something like that in June when I had a stent put in a coronary artery, I figured discretion was the better part of valor and we trundled off to the emergency room of a nearby hospital. They were very nice and kept me in for observation overnight, but no heart malfunctions were indicated and I was released around noon the next day. Martin had driven up to join us when he heard I was in the hospital, so he helped Monika strike the tent and we drove back down to Lois's home for the night. After five days and nights in the stifling heat, it was so nice to take a long shower and sleep in air conditioned comfort again.

Martin drove us down to his place on the north side of Chicago the next morning for a weekend visit. We were happy to see his cats again, and Penny (but not Cactus, who is as prickly as her namesake!) was happy to see us. We walked around his neighborhood a bit that afternoon, and I was surprised to find a farmer's market right smack dab in the middle of the city. There I found a round yellow, seedless watermelon that intrigued me because I had never eaten such a thing, so I bought it and later that evening we took it along to a concert in Millennium Park. We sat on folding chairs out on a big lawn eating our watermelon, which was delicious, and we could hear the Grant Park Symphony orchestra perfectly even though they were a ways off. We particularly enjoyed the "Red Pony" suite by Copeland and a divertimento by Bernstein that had his "Turkey Trot" (tastes just like the Chicken Dance!), "Samba", "Waltz" and so forth. We finished up the evening by walking over to the lake shore to watch the decorated boats float by for "Venetian Night", an annual Chicago tradition, and drove back to Martin's apartment for the night.

The weather remained scorchingly hot, so early Sunday morning we walked over to Belmont Harbor and then north to Montrose Harbor just to get some exercise while it was still relatively cool. Back at Martin's apartment we settled in for a quiet day of reading and using his Internet connection, interspersed with a rousing game of Scrabble (I won!) and a game of darts which Monika and I won only by virtue of ganging up on Martin. Tanya returned that evening, so we had time to talk with her a bit before Martin drove us back to Lois's place. There we had a couple of quiet, relaxed days with my sister and waited until the heat wave abated a bit before starting the long drive back to Virginia.

So how much is a visit to this Mecca of aviation? The camping was $18 per night and admission for the entire week was $75 for each of us. We had a simple breakfast of milk and cereal at the campsite each morning, and the other meals at the various cafes spread around the airport cost us about $15 (lunch) to $20 (dinner) each time. Although sorely tempted by GPSs, EFIS software and other aviation bits and pieces, I spent under $100 total for the entire week. The drive to Oshkosh and back put 1,955 miles on our Saturn and required 65.9 gallons of gasoline in all. Using the tent rather than towing the trailer saved us an estimated 104 gallons of gasoline, or over $300 at today's prices, so the tent saved us more than it cost despite stopping off at a hotel overnight on the way out and back. The total bill for this indulgence would be about $850-$900 (not counting the visit to the ER!), but really it's hard to put a price tag on what Oshkosh means to an aviation enthusiast like me. Besides the great memories, I now have literally 4 bags full of aviation information I have to sort through and think about at home. Some wild and unpredictable things may result from all this inspiration, so stay tuned, Wanderung fans!