On to Osh Vegas…

Tyler picked Nina and I up from the airport, as we had one night in Milwaukee before our weekend adventure.  Tyler had arranged a welcome home surprise for me once I got back from my big adventure, so it was great to know that I had been missed and thought of.

Now I know what SA really stands for...LOL

We were going to the EAA, (http://www.airventure.org/) which is an air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  This means we all have to wake up super early and head up North to the air show where Tyler’s sister Kelly was involved. Karabo and Nina were joining us on this camping trip, which Tyler had told me about the first time we met. He found out I was South African, and told me that every year a bunch of South Africans attend the air show and that I should stick around to see it.  Since I did stick around I wanted to go out with these flight-loving-biltong eaters, Karabo of course was just as excited as I was.

EAA plane

On the way up we pass a life-sized familiar looking diamond sign with the words “Welcome to Osh Vegas” scrolled around it, and I knew we were close by although the main tell tale signs could have been the huge airport, with many planes around, both in the air and grounded.

Osh Vegas!

Once we had checked in, found food and done a mini tour Kelly came to collect us on her work golf-cart, yes please! She gave us a real tour of the grounds and showed us the most impressive sights before delivering us to the best stop to watch the plane action. This involved a few acrobatic planes doing amazing “tricks” (is that what they are called?), then the fire wall which is a huge wall that basically explodes so the skyline erupts in a wall of fire then turns into black smoke before settling, the heat coming off it is crazy hot!

The fire wall

The smoke wall

Lastly we experience a wind that was so strong they had to ground all planes and people were running back to their cars and other places of shelter. Tyler had gone to set up our tents so  Karabo, Nina and I were stranded and not sure which way to head…so we just sat there hoping to not be lifted off the ground and flung to some new part of Wisconsin or America! (Okay maybe that’s a little bit of an exaggeration but you get the picture?) Luckily for us Kelly came to our rescue (in the golf cart) and took us to her office building. We got to meet her co-workers and hang out till it was deemed to venture out to the campsite.

Karabo chilling after the windstorm