I can't believe I've been here a week!!!

 Sunday, July 23

Wow - what a week this has been. I've been kept busy volunteering every day, sometimes for 8-9 hours. It's so much fun that it's hard to pull myself away...and I'm not kidding. I get to drive golf carts and gators, staple papers, put together packets of information, set out merchandise for sale in the Ultralight Red Barn, stock the refrigerators with water and soda...basically anything that needs to be done.

Yesterday I "went orange". When people ask me why my shoes, arms, fingers and shorts have orange paint, I tell them I want to match my plane. Actually, it's because I spent much of yesterday spray painting "NO PARKING" and "NO STANDING" on about 1/2 mile of roadway.

(For those of you who have never seen my socks-of-choice: these ARE "matched" socks, from LittleMissMatched.com.)

Two days ago we (the Ultralight/Light Sport Fun Zone volunteers) got a real thrill: watching a 14 year old girl land her ultralight on the main runway. She had flown it - by herself - from South Carolina, with her dad as ground crew.

We've had almost daily thunderstorms. The first was five days ago, and it was a real eye-opener. I was fast asleep in my tent when it started, and for almost 30 minutes the lightning strikes were so brilliant that I could have read a small-print book inside my tent. The rain pounded down, but my tent remained dry, except for one small puddle where the zipper pulls come together.

The second one, a day or so later, was also a non-event as far as my tent (and plane!) were concerned.

Then, yesterday, it was a different story. Pounding rain - over 2" in less than 90 minutes - and hail as well as thunder and lightning. This time there was lots of water in my tent.

Happily, I was able to dry everything off before it was time to go to bed. And everything in the plane stayed dry; no leaks.

Today a group of Aeroprakt pilots got together for a dinner hosted by Deb and Don Shuman, who own an A-32. One couple is from Bremerton (in Washington,) and two pilots are from New Zealand. No, they didn't fly their planes here. Deb's brother and his wife joined us. 

The campgrounds are almost full and planes are flying in full force today. Hard to believe that only three days ago I was the ONLY plane and tent in this entire area!!! 

I spent much of today registering pilots in the Ultralight/Light Sport Fun Zone. And seeing good friends from Oregon as well. What fun!

On Wednesday I'm giving a Forum presentation about my flight here. So I've also been putting together my PowerPoint presentation for that.

Tomorrow I'll do my volunteer work in the morning and spend the afternoon and evening wandering the show. I can hardly wait!