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September 10, 2022


Almost 800 Mile review of the Aventon Aventure Electric Bike

Purchased the Aventon Aventure bike on June 11th and had it shipped to the Ventura Bike Depot for it to be put together.

The Ventura Bike Depot is located off of Main Street in Downtown Ventura and they did a remarkable job putting the bike together, and were able to it in a very short amount of time. When I picked the bike up, one of the guys in the shop took a few minutes of his time to explain how the bike worked, how to turn on/ off the battery (the battery switch was being temperamental at this point, but I’ll get to that shortly) and such. So that was very much appreciated. While at the Ventura Bike Depot I asked about a rack for transporting my bike, they recommended a Thule Bike rack that would fit into my trailer hitch on the back of my truck. The issue I had at that time was (and still do right now) is the cost. The average cost for a bike rack like the Thule that is geared towards the Aventon Aventure is just under $1,000.00. Yeah so we wait for a little bit longer on this. But thanks guys for the suggestion.

After getting the bike home I followed the directions from the owner manual and charged the battery with the intention of taking the bike out for a test ride the next day. I believe I let the bike charge for about 12 hours straight before unplugging it from the charger and that the idea was not to over charge the battery on the first charge or something like that.

On or about June 20th, I took my first test ride of the Aventon Aventure and rode from our home in Oxnard to our local Whole Foods to drop off a couple of Amazon Returns for my wife (aka “The Boss”). What did I initially discover on my first ride? Well here you go.

Take the time to make sure that I download the Aventon App for the bike, here’s why:
Make sure you of course sign up for an account with Aventon.
The app will track:
the amount of miles you ride
the amount of time you ride
How many calories you burned
The current Odometer reading (this is from your odometer on the bike btw)
Your average Speed
Total CO2 reduced in the air
Track certain medals for different accomplishments which gets you points to use in the Aventon Store.
Discover Section allows you to connect with other Aventon owners in your local area.
Auto record your trips
Allows you to upload your trips and track your trips via maps.

The main gear and electric gear settings can take a little to get used too.
The hydraulic brakes are really nice and stopping is a lot better with the disk brakes than the old standard brakes that most of us are used too.
The rear rack (make sure you purchase the correct one for the bike) is for sure a must have especially when transporting items.
The seat that comes with the bike really isn’t very comfortable.
The bike cranks that come standard with the bike are far too long for a bike this size and especially if you plan on going off roading with it.

After my initial ride, I began riding the bike back and forth to my work and to get lunch. The ride to my work is about 5 miles from our home and from my work to another part of town to get lunch is about 2 miles. So on average I was doing about 14 miles per day. It was during this time leading up to the 4th of July and my 50th Birthday (July 6th and yes I’m not a spring chicken) that I began to have issues with the battery for the bike.

Now when I initially picked the bike up from the guys at Ventura Bike Depot, the comment was made that turning on the battery was a little tricky and that I have to look for a light within the switch to see if it was on and then of course turn the bike on itself. But during this time trying to turn on and off the battery was becoming more and more difficult and honestly just down right frustrating.

During this time frame I had been planning a trip to Camp Pendleton to take pictures at the 1st Marine Regimental Memorial and intended on utilizing the Aventure to make way up the hills early on the morning of my 50th Birthday. But because of the issues I was having with the battery, i filed a complaint with Aventon customer service, and after a few days of not hearing back, I went back to the website and again filed a claim via their website, but this time via chat and was told after a while that a new battery would be sent to me, but it would take about 5 to 10 business days to process. I found this to be unacceptable and voiced this in the chat box, but then also proceeded to find alternate ways to contact Aventon Customer Support.

It should be noted that trying to contact Aventon Customer Support via phone doesn’t work and that again my initial email contact went unanswered. This is something that really needs to be improved upon by Aventon. I even left a note in the email and I think the Aventon suggestion page about changing out the on/ off switch.

Once I figured out how to contact members of the Aventon Corporate Team, I immediately was contacted by email and phone to resolve this battery issue. I explained to them my plan for my birthday and why it was important for me to do this bike ride, but why I wasn’t willing to just sit back and wait for almost 10 business days to get this battery. Since Aventon has a warehouse about 1 ½ hours away, I offered to go pick-up the new battery from them directly and bring the one that came with my bike in exchange. I was told that there was no need to do this and that they had figured out a way to ship (2 day shipping, it was 4th of July weekend after all) the battery to me so I could make my trip. And true to their word, the battery arrived at our home on the 5th of July. So thank you to the nice lady from Customer Support by going above and beyond to get me this battery. You are awesome.

The day of my 50th Birthday arrived and I attempted to ride my Aventure up the roads and firebreaks of Camp Pendleton. When I say attempted I mean just that, a few things finally set me back on making this trip successful, the biggest issue was that my Camelback Waterbag decided to completely empty out before I even set out on my adventure, getting up some of the roads was a little more difficult than I initially thought it would be and I just about wiped out a couple of times and then the worst part for me this day, was getting to the firebreak that I need to go up, to only find that the Marines decided it was to re-scrape the path making the dirt so soft and hard to push up and over a hill that it wasn’t worth it. The biggest issue honestly for me though was just not having the water, otherwise I would have gone up.

On the way back to my truck the back brake was not working hardly at all so I had to be extra careful to make it back down and not get myself hurt. I will make it up to this memorial soon as I have to pay my respects to my brother Marines/ Corpsman.

Once home from this trip, I began to utilize “YouTube” to learn how to bleed brakes and to see what modifications I could make to the bike to make it a little more user friendly for me.

By this time I had begun biking to work daily and would average about 40 miles per week, and within a short period of time I put over 250 miles on the bike and had been spending a lot of early morning hours reviewing countly “YouTube” videos showing me how to fix things on my bike and to make recommended modifications as well.

“YouTube” as most people know, is a great place to learn things and see other people’s feedback about various products and such. So there are a number of people that I follow on “YouTube” that have done some great videos about the Aventon Aventure, they have not held back on their opinions and have made some great recommendations for modifications to the bike as well. Here is whom I recommend:

Scott Hardesty - Scott Hardesty - YouTube: Scott has done a great job with his own review of the Aventure bike and also made some great recommendations for modifications as well, a few of which I have incorporated into my own bike.
Zainenn - Zainenn - YouTube: Zainenn has also done a great job with his own review of the Aventure bike, and also makes some recommendations for modifications that he has incorporated into his bike, some of which I will probably make on my bike at somepoint.

Just keep in mind that there are many many places to read and view video about the Aventon Aventure bikes, but at the end of the day it’s up to the individual person on what they want to add to their bike or how they decided to modify it.

So since my birthday and for the past month and change what have I been doing and what modifications have I made on the bike.
Well since the beginning of July and as of today September 10th I have put a total 784 miles on the bike. This includes biking to and from work on average about 4 days a week more if I go in 5 days. I have also begun to take extended rides on my bike during the weekend and between last weekend (Labor Day) and through today have put about a total of 150 miles. Again no real complaints with the ride.

What modifications have I made to this bike?

Added the rear rack (bought when I purchased the bike initially. The rack came directly Aventon and was specifically designed for the Aventure. Just make sure you also purchase yourself bungie cords to help tie down your stuff otherwise, well you know disaster!! Installation is pretty simple just make sure you take your time. Here is the link to the rear rack: Aventon Rear Rack - Aventure
Added the front rack (bought this before my trip to Camp Pendleton). This rack came directly from Aventon and is simple to install. This rack is not huge and can hold about 20 pounds worth of stuff. The nice part about this rack is that it is stationary and won’t turn with the handlebars or anything which can take a little getting used to. Here is the link for the front rack: Aventon Rear Rack - Aventure
Added BV Bike Bag - This is a great addition to the bike and fits great on the back rack of the bike and allows for transportation and storage of items while riding around. It’s a simple design and fits just perfectly. This is a must have. Here is the link: Amazon.com : BV Bike Bag Bicycle Panniers with Adjustable Hooks, Carrying Handle, 3M Reflective Trim and Large Pockets : Bike Pack Accessories : Sports & Outdoors
Added the Raymace Bike Rear Bag with Tail Light - This is another great addition to for your rear rack and it’s awesome for storing water bottles some small snacks and such and to help keep them cool as well. It will fit right on top of the BV Bike Bag, just make sure you secure it right. Here is the link: Amazon.com: RAYMACE Bike Rear Rack Bag with Tail Light, Bike Truck Cooler Bag for Warm or Cold Items : Sports & Outdoors
Added the Roam Bike Phone Mount - Well when you are riding a bike especially now days you want a place to stick your phone right. This particular phone holder was recommended for use on pretty much any bike and it works pretty well especially for what I need it for. Installation is pretty simple and easy and fits all phone types. Here is the link for: Amazon.com: Roam Bike Phone Mount - Adjustable Handlebar of Motorcycle Phone Mount for Electric, Mountain, Scooter, and Dirt Bikes - Bike Phone Holder Compatible w/ iPhone & Android Cell Phones : Automotive
Bike U Lock w/ Cable - well you need to make sure have a way to secure your bike and this combination works great. I have this stashed away in my BV Bike bag and am just really happy with it. Highly recommend this set. Here is the link: Amazon.com : Bike U Lock with Cable - Via Velo Bike Lock Heavy Duty Bicycle U-Lock,14mm Shackle and 10mm x1.8m Cable with Mounting Bracket for Road Bike Mountain Bike Folding Bike : Sports & Outdoors
“Got Helmet” There are a ton of different bike helmets out there and I picked this one for a lot of different reasons. The Rear LED Lights and the Bluetooth connections for speakers to jam my favorite tunes to being able to talk on the phone helped seal the deal. The helmet comes with an additional controller that allows you to turn on and off the music/ phone calls, turn on turn signals and take pictures from your phone. Here is the link: Amazon.com : LIVALL riding MT1 Smart Helmet, Cycling Mountain Bluetooth Helmet, Sides -Built-in Mic, Bluetooth Speakers, Wireless Turn Signals Tail Lights Setting, SOS Alert, Bike Helmet-Upgraded Version Neo : Sports & Outdoors
Ganopper MTB Crank ArmSet 152mm/ MZYRH Mountain Bike Pedals/ OUMER Bike Crank Extractor/ Arm Remover - ARGH! Based on several recommendations especially from “Scott Hardesty” (the “YouTube” guy), I ended up changing out the very long stock crank and pedals for some short ones and I will tell you that I’m not disappointed by this change and then also installed some new pedals. Make sure when you do this that you also procure the OUMER Bike Crank Extractor/ Arm Remover as it will make your life easier. NOW the only thing that I didn’t like about this change out was there really wasn’t any videos showing how to do this and there was a little bit of a learning curve. Keep in mind that I am not much of a mechanical person, so it takes me a hot minute. Just a quick note before I give links for the parts here, the front crank pulley that the chain sits on really really kicked my butt, and it took me about a week to figure what I didn’t do right when I reinstalled everything. So please again take your time when you are changing this stuff out. So here are the links for the crank/ pedals and the extractor tool.
Amazon.com : GANOPPER 32T MTB Crankset 1X Mountain Bike Crank Arm Set 104BCD Square Taper Crankset for 9 10 11 Speed BMX MTB Road Bike Crankset : Sports & Outdoors
Amazon.com : MZYRH Mountain Bike Pedals, Ultra Strong Colorful CNC Machined 9/16" Cycling Sealed 3 Bearing Pedals(Black 3 Bearings) : Sports & Outdoors
Amazon.com : Oumers Bike Crank Extractor/Arm Remover and Bottom Bracket Remover with 16mm Spanner/Wrench. Professional Bicycle Repair Tool Kit : Sports & Outdoors
Added the Hafney Bar End Bike Mirror - This is another great addition for the bike and came recommended by Scott Hardesty via his “YouTube” video. It’s extremely easy to install on the bike and is compact enough to not really stick out and such. Here is the link: Amazon.com : Hafny Bar End Bike Mirror, Stainless Steel Lens Bicycle Mirror, Safe Adjustable Rearview Mirror, Cycle Mirror, E-bike Mirror, HF-MR087 (Black 68 Diameter) : Sports & Outdoors

Additional Items that I would like to get for my bike based on recommendations and just because it makes sense:

KBrotech Bike HandleBar Extender - This is one of those nice to have items, but it kinda makes sense especially when you are adding on additional items to the bike and need places to hang things. Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077XJ1W97/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=AGDG4YSUD0LEQ&psc=1
Aventon Aventure Skid Plate - If you are going to be doing any off road type activities with your Aventure then you might want to look at purchasing this Skid Plate.This is for sure something I am looking to get. A number of videos on “YouTube” can be found talking about this item and most that have procured it have been nothing but happy with it. Here is the link: Aventon Aventure Skid Plate MADE IN USA The Original | eBay
Seats - The seat that comes with the Aventure is not very comfortable especially for long rides. Still haven’t decided on one but am looking for recommendations.

Recommendations to Aventon:

Please address the issue with the Battery Button, yeah it’s simple enough, but still. The button doesn’t always work correctly and can become a point of frustration to people.
Please consider putting shorter pedal cranks on the bike, the long ones that you have right now are crazy long for riding and when making tight turns end up striking the ground and can cause people to wipe out and if your riding on the road not a great idea.
Can you please make this lighter? Yeah I know, but I had to ask.
Please consider changing out the seat on the bike or at least offer up a different option as the seat that comes on the Aventure kinda hurts after a while.
Please fix your customer service information on your website and phone support, this will go a LONG way to making people happy.

So what is the bottom line here about the Aventon Aventure?

In my opinion the Aventon Aventure is a solid electric bicycle, especially for the price. It is very well put together and it runs just great. The ride is awesome and the pedal assist is awesome especially for someone like myself that has bad knees.

I would highly recommend this bike to anyone that is looking to purchase a bike, I don’t think that they would be sorry in their purchase.


Thanks for reading and paying attention to all of this.

Semper Fi
Frank “Sarge” Sellin
1/9 Everywhere

Oshkosh or Bust 2021 The Blog – Synopsis September 11, 2021
Well here I sit at home on September 11, 2021, the 20th Anniversary of the Twin Towers, Pentagon and Flight 93 attacks on our country. It is also the birthday of our Cousin Alaina Howard and that of some of our friends. Happy Birthday you guys.

Today I’m writing this to keep my mind more occupied than anything and yet still here I sit outside in my back yard surrounded by my bird Apollo (he’s an African Grey and a kick ass bird), music (Bryan Adams – Summer of ’69, takes me back to Middle/ Junior High School) a beer (drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon just to turn the screws on friends and family) and of course a cigar. It gives me a chance to kinda reflect on this odyssey that we took for three weeks.

So here is my observations of what I think I should have done and such.

Trip Planning:
Unlike the trip that I took about a year ago to Colorado, where I planned out every route and goals for the day and mapped everything out this was something I didn’t really do exactly for this trip. I planned but not like last year…
Not only that, I also had a 26 foot camper/ rv on the back of my truck this time, so adjustments needed to be made.
So here is my list of things to keep in mind for better planning for a trip with the camper:
1. Make sure you review the routes your are thinking about taking.
a. Remember that not every route you take is Camper/ RV Friendly.
b. Look at the Bridge/ Tunnel Heights on your routes, they’re not all designed for Campers/ RV’s and especially big 18-Wheeler Trucks. You don’t want to be that person that looses his top cause of a low height. And YES!, it happens.
2. Make sure you look at the road construction/ conditions.
a. Keeping with the theme of the routes you plan to take. If there is construction and detours, you may want to look at alternate routes and of course ensure that the roads are Camper/ RV Friendly.
3. Take into account weather.
a. If you begin to see the big 18-Wheeler Trucks get off the road and there is a storm coming, yeah you may want to do the same. Make sure you find some place safe when you pull off.
b. Wind Conditions are something to look at no matter what size Camper/ RV you are driving. It can be a little intimidating while driving and a wind gust hits you and your Camper/ RV and everything begins to rock and roll a little bit.
4. Make sure you perform Preventive Maintenance before getting on the road.
a. EVEN if you just purchased the Camper/ RV from a dealership!!! They don’t always catch everything. Murphy’s Law Sucks ASS!!!
b. Highly Suggest getting additional road side coverage for when you are on the Road, we are kinda overkill right now. But make sure you read through all of the documentation too, especially if you have to use it. We have:
i. AAA
ii. USAA
iii. Good Sam – These guys saved my behind on this trip!!!!
c. Look at alternative routes and places to stay in case “Murphy” screws you up.
5. Reach out to your friends that have RV’s and Campers and get their thoughts and suggestions on things you should do or not do when travelling. This can be a life saver.
6. Expect the unexpected, as said above, don’t screw with “Murphy’s Law” he will always screw something up. ALWAYS!!!
7. Remember too you idiot (talking about me BTW) that your gas milage is going to drop way (WAY) down when you hook up a 26 foot camper to the back of your truck and it shouldn’t shock you. So you will end up spending more on gas.
8. Look at alternative campgrounds to stay at when you are on the road, I was going to try Harvest Hosts campgrounds, but got hosed cause of that unforeseen maintenance issue with the burned out bearing and such. But that shouldn’t stop you from checking out other places. Thankfully the internet works from the road and allows you to research as you drive places to stay, and my wife bless her hear was able to find some pretty good places for us to stay..
9. Something I didn’t think about that I did do on my trip last year was hit up the off the beaten path places to check out and stay. You come across some really great towns and locations when you get off the main highways and routes and you also end up seeing things that most people don’t even think about.
10. Plan out the amount of time you want to drive each day and try to plan to stay at least a day or two during your stops.
a. The thing that I probably should have planned better for was stopping for a few more days than I did while driving out and back from this trip.
b. I thought I had planned my trip out a little better with stops and such at least on the way out and I think on the way back home. But soon realized that with the gas milage that I was getting, that I wasn’t going to necessarily make it as far as I thought.
c. Don’t try to drive 12 hours a day, unless you have planned for it and are switching out drivers. Most of the RVer’s that you see on line and talk to drive about 8 hours a day and then find a place for the evening. My problem honestly is I like to drive and I’m that guy that has a the tendency to not allow to have others drive my truck (I drive it better than them!!!, it’s my truck after all. Yeah I can and am like that). My wife is a great driver and I should have let her drive the truck with the Camper/ RV on the back of the truck while on this trip to give her some experience and give me a break.. But nope, I’m too stubborn.

A new Truck?
After having utilized my 2016 Dodge Ram 1500 with 5.7 Hemi truck to tow a 26 foot camper cross country and home, and some discussions with my wife. I have decided that eventually (not right now) to see about trying to obtain a new(er) truck and probably a diesel engined truck.
Why a diesel truck? According to what I have been able to research and based on discussions with friends and family, I can get better gas milage with these trucks, and haul a bigger load (no I’m not going to trade in the current camper, it’s perfect for me and the wife)
The biggest draw back right now, is the cost of buying a brand new truck. Do I want one? WELL DUH!!! Yes I would take a new truck, but can wait it out a little bit longer in the hopes that pricing will eventually drop and I can get a better deal, hell I might have to go out of state to get a new truck. Anyone got a suggestion there? Keep in mind that most of the new trucks, depending on which one you try to get can cost up to $75K. Yikes right.
My wife has already told me to start looking for a new truck, but this will wait until at least next spring. I have begun to price out what I want and such between Dodge and Chevy, trucks and like them both, but man I just got my truck where I want it and don’t really want to trade it in and start over, but then took I’m not willing to shell out an arm, two legs and my wife for a new truck either, maybe the wife. LOL

Air Venture 2021 (EAA/ Oshkosh)
Don’t get me wrong here, going to Air Venture 2021 (Oshkosh) was the highlight of this trip, even when I thought seriously about turning around and heading home after the incident in Wyoming (thank’s to my wife and my brothers Mel and Cliff for convincing me otherwise)

Here are my thoughts on attending an Air Venture (EAA/Oshkosh) Event:
1. Highly Recommend that you plan to attend the entire event (one week)
a. Seriously if you are going to fly/ drive/ travel in general to go to Air Venture, you need to go for the entire week. You can miss a whole lot if you don’t.
2. Look at your options for places to stay whether it’s a hotel or if you are going to Camper/ RV it.
a. Hotel’s in the local area tend to become very (VERY) expensive when Air Venture is happening. We have seen pricing as high as $250.00 per night and after talking to some folks about $500.00 a night for a hotel. YIKES!!! And that’s before you pay for food!!
b. If you are looking to camp out, check out all of your options. There are plenty of local Camp Grounds to stay at and a lot of them are reasonably priced too. Some are a little bit of a drive from Air Venture, but seriously a little bit of a drive in the morning can be worth it to save a buck.

2. Staying at Air Ventura Camp sites.
i. Yeah we looked into getting a camp site at Oshkosh Airport for the week we would be there.
ii. A Couple of things to keep in mind here:
1. We had to wait until the 4th of July weekend (July 2nd, I believe) to try and get a camp site. We woke up at 0500am to get on line to try and get a camp site, the website was freaking jammed up and it took us almost an hour and change to get through finally. EAA may want to get a better server to deal with the amount of traffic here.
2. Look at the cost for staying at the airport, while it would be worth it. What they don’t tell you is that you must get the site for the entire month of July. So $70 per night with full hook ups for the campers was going to cost us about $2,100.00. Now granted the cost is for the entire month of July + Air Venture, so from some people it’s worth. Not to me. Your choice BTW.

3. Access To Air Venture
a. The first day of Air Venture be prepared to sit in some traffic. There is NO way around this.
b. Access to the parking lot(s) will take a little bit of time and you will probably eventually have to take a bus to get to the main area so you will need to be patient.
c. As Air Venture has been going on for many many years, they have the parking thing down pretty good, but with the access to the actual lots only accessible via a couple of roads, it can get to be a little crazy and SOME people can become jerks while driving.
d. Highly recommend that you plan your times for arrivals accordingly and such as some days are easier to get into unlike others.

4. Getting Into Air Venture:
a. Tickets:
i. Highly recommend that you obtain your tickets for Air Venture on-line and get them in advance. Why?
1. If you get the week pass, you end up with one Wrist Band for the entire week and don’t have to keep going back and getting a new one, duh!!
2. EAA is really good about providing discounts for everyone prior to Air Venture and if you’re an EAA member you get more of a discount too.
b. Parking Pass:
i. Okay seriously, if your going to Air Venture for the entire week and don’t get the week long parking pass, well I can’t help you. Seriously though, get the week long pass if your going for the entire time, it will be cheaper in the long run.
c. Security:
i. Your walking onto an airport so yes you are going to get your stuff searched. There is NO way around this.
ii. The people that are searching through your stuff at the security check point are really nice people and are trying to go as fast as possible so don’t give them a hard time.
iii. When we went through the security check point, we had the same gentlemen that check our bags each day and he always left us with a smile as he always told us a joke.. Great guy.

5. Your Day at Air Venture:
a. Schedule:
i. Plan your day out when you attend Air Venture, there is a lot to see and do.
ii. Highly recommend that you download the free phone App from EAA that gives you up to date information on the daily schedule of events and flights.
iii. Keep in mind that the various hours of the airport and the event. I always assumed that the airport was Open 24/7 during Air Venture. (who wouldn’t especially if your camped on the airport itself). This is NOT the case. The airport grounds open at around 0700 and close I believe around 2100 (9pm for you non-military experts out there). SO pay attention. It sucks for us photographers that are trying to get that killer sunrise picture!!! ARGH!!!
b. Getting Around:
i. Plan to Walk and then some. This is an air show/ event, you need to understand that you are going to walk. So please for the love of pete (I hate Pete BTW) make sure you wear shoes that are comfortable for you.
ii. There is some on site shuttle services provided by EAA with stops all over the airport, so make sure you grab a map of the airport or use the Phone App to find a place to pick-up the shuttle to get around.
iii. MAKE SURE YOU DRINK PLENTY OF WATER!!!!!!! IT gets hot out there!!!
c. Food:
i. Highly Recommend that you bring your own food and drinks. It’ll save you some serious dollars.
ii. If you don’t bring your own food, be prepared to fork out some serious dollars. Here is a couple of examples of what I saw while there: (my memory is a little hazy now for pricing but I believe I’m very close)
1. Hot Dogs were about $6.50 each
2. Chick-Fil-A Chicken Sandwich was $8.00 each
3. Chicken Fingers/ Fries were about 13.50 per serving
4. Drinks were about $3.50 each (depending on what you got) – we didn’t buy any beer while we were there, and you couldn’t buy any until 1700 (5pm) anyway.
5. Breakfast Sandwiches were about $3.50 each
6. Individual Pizza from Papa Johns was over $10.00
iii. They have a ton of different food to select from and many of the local businesses are represented both inside the airport and out by the parking lots. My partner in crime Rob went outside the airport to a local group that was making breakfast and got a lot of food for just under $10.00 that included pancakes, sausage, eggs and toast, plus coffee.
iv. NO, I didn’t see a Starbucks Coffee on site at the Air Venture 2021, If I had seen it, trust me I would have to make sure that I obtained an Air Venture 2021/ Oshkosh coffee cup for my wife. (Yeah she collects them, and has amassed an impressive collection of these cups.)

d. Weather:
i. Make sure you check out the weather forecast each day you attend Air Venture.
ii. Make sure you bring the sunscreen and plenty of water to drink, as it can get very hot and humid out at the airport especially if you out near the flight lines and the ramps. Remember concrete gets hot as hell.
iii. Make sure you bring your rain gear too, it did rain for a few hours on Wednesday morning and we actually took shelter under the wing of a Douglas C-47 Dakota (Gooney Bird) to wait out the weather.
iv. Expect the unexpected with the weather, on Wednesday the word was out about an incoming storm to the local area and it was said that it was going to be “A Bad One”. With that being said, we watched close to 200 – 300 airplanes depart that morning for a safe place until the storm passed. A lot of them did not return.

e. Finding your place to hang out:
i. Once you are past Security and get yourself some food now it’s time to find a place to hang out and basically set-up camp for the day.
1. Having been here a few years ago, both Rob and I had a pretty good idea of where we wanted to go and hangout and headed back to the basic area.
2. Once you have found your spot, put your chairs out and either stay there and chill out or at least leave your chairs and go walk around. However:
a. If you choose to go wander around the airport (and I highly recommend you do so), you need to make sure your chairs are laying flat on the ground and not standing up. The rational for all of this, is that if a plane taxi’s by you can get propwash and that can propel objects and injure someone and or damage the various airplanes in the parking area.
b. If you do happen to leave the chairs standing up, the local Security people whom are riding scooters up and down the flightline will stop and walk up to your chairs and lay them down for you.. Be nice though and help these folks out and if you see people leaving the area and their chairs are standing up, ask them to lay them down. Most people do it and understand why.
3. One of the things we should have done better to be honest with you is we should have moved around a little more than we did. Since we were there for an entire week, we should have moved up and down the flight line a little bit more and probably gone to a different to get the various perspectives of the operations of Air Venture.

f. Watching The Planes and The Air Show:
i. So your at Air Venture right, what do we do while we are there! WE watch the planes..That’s what you are there for!!
ii. As you hang out at your chosen spot or as you wander around Air Venture, make sure you have your camera (bring extra batteries and memory) and or your phone and take lots of pictures.
iii. There are so many different types of planes to see, make sure you get pictures and talk to the owners of these planes too. There are some great people and are happy to talk anything aviation related.
iv. Hang out by the taxi ways and watch the volunteers and the FAA Flight Controller’s work their magic. They are great at marshalling the planes, moving them on and off the taxiways and then getting the planes into the air. Remember that for a week Oshkosh becomes the busiest airport in the world and they handle a boat load (I read somewhere about 10K) of planes. That’s a lot of planes..

v. Afternoon Air Show:
1. The Main part of the airshow/ flight demo’s began at around 1430 so make sure you get back to your spot or find one so you can watch everything.
2. Remember to go back and use the EAA App to see whom is supposed to be performing and when, the schedule is always changing and updating.
3. The one thing that a lot of us complained about on two days of the show was the amount of oil smoke that some of the flight demonstration teams were putting out especially when the winds at ground level were calm and the smoke just wasn’t moving out of the area fast enough.
a. Yes I get why the teams use smoke, but there was just way too much from everyone flying around.
4. One of the things I liked about EAA (and the Planes of Fame Air Show is like this), is the continued fluidity of the show. The folks that set-up the running of the flight demonstrations do a great job of keeping every minute of the show packed with flying. It’s awesome.
5. The one thing we didn’t do was stay for the evening portion of Air Venture, which is really my own fault as I had made commitments with a number of Brother Marines and Corpsmen to hang out with which thus had us leave way way earlier than we probably should have. My plan is next time we go is to stay for the evening shows. I really would like to see them. My own fault here.

g. Departing Air Venture:
i. Yeah getting out of Air Venture was pretty easy and these folks again have everything set-up like clockwork.
ii. There is an area outside the main gate where you can get picked-up and dropped by the busses for each of the parking areas. So make sure you pay attention to that.
iii. Driving out of the parking lots are pretty easy and was really no issue as the local Police and State Troopers kept the traffic moving on all of the city streets. I think at the most it took us about 15 minutes to get on the interstate once we got out of the parking lot.
6. Camera Gear/ Downloading Your Pictures:
a. This little bit of information is more of criticism of myself, so bear with me as I write this I am being hard on myself.

i. Camera Settings:
1. Over the past year I read a number of books on photography by various photographers many of whom are well known. I wrote down some information from them and wanted to try and utilize the settings they recommended.
a. I should have practiced more with these new settings before leaving to go an event like Air Venture. Don’t get me wrong I got some really great pictures (I’m still going through them BTW), but I am deleting more than I really want to. Argh my fault.
2. Don’t always rely on the lens extender. Dummy!
a. This past year, I traded in a few of my camera lenses and procured myself a Canon 100-400mm Version II lens. It’s a great lens and I’ve gotten some really great shots with. However as I have been reading books and watching some YouTube videos a number of people suggested that I procure a 1.4x extender for this lens. The rational being given was getting in closer to your subjects as you shot the pictures. Did it work? Well kinda yes and no. Again this goes back to my dumbass not utilizing the settings properly on my camera bodies, and of course not getting enough practice in either with the use of the lens or the extender. BIG MISTAKE
3. I should have listened to Jarod Polin (you know the guy “FroKnowsPhoto”you see him on YouTube) when he talked about not using the bloody Extender. He had some really great valid points on why you shouldn’t use the Extenders. So thanks Jarod!!!! (http://www.froknowsphoto.com )
b. Downloading Pictures/ Back-Up
i. At the end of each day of Air Venture when Rob and I got back to the Camper, the first thing I did was download the days’s pictures and then make sure they were added to an external drive that I take with me everywhere. (Didn’t forget it this time did I)
ii. When you are downloading the pictures from your memory cards you MUST take your time and ensure that you download all of them. And if you should double check to make sure. Why do you ask?
1. Well this dumbass (me, BTW), wasn’t paying attention one night and I ended up losing an entire card of pictures, these pictures included the shots that I really wanted of the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk and the Russian MIG-17 flying over the airport and I’m sure more. So yeah pay attention Frank!!!!
iii. Once you are sure you downloaded your pictures from the cards, make sure you format the cards and put them back in the camera for the next day of shooting.

Okay I think I have rambled on long enough (8 pages worth, at least it’s not front and back and I’m not on a break!) Again this part of the blog is just my synopsis of the trip and a lot of this is more criticism towards myself on what I should have done better.

I do hope however that people do read this and get something out of it or at the very least get a great laugh out of everything.
Well that’s it for Oshkosh or Bust 2021, we may look at doing this again in a couple of years..

The next very big trip looks like will be up north towards Canada and then back down the coast, via Washington and Oregon..

Thanks again to my wife, daughter’s, cousin, mom and my Brother Marines and Corpsmen and family friends for their support during this three week trip.

AND I AM OUT OF HERE!!!!
Semper Fi,
Frank Sellin
1/9 Everywhere

Oshkosh Or Bust 2021 The Blog The Trip Home Day 5 & 6

Okay I’m just a little shy of a month late on getting this written, so come on no memory lapse’s.

August 6th, 2021
Well the day started out a little early for the wife and I, we were up early and decided to get the show on the road and continue towards home.

We packed up the inside of the camper grabbed some snacks and drinks for the truck and then proceeded to re-hook up and proceed out for the highway. Before doing so, we quickly dumped the black water and grey water tanks which took about 15 minutes give of take.

With all of the work done, we pulled out of the Three Forks KOA camp ground, turned left and got the show on the road. Back on interstate 90 east bound towards Butte and eventually Interstate 15 South and what we thought would be our last big push for home.

The run into Butte took us about an hour or so, and would have been a really beautiful scenery if it wasn’t once again for all of the smoke in the air. We then eventually hit our exit that showed us heading towards Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, that’s right we were on Interstate 15 South bound! The drive on this road was uneventful, and again would have been beautiful to see the scenery if it wasn’t for the smoke.

During the drive my wife and I talked a lot, and we began to make more trip plans with our camper and plans to bring along our baby pup Ms. Scarlett. As we were having these discussions we began to feel the wind kinda knock us around a little bit, and then began to see signs that were warning of severe wind conditions, and my wife looked up on the weather app, that it was supposed to be nasty south of Salt Lake City.

Now keep in mind that I think I’m a pretty good driver (sshhh don’t tell my wife), but having a 26 foot camper towed behind your truck brings another sense of oh crap…

During the drive through Idaho to the Utah State Line, I had gotten a call from the Hill AFB Camp Ground to see if we were going to be there for the evening or not. So after some talking with my wife and realizing that I was actually a little more tired than I was originally willing to admit, I called the Hill AFB Camp Ground back and told them we would be there for the night.

Yes, I admit it, I was tired after 9 hours of driving that day, but was also concerned with the winds and just didn’t want to take any un-necessary chances.

About 45 minutes or so after crossing the Utah State Line from Idaho we were getting off the highway and headed towards Hill AFB. The GPS on my phone had us going in another direction and it took us past and it actually routed is through the gate right next to the air museum.

Once we were through this gate it seemed like it took us another 20 minutes to drive to the Bases Family Camp Ground, but it gave us sometime to kinda of soak in how the Air Force has their base set-up and appreciate how each of the services look at taking care of their people and the mission.

We eventually made it to the camp ground and proceeded to check-in. Now remember the you have to wear a mask mandates were back in place, so here I am wearing a mask into the Camp Ground office. Yeah that cracked me up as the guy giving me the information about the site and the other information wasn’t even wearing a mask nor was his co-worker. Got love hypocritical people.

Yeah, as we drove into the Hill AFB, Camp Ground we glanced over to our left and noticed that the recreation field was filled with all sorts of stuff and they had a band playing. My wife looked at me and said “HELL NO!!!”. It was a Military appreciation day event and we had arrived just in time for it to begin. ARGH!!!

We eventually got to Spot #1 in the Camp Ground and my wife guided me into the spot and we began to set up the camper. It was during this time as we set everything up that I noticed that
the rear left landing gear on the camper was not hosed-up. When the hell did that happen? Yeah, your guess is as good as mine.

Soon after arriving, I took a minute to call Barber RV and ended up leaving a message with our Service Rep to call me back to set-up a date and time to bring the camper in once home.

We eventually got everything nice and leveled out, un-hooked the truck and at that point decided to head over to the Air Force Exchange to see what they had to offer us, and top off the fuel in the truck.

The exchange was nothing to write home about, however it was cool as apparently the Air Force Exchange will let you buy firearms there, but of course you had to show proof of residence, so I was automatically hosed, especially since we were from California. I did try to purchase a few things for my Air Force brother, but because I’m from you know California was told to pound sand.

While walking around the exchange, we came across the propaganda section for Air Force related stuff. I picked-up a HILL AFB t-shirt (I was trying to be a smart ass to my friend) and then my wife came across the ultimate gift for her. That’s right we found a “Space Force” rain jacket, it had the logo and all, she had to have it. So I bought it for her. Nice guy right!

Upon leaving the exchange, I took my wife over to Taco Bell and procured her some food so she didn’t have to cook food that night back at the camper.

Once done over at the exchange and the gas station, we headed back to the camper and began to chill out.

Back at the camper the wife decided to watch some of her shows and I decided to go outside and sit down with a cigar, beer and tunes and just try to unwind a little bit. It was during this time that Barbar RV called and our Service Rep Geoff was on the phone with me talking to me about the trip and the problems with the camper.
I think I was on the phone with him for almost 25 minutes and he kept telling me that he would make everything right. Not sure what that mean honestly (now I know, since we’ve been home and trust me it’s all good), he couldn’t get me in right away, but asked that I bring the camper in the following week after we made it home. I had told him that I wanted to speak to the Sales Manager and the Service Manager as I was pretty pissed off that I ran into the situation with the bad bearing ended up with more damage than I should have. SO that was at least locked in place.

While sitting outside I watched people walk-by and all I could do was smile/ laugh at how they were. The sky was so smoke filled that every time I heard a plane fly by and I looked to see what it was, I couldn't see a thing.. Gotta love fire season in the Western Part of the States.

After a while a really nice husband and wife stopped by to talk to me about our camping experience and what I thought about the camper and such. I told them my thoughts (all positive BTW) and talked to them about my picture taking and was able to give them one of my business cards too.

After a while, I ended up going inside and eventually my wife and fell asleep. The next day would be our big push and our last one to get us home.

August 7th, 2021 – The Last Day On The Road!!

Well once again the morning was really early for me and my wife, we were both up at around 0430am, and decided to get the show on the road as we wanted to get home this day.
It took us about 30 minutes to pack-up/ disconnect everything outside and hook the truck-up, but once that was done, we were gone!!!

The trip from Hill AFB to Las Vegas was going to take us about 6 or 7 hours to include stops to get fuel and such. Remember my truck is only getting roughly 275 miles per tank of gas.

The drive out of Ogden/ Salt Lake City and Provo was uneventful and once again we averaged about 65 miles an hour as our top speed. Nothing more to report here as it was still dark out and the sun hadn’t come up yet.

After driving for about 2 ½ hours we made our first stop at a Flying J truck stop, topped off the gas tank and took a potty break. Once back in the truck as we pulled away from the pumps one of the local workers almost back into us and took out my truck and the camper (yeah that would have just been great, right) When I stopped honked my horn and yelled at the guy, he just looked at me like I was this crazy ass idiot from California (well he wasn’t entirely wrong, was he?)

Our next fuel stop before Vegas was going to be Beaver, Utah. The drive to Beaver was uneventful and boring, as there wasn’t much to see cause of the smoke in the air due all the wild fires.

We stopped in Beaver to get fuel and take a potty break, stretch the legs a little bit. The wife and I ended up buying a couple of seat cushion things to help us sit better in the truck, they were made by the Purple Mattress people, so it couldn’t be all bad right. The cushion we got for me was nice and actually pretty comfortable.

The drive from Beaver, Utah to Las Vegas, Nevada took us about 4 ½ hours and by the time we got to the south side of Vegas, we desperately needed fuel. The wife found the closes Costco to get fuel and yeah it wasn’t that dang close. We drove about another 5 miles off the interstate to get to Costco and the line to just get fuel was freaking HUGH!!!

As I sat in line waiting to get fuel, my wife went inside Costco to use the bathroom, only to return to pick-up her COVID Mask as the state of Nevada was now requiring masks for everyone to go into stores. Eventually I pulled up to a gas pump and got my fuel. As I got fuel I asked the guys there to help me get away from the pumps as people were very impatient and didn’t want to wait for us to pull out, which was going to cause problems. Once done getting fuel, these two gents stopped the traffic long enough for us to pull through and out of the gas station area. So THANKS COSTCO Gas Guys for the assist.

At this point we drove up the road and proceeded to get back on to Interstate 15 South and closer to home.

The run from Vegas to Victorville was about 3 hours and we ended up on the Pear Bloosom Highlway which would eventually take us to California Route 14 and then the 5 North. The run was uneventful to Victorville, the smoke finally cleared up into blue skies as we approached the Barstow and if you looked in the rearview mirror you could see where the line was drawin’ in the sky.

The run from Victorville to Oxnard took about another three hours, and we couldn’t wait to be home and be around our animals and family.
Not much to really see as far as scenery except that we were tempted for about 10 seconds to stop off at Magic Mountain (aka “Wally World) and hit a few rides before getting home. Yeah screw that!!!

WE finally arrived home at around 5pm and were greeted by our Dogs and birds, and it was about another 20 minutes before we were in the hot tub with a cold ass drink!!

We left home on July 19th, 2021 and returned to California on August 7th, 2021. In all we drove a total of 6,108 miles. This involved us driving through California (obviously), Nevada (2),
Utah (2), Wyoming (2) (my cousin say’s we’re jinxed here), South Dakota (2), Minnesota (2), Wisconsin, Montana, Idaho. We experienced some beautiful scenery and the pain of mechanical failure. But through it all we had a pretty nice trip.

I will put together a synopsis of the whole trip, from the issues or concerns about using the camper to the drive to and from Wisconsin to my over all thought about Oshkosh/ Air Ventura 2021.

Thanks again to my wife, daughters, cousin, mom and all of our family and friends for your support during this trip. It is very very much appreciated.

Until later.

Semper Fi,
Frank Sellin
1/9 Everywhere.

Oshkosh Or Bust 2021 The Blog The Trip Home Day 5 & 6

Okay I’m just a little shy of a month late on getting this written, so come on no memory lapse’s.

August 6th, 2021
Well the day started out a little early for the wife and I, we were up early and decided to get the show on the road and continue towards home.

We packed up the inside of the camper grabbed some snacks and drinks for the truck and then proceeded to re-hook up and proceed out for the highway. Before doing so, we quickly dumped the black water and grey water tanks which took about 15 minutes give of take.

With all of the work done, we pulled out of the Three Forks KOA camp ground, turned left and got the show on the road. Back on interstate 90 east bound towards Butte and eventually Interstate 15 South and what we thought would be our last big push for home.

The run into Butte took us about an hour or so, and would have been a really beautiful scenery if it wasn’t once again for all of the smoke in the air. We then eventually hit our exit that showed us heading towards Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, that’s right we were on Interstate 15 South bound! The drive on this road was uneventful, and again would have been beautiful to see the scenery if it wasn’t for the smoke.

During the drive my wife and I talked a lot, and we began to make more trip plans with our camper and plans to bring along our baby pup Ms. Scarlett. As we were having these discussions we began to feel the wind kinda knock us around a little bit, and then began to see signs that were warning of severe wind conditions, and my wife looked up on the weather app, that it was supposed to be nasty south of Salt Lake City.

Now keep in mind that I think I’m a pretty good driver (sshhh don’t tell my wife), but having a 26 foot camper towed behind your truck brings another sense of oh crap…

During the drive through Idaho to the Utah State Line, I had gotten a call from the Hill AFB Camp Ground to see if we were going to be there for the evening or not. So after some talking with my wife and realizing that I was actually a little more tired than I was originally willing to admit, I called the Hill AFB Camp Ground back and told them we would be there for the night.

Yes, I admit it, I was tired after 9 hours of driving that day, but was also concerned with the winds and just didn’t want to take any un-necessary chances.

About 45 minutes or so after crossing the Utah State Line from Idaho we were getting off the highway and headed towards Hill AFB. The GPS on my phone had us going in another direction and it took us past and it actually routed is through the gate right next to the air museum.

Once we were through this gate it seemed like it took us another 20 minutes to drive to the Bases Family Camp Ground, but it gave us sometime to kinda of soak in how the Air Force has their base set-up and appreciate how each of the services look at taking care of their people and the mission.

We eventually made it to the camp ground and proceeded to check-in. Now remember the you have to wear a mask mandates were back in place, so here I am wearing a mask into the Camp Ground office. Yeah that cracked me up as the guy giving me the information about the site and the other information wasn’t even wearing a mask nor was his co-worker. Got love hypocritical people.

Yeah, as we drove into the Hill AFB, Camp Ground we glanced over to our left and noticed that the recreation field was filled with all sorts of stuff and they had a band playing. My wife looked at me and said “HELL NO!!!”. It was a Military appreciation day event and we had arrived just in time for it to begin. ARGH!!!

We eventually got to Spot #1 in the Camp Ground and my wife guided me into the spot and we began to set up the camper. It was during this time as we set everything up that I noticed that
the rear left landing gear on the camper was not hosed-up. When the hell did that happen? Yeah, your guess is as good as mine.

Soon after arriving, I took a minute to call Barber RV and ended up leaving a message with our Service Rep to call me back to set-up a date and time to bring the camper in once home.

We eventually got everything nice and leveled out, un-hooked the truck and at that point decided to head over to the Air Force Exchange to see what they had to offer us, and top off the fuel in the truck.

The exchange was nothing to write home about, however it was cool as apparently the Air Force Exchange will let you buy firearms there, but of course you had to show proof of residence, so I was automatically hosed, especially since we were from California. I did try to purchase a few things for my Air Force brother, but because I’m from you know California was told to pound sand.

While walking around the exchange, we came across the propaganda section for Air Force related stuff. I picked-up a HILL AFB t-shirt (I was trying to be a smart ass to my friend) and then my wife came across the ultimate gift for her. That’s right we found a “Space Force” rain jacket, it had the logo and all, she had to have it. So I bought it for her. Nice guy right!

Upon leaving the exchange, I took my wife over to Taco Bell and procured her some food so she didn’t have to cook food that night back at the camper.

Once done over at the exchange and the gas station, we headed back to the camper and began to chill out.

Back at the camper the wife decided to watch some of her shows and I decided to go outside and sit down with a cigar, beer and tunes and just try to unwind a little bit. It was during this time that Barbar RV called and our Service Rep Geoff was on the phone with me talking to me about the trip and the problems with the camper.
I think I was on the phone with him for almost 25 minutes and he kept telling me that he would make everything right. Not sure what that mean honestly (now I know, since we’ve been home and trust me it’s all good), he couldn’t get me in right away, but asked that I bring the camper in the following week after we made it home. I had told him that I wanted to speak to the Sales Manager and the Service Manager as I was pretty pissed off that I ran into the situation with the bad bearing ended up with more damage than I should have. SO that was at least locked in place.

While sitting outside I watched people walk-by and all I could do was smile/ laugh at how they were. The sky was so smoke filled that every time I heard a plane fly by and I looked to see what it was, I couldn't see a thing.. Gotta love fire season in the Western Part of the States.

After a while a really nice husband and wife stopped by to talk to me about our camping experience and what I thought about the camper and such. I told them my thoughts (all positive BTW) and talked to them about my picture taking and was able to give them one of my business cards too.

After a while, I ended up going inside and eventually my wife and fell asleep. The next day would be our big push and our last one to get us home.

August 7th, 2021 – The Last Day On The Road!!

Well once again the morning was really early for me and my wife, we were both up at around 0430am, and decided to get the show on the road as we wanted to get home this day.
It took us about 30 minutes to pack-up/ disconnect everything outside and hook the truck-up, but once that was done, we were gone!!!

The trip from Hill AFB to Las Vegas was going to take us about 6 or 7 hours to include stops to get fuel and such. Remember my truck is only getting roughly 275 miles per tank of gas.

The drive out of Ogden/ Salt Lake City and Provo was uneventful and once again we averaged about 65 miles an hour as our top speed. Nothing more to report here as it was still dark out and the sun hadn’t come up yet.

After driving for about 2 ½ hours we made our first stop at a Flying J truck stop, topped off the gas tank and took a potty break. Once back in the truck as we pulled away from the pumps one of the local workers almost back into us and took out my truck and the camper (yeah that would have just been great, right) When I stopped honked my horn and yelled at the guy, he just looked at me like I was this crazy ass idiot from California (well he wasn’t entirely wrong, was he?)

Our next fuel stop before Vegas was going to be Beaver, Utah. The drive to Beaver was uneventful and boring, as there wasn’t much to see cause of the smoke in the air due all the wild fires.

We stopped in Beaver to get fuel and take a potty break, stretch the legs a little bit. The wife and I ended up buying a couple of seat cushion things to help us sit better in the truck, they were made by the Purple Mattress people, so it couldn’t be all bad right. The cushion we got for me was nice and actually pretty comfortable.

The drive from Beaver, Utah to Las Vegas, Nevada took us about 4 ½ hours and by the time we got to the south side of Vegas, we desperately needed fuel. The wife found the closes Costco to get fuel and yeah it wasn’t that dang close. We drove about another 5 miles off the interstate to get to Costco and the line to just get fuel was freaking HUGH!!!

As I sat in line waiting to get fuel, my wife went inside Costco to use the bathroom, only to return to pick-up her COVID Mask as the state of Nevada was now requiring masks for everyone to go into stores. Eventually I pulled up to a gas pump and got my fuel. As I got fuel I asked the guys there to help me get away from the pumps as people were very impatient and didn’t want to wait for us to pull out, which was going to cause problems. Once done getting fuel, these two gents stopped the traffic long enough for us to pull through and out of the gas station area. So THANKS COSTCO Gas Guys for the assist.

At this point we drove up the road and proceeded to get back on to Interstate 15 South and closer to home.

The run from Vegas to Victorville was about 3 hours and we ended up on the Pear Bloosom Highlway which would eventually take us to California Route 14 and then the 5 North. The run was uneventful to Victorville, the smoke finally cleared up into blue skies as we approached the Barstow and if you looked in the rearview mirror you could see where the line was drawin’ in the sky.

The run from Victorville to Oxnard took about another three hours, and we couldn’t wait to be home and be around our animals and family.
Not much to really see as far as scenery except that we were tempted for about 10 seconds to stop off at Magic Mountain (aka “Wally World) and hit a few rides before getting home. Yeah screw that!!!

WE finally arrived home at around 5pm and were greeted by our Dogs and birds, and it was about another 20 minutes before we were in the hot tub with a cold ass drink!!

We left home on July 19th, 2021 and returned to California on August 7th, 2021. In all we drove a total of 6,108 miles. This involved us driving through California (obviously), Nevada (2),
Utah (2), Wyoming (2) (my cousin say’s we’re jinxed here), South Dakota (2), Minnesota (2), Wisconsin, Montana, Idaho. We experienced some beautiful scenery and the pain of mechanical failure. But through it all we had a pretty nice trip.

I will put together a synopsis of the whole trip, from the issues or concerns about using the camper to the drive to and from Wisconsin to my over all thought about Oshkosh/ Air Ventura 2021.

Thanks again to my wife, daughters, cousin, mom and all of our family and friends for your support during this trip. It is very very much appreciated.

Until later.

Semper Fi,
Frank Sellin
1/9 Everywhere.

Oshkosh or Bust The Blog The Trip Home Day 3 and 4

Day three (3) of the trip towards home started off without much of a bang.

The wife and I awoke pretty early and after kinda messing around for a couple of hours, decided to get our stuff together and get on the road for our next stop in Montana.

We put everything away within the camper and picked up our stuff outside, once that was done we completed the dumping of the black water tank and the two grey tanks, then genius in my brain housing group took charge and said “Hey Dummy, flush the tanks” so I did, we flushed all three of the tanks just to be safe with everything and thinking I put some fresh water into the fresh water tank, proceeded to finish off putting everything else away and to get ready to get the camper re-attached to the truck.

My wife has been a really big help the past few days with the camper, she has jumped right in there wanting to know what needs to be done and how it’s done, she has become a champ at backing me in to get the truck and the camper hooked up too. We both have to work on the hand signal thing though. Cause flipping each other off don’t mean nothin’ when you are trying to back up…

After about 20 minutes of work, we were hooked up/ loaded up and on the road for Three Forks River, Montana where we would be staying for two nights.
The drive from Moorcroft, Wyoming was pretty uneventful (I mean come on now it’s 436 miles and about 6 hours and change worth of driving) and there really wasn’t much to see on the road. Interstate 90 took us through all sorts of flat lands and rolling hills and a few towns here and there. We would eventually reach Billings, Montana and continue to push our way westward.

The honest to god, bad part about this whole part of the trip has been all of the smoke in the air that has created such a bad haze in the sky that it makes it nearly impossible to get any descent pictures of anything.

Anyway, at around 1545 (345pm) we finally arrived at our destination, which is the KOA Campground located in Three Forks, Montana. The camp was just recently taken over by new management, and to be honest with you looks pretty nice. Now keep in mind here that this particular camp doesn’t have a lot of the amenities that other places do, but for people like myself and my wife, we wanted a nice quiet place to hang out, take a break from the road and just chill. This KOA is the spot, it doesn’t have a pool, spa or anything special, but like I said before is quiet and not that far from the Interstate.
It took us about an hour to get set-up and with the help of my wife, the time seemed to fly by. We got the water and electric hooked up (please note that the site we are staying at doesn’t have the ability to allow us to dump our tanks. However the KOA does have a dumping facility) then we worked on getting the camper leveled for once on the entire trip. My wife ended up looking up the information on how to properly level your camper (sorry I’m a cheapskate and don’t have auto levelers) and once we got that figured out we proceeded to finish up the leveling process.

The leveling process complete and everything set-up outside and inside of the camper, we took a quick stroll up to the KOA office/ Camp Store to check it out. The store had a few food items, camping items, and touristy type items to offer everyone. We did speak with the Manager of the KOA and asked her if she had any suggestion of things we could go and see/ do, and she provided us with a nice small list of suggestions for things here in the area. The one place that stuck out to us was the Lewis & Clark Cavern Tour. This was something that caught both my wife and my eye when we were looking for places to stay on our way out here. I believe from that moment on we had made up our minds on where we were going to head off too.
Then it was back to the camper for a beer, cigar, chips and salsa, and eventually dinner. Yeah that is the most awesome plan ever. The beer tasted good, the cigar even better and it was nice to put my feet up and just relax, even found time to take a quick nap too.

Eventually my wife and I attempted to make a fire and yeah that didn’t work, cause we didn’t have all of the right materials for the fire to keep going. But that would be a tomorrow trip to the store!.

After working on the previous days blogs, it was finally time to get some sleep. Nighty Night!

Thursday morning once again started early for both me and my wife as usual, we were both wide awake by 530am and started moving around and preparing for the days events.

My wife eventually broke down and made me some eggs and sausage for breakfast, and we continued to discuss what we were going to do for the day.

So while discussing what our plans for the day and ate breakfast, my wife and I looked up information on the Lewis and Clark Caverns and when and where we were going to go about getting there.

We finally got ourselves together about 0830am and headed out of the KOA and got on the road, but first stop was dumping of our trash, then to get some gas for the truck. But then I suggested to my wife that we stop at this Wheat Montana place that was just up the road, that many of my Marine Corps Brothers kept telling me about during the course of the night.

So we went to this Wheat Montana place and my wife was able to get herself a cup of coffee and a Bear Claw and I got myself an Apple Turnover. The prices were actually pretty reasonable and they had a huge selection of sandwiches and pastries to purchase as well as some choice hot and cold drinks too. My wife really thought that we should try and come back to this place at the end of the day, to get soup and a sandwich for dinner. But that would be decided later in the day.

We then hit the road for the Lewis and Clark State Park and the Cavern Tour. The trip was really quick and took us down some back roads and after about 14 miles of traveling we finally turned into the State Park.

Now if and when you choose to go to this park, please note that there is a Visitor Center at the entrance of the park and then about ¼ mile in on your left you will see the Camp Ground that you can stay at. But about three miles down the road and up into the mountains you will eventually come to a parking lot area that has the giftshop/ snack shop on one side and then the Visitor Center/ Ticket Purchasing on the other.

After parking the truck, we walked up to the Ticket Purchasing booth and purchased our tickets. Now something you should be aware of, tickets for Adults to go on the Cavern Tour is about $15.00 and then you have to pay $8.00 per vehicle for your entrance to the park. Then you have to choose between two different tours (yeah I know I have to make a decision on vacation!!! ARGH!!!) the Classic Tour and the Paradise Tour. Each tour goes into the Cavern, but at different locations and they are a little more intense than the other. We chose to go on the Paradise Tour, as it was an easier one and would work better for my wife whom has a hard time getting around on occasion, but was still wanting to do this. She’s a great lady, who sure as hell put her foot forward and did a great job walking through this. I’m very proud of her.

The tour lasted about an hour and a-half, and took us down a ½ mile path to the cave entrance, and once we went through a steel door we had to walk about 500 yards into the cavern. The cavern we walked into was huge and just really beautiful once it was lit up a little bit. The guide that took us through the cavern, gave us a great history lesson about the caverns and how it was tied to Lewis and Clark and how they became a State Park.

We of course took lots of pictures inside the cavern and outside of the general area. We eventually left the cavern and walked back out towards the parking area and then we made a quick look of the gift shop where everything was of course very over priced. Especially the three stuffed bears they had that would have cost about $1K if you bought all three (yeah you do the math).

Once done with the quick look at the gift shop, we got back in the truck and headed out to see what other trouble we could get ourselves into. Once we were back at the entrance of the park, I told my wife to pick a direction. She at this point, tried to talk to Siri on her phone to figure out how close we were to Butte, Montana and Bozeman, Montana. I told here that Butte was only about 50 miles from where we were and should head that way, there was of course another motive to her wanting to find the closest Starbucks and get State Cup.

So off to Butte we went, in search of a cup and to check out the area. Back to Interstate 90 West we were able to actually drive the speed limit and ended up driving through the mountains and across the Continental Divide and eventually made into Butte.

We ended at the Starbucks and procured the cup and a drink for my wife, then as we were waiting she was looking up places to go and see since we were in the Butte area. The first place she suggested was the Berkeley Pit and then the other place she suggested was the Our Lady of the Rockies monument. I looked up the directions to both places and noticed that the Our Lady of the Rockies was the furthers from where we were located and that we should go their first, according to the GPS on my Iphone it would take us about 45 minutes to get to the top of this mountain and that there were a lot back roads.

We headed for this location and while we headed up the road, you could see the Our Lady of the Rockies at the top of the mountain and we proceeded down the road to our exit, but my wife whom was doing some additional research found out that to get to the top of this mountain you were supposed to go to some location in Butte, watch a movie about the monument, and then “THEY” (the people that own the monument) would transport you up to “Our Lady of The Rockies” via a two hour tour. So plan B it is.

SO instead we headed over to the Berkeley Pit and checked that out, and found it interesting as it is a huge lake that is a run off for the former copper mine that was once used as far back as 1982. It has a really interesting history and back story. As you look out from the pit and around the town of Butte, you can see the different locations where the mine shafter were once located. Many of the shaft’s machinery is still located at these sites, and at the entrance of each site is a sign stating how long the shaft was open for and how deep it went and then how many people had died while it was open.

Eventually after driving through what is known as the historic district and such, we ran to the store to pick-up a few items for dinner and then head back to hang out at the camper and get ready to continue our trip home.

We decided that we would push ourselves tomorrow and make a run for the KOA in Vegas where we will stay for the night before heading home. It will take us about 12 hours (probably longer) to get to Vegas and we will drive about 840 miles give or take.

Time to call it a night.
More tomorrow.
Semper Fi,
Frank Sellin
1/9 Everywhere

Oshkosh or Bust The Blog 2021 Wisconsin Dells and The Trip Home Day 1 and 2

Well Sunday morning started off early as usual for my wife and I, after a good nights sleep we were both awake at the crack of dawn, and began to stir and get ready for the days activities. But first the all important run to Wally World (aka Wal-Mart), the wife said she needed a few things for herself (very important BTW) and then to pick up some food stuff for the trip home and for breakfast that morning. She picked up some shoes, we picked up some clothing, and some stuff for the camper and then of course a few food items.

Once done, with the shopping we headed back to the camp ground and our camper, where we just hung out and prepared for the day. My wife began preparing breakfast and our friends daughter’s and our oldest daughter came down and we hooked up the XBOX One for them to play. The kids played a fishing game while the rest of us cooked food and cleaned up around the area.

After a while, we all ate breakfast together and discussed our plans for the day, the girls had already discussed and decided we would go on the world famous Dells Boat Tour. But first we had to get my wife’s best friends parents and kids on the road to Kenosha and then we’d head out. The girls informed me and Rob that we would be going on the “Upper Dells” Boat Tour and that it would last about two (2) hours and include us seeing a German Shepard making a jump between two rocks. Yeah I know, I had to ask a few times too.

While hanging out Rob offered up to try and help fix our black water tank drain so we could at least use it until we got home to get it officially fixed. After a preliminary check of what we could do and the materials we would need, we proceeded to Home Depot to pick-up some glues that could be used to fix the plastic parts. Thanks to Rob what we purchased seemed to work and after a little waiting and checking we deemed it somewhat usable.

We finally sat down and had some lunch and finally at around 1400 (2pm) my wife’s best friends parents and the kids loaded up into their vehicles and after saying goodbye departed the area. Once they left the area the adults loaded up in the car and headed to the unknown of downtown Wisconsin Dells.

For those of whom have never ever been to the Wisconsin Dells, this is a huge resort town during the summer with lots of hotels/ campgrounds/ RV Parks/ Amusement Parks/ Water Parks and of course the “Tommy Bartlett Water Show” (yeah how many of you know about that? And if you are from the Midwest you don’t get to answer). The area has changed a lot since most of us were kids, but it is your typical tourist trap.

We eventually arrived at the parking lot for the Dells Boat Tour and the tickets were purchased for us to depart on the 1545 (345pm) tour. We headed down to the boat dock via the elevator and were greeted by a young lady that showed us where to sit for the next boat ride.

Eventually the announcement was made about the boat loading, and as we say the loading commence, noticed that the entire top deck of the boat was going to be taken before we could get on and so we asked if we could get on the next boat. We were told yes and so we had to wait another 45 minutes or so. During this period of waiting, we hung out, talked and made jokes like usual and just had a great time together. Then the next announcement was made finally and we were asked to load up on the boat to begin our tour.

I ended up sitting with the girls on the port side of the boat while Rob and his wife sat on the starboard side of the boat. The two young ladies running the boat acted as captain and tour guide for our little two hour tour. I told my wife that if this ended up as a three hour tour that I was out and not going on the trip (yeah which TV show is this from) The tour up the Wisconsin River is very pretty with lots of sandstone rock formation and many different inlets and outlets that boats and jet skies go up and down.

The first stop we made was at a place called The “Witches Gulch”, here we were able to get off the boat and walk along a pathway that took us through some very nice looking ravens that had a stream going thru it. You eventually end up at a your typical tourist trap area where you can buy food/ drinks and other bits of junk. My wife, daughter and I decided to turn around and head back to the boat and try to get some pictures along the way as we didn’t want any of the junk at the snack trap.

After about another 5 minutes of waiting, the rest of the passengers returned to the boat and then we headed off on about a 15 minute trip across the Wisconsin River to the “Stand Rock” and the home of the world famous leaping dog.

In order to get to the area to see this German Shepard make his leap you will have to walk up a pathway from where the boat docked, it’s about .25 mile and once everyone is there, they get this dog to make this leap. Apparently there are three dogs that make this jump and they rotate them. After the jump was made we made our way down another pathway that of course took us to another little snack bar and a gift shop. Most of us ignored all of this junk and continued down the pathway back to the boat and of course we stopped along the way to try and get a few picture snaps.

Once we left “Stand Rock” we proceeded back to the Wisconsin Dells area going down river and just taking in everything that we could see. As boats passed us or we passed them, we would wave back and forth at one another. It took us about another 30 minutes to get back to the main docks and once there we debarked and then proceeded back to the elevator and the trip back to the street level.

Now for dinner Rob and his wife took us to a place called “Monks Bar”, where we had a few drinks and dinner. It was really a nice time and we beat Rob and his wife to the punch and purchased dinner for all of us.

Upon our return to the campground we said our good night to everyone and headed back to our camper to get a good nights sleep as we would be getting on the road the next morning to begin our trip home to Oxnard but first to drop our daughter off in Sioux Falls.

Monday morning was soon upon us and as per the norm for my wife and I we were up very early. Once we got our bodies moving, we proceeded to begin to put everything away and ready for the road. My wife decided to insist that I disconnect the Propane Tanks and get them filled, (remember gents “Happy Wife = Happy Life”) so I complied with that request, but before doing so I looked into where I could get them filled and checked with Rob and his wife to see if they had any suggestions.

Lucky for me they came up with a great suggestion and the place was only about a mile away from their campground. So I called the “Country Roads Motorhome and RV Park” to see if they could take care of my propane tank filling issue. The young lady that answer said “YES” and so I headed out to get the mission accomplished, but only after getting myself turned around because of my GPS (Iphone GPS issues) and once on the right track I was able to find the place that I needed.

Upon my arrival at the “Country Roads Motorhome and RV Park” I was directed to the propane tank filling area where two older gentlemen proceeded to help me get the tanks filled up. But “WAIT”. The two guys helping me had to laugh and looked at me and said that the tanks were more than full enough and didn’t need to be re-filled, they were being very nice and told me even if they had hooked the tanks up and filled either of them even a little bit that that they would have to charge me for a full tank. So I’m very thankful to both of these guys for being up front with me. Of course the one guy suggested I just tell my wife that I got them filled, I of course laughed at that idea and upon my return to our camper told my wife that they didn’t need to be refilled.

At this point Rob helped me connect the camper to the truck, 20 minutes later we went and said goodbye to Rob and his wife and loaded up in the truck and started our 5 ½ hour drive to Sioux Falls, and our daughter’s home.

The drive from the Wisconsin Dells to our daughter’s home is very uneventful and there isn’t much to see. While on the road we discussed about where we would should do for dinner, my wife of course wanted her “Papa Murphy’s” pizza, which I said no to but then I suggested that we go check out the Sioux Falls VFW/ American Legion post that I had heard so much about last summer from my daughter and wife. This was finally agreed upon.

We finally made it to my daughter’s home at about 1630 (430pm) and after a few minutes of talking my daughter said she didn’t want to go out to dinner and said we could borrow her car so we could. So my wife and I took off in search of the VFW/ American Legion post in Sioux Falls.

The VFW/ American Legion post is located by the Sioux Falls Regional Airport and the Air Guard Base. This particular post is a joint venture of both the VFW and American Legion and the place is huge!! Apparently they have concerts here and they are supposed to have Trace Adkins here in August for you country fans, they have a really nice bar and restaurant area where they have a full on menu of food. They even have a shooting range!!! There is an upstairs and downstairs to this place, it’s just too much to describe so if you want to see pictures of it, checkout my personal Facebook page.

Once dinner was done, we went to the store really quick and proceeded back to our daughter’s home for the remainder of the night and finally decided on a plan to head west from Sioux Falls.

We decided to take the Interstate 90 West Route, but we decided to stop at a KOA in Montana for a few days to take a break and to try and enjoy some time together.

After deciding on our course of action for Tuesday, we decided to get to bed and get some rest, with the plan to be on the road roughly around 7am and head towards Wyoming.

Tuesday morning was finally upon us and after putting stuff away and getting our bodies moving, we went inside our daughter’s home and were able to say goodbye to her and her cat “Fez” (he was originally our cat, but our daughter took over) and got on the road.

We made a quick pit stop to get some gas and then got onto Interstate 90 West and headed for our next stop at the Rangeland Court Motel and RV Park in the town of Moorcroft, Wyoming. This drive is about 462 miles and took us about 6 hours to drive. We passed through all of the towns we had previously passed through over a week ago and now going back through again.
Of course we made a few stops to get fuel and my wife even saw a place where she saw prairie dogs running around and had to get a few pictures of them with her phone. Eventually just before 1500 (3pm) or so, we arrived at the Rangeland Court Motel and RV Park in Moocroft, and we checked in.

The people that own the property are very nice and beyond helpful, the husband (Bill) helped us back our camper into the spot we were going to occupy for the night and even helped us fix the back landing gear that was damaged in the incident a couple of weeks ago, which was great.

After getting everything situated, my wife bless her heart, told me to go out and check things out. SO after making sure she was squared away I got in my truck to take off and see what was out there. But first had to get some go-go juice, and I even was a nice guy and got my wife a drink from some coffee place that was called “Spicy-Pineapple”, don’t ask me, ask her. While waiting for the gas pump to finish up, I looked up how far we were from the “Devils Tower” National Park, after pulling up the information on my GPS it showed it to be only 25 miles away. I decided to head there and check it out!!

But first I dropped off my wife’s drink and told her my plans and headed out for a different kind of adventure in Wyoming unlike the last one (see previous blogs for information).

So after leaving our camper behind I headed up the road about 30 minutes for the “Devils Tower”, the drive out was uneventful until I stopped at a scenic overlook and was trying to get a few pictures.

While pulling into the overlook I noticed all sorts of people there from those travelling with families, to those in their campers and of course the motorcycle guys and gals.

Once out of my truck and taking pictures I was approached by one of the motorcycle riders, whom at first I thought I was a Veteran, but found out while talking to him that he was a huge supporter of the Military and our Veteran’s. But when he showed me a patch on his vest he mentioned one of my old Commanding Officers from the Marine Corps, I was floored. I believe this gentleman’s name was Dave and he had met then Major Kevin Nave through his motorcycle riding and apparently over the years had become very close. They were so close that after Major Nave was killed during Operation Iraqi Freedom this gentlemen had a patch made with his name on it and honor’s him wherever he goes and talks about him all of the time, they are also still very close to his wife and kids. Thank you sir for you honoring our fallen Marine Brothers.

After leaving the overlook I continued to head for the entrance of the “Devils Tower” National Park and eventually pulled into the park and drove through it and stopped at many of the pullouts on the side of the road and even went up a dirt road to check the “Devils Tower” and ended up with a few pictures and a plan to go back later in the evening to get some nighttime pictures.

I finally returned back to our camper where my wife was great and made us dinner, T-Bone Steak, Au gratin Potatos and some Green Beans. It was a great meal and I can’t thank her enough.

Now here I am writing this blog, and enjoying time with my wife.

So I’m at the end of this for now, we will be heading out for Montana in the morning and stopping for a few days to hang out and enjoy the scenery.
Until then stay out of trouble..

Semper Fi,
Frank Sellin
1/9 Everywhere

Oshkosh or Bust 2021 The Blog July 31, 2021 EAA Day 6

Good morning and here it is the last official blog of our visit here at EAA/ Oshkosh/ Air Venture 2021.

The morning started off early as usual for the three of us. We proceeded to get ready for the morning with Rob and my father-in-law needing their coffee fix but they were willing to wait until we arrived at the air field.

Arrival back at Air Venture was pretty fast and we walked up to the gates and waited for them to open. We walked up to the same security check point folks that had been checking our bags pretty much all week, the gentlemen that was checking out stuff, was awesome and even went so far as to tell us some pretty funny jokes.

Past the security check point and hauling the wagon loaded with all of our chairs, drinks and of course all the most important stuff, the bag with the camera equipment. Nothing else matters really, just that bag… LOL We headed back to our spot on the airfield, as this would be the last day we would be in section 390 of the airfield we set up and knuckled down for the day.

Looking out over the airfield this morning, at first the sun was breaking through the clouds and then the visibility and the clouds just came pouncing in. Yeah well it wasn’t the clouds, it was the smoke from the fires that was being blown in from out West, and it wasn’t just a little smoke, it was “A LOT!”. You could actually smell the smoke in the air. This practically shut down all operations at the airport unless you were Instrument Rated for Flying (IFR), so many of the planes trying to head out and home were shut down from leaving, that’s only because many of the pilots are only Visual Flight Rated (VFR) which means basically they have to be able to see where they are flying. It’s a little more complicated than that, but that’s the basic jist.

During this time Rob and my Father-In-Law took off to get coffee and breakfast and I began working on the previous days blog. While working on the blog our New Jersey friend Steve came up with his wagon, chair and camera equipment and set-up next to us, we began to talk about many different subjects and he was telling some great jokes as well. After a little bit Rob and my Father-In-Law returned and all of us just talked, especially since there was nothing happening on the airfield.

After about another hour and changing of hanging out talking, I began to receive phone calls from my old Boss (John Rio) from AAR Days and my adopted kid sister Julie. They and their families had made the trek up to Oshkosh and EAA for the day, to see the show and most importantly me. The subject of the calls were to let me know they were almost to the parking lot and to also figure out where exactly where I was at on the air field. Question do they have the clearance or the authorization to ask these questions? Who knows?

Anyway, as soon as I was done with the phone calls to my family and friends, it was back to paying attention to the airfield. By this time there was a huge traffic jam of nothing but airplanes on both of the taxi ways all of it was people and planes trying to take off and leave the area as this was to be one of the last days of the air show. Some of the planes leaving the area were classic planes like Cessna’s, Beechcraft, Yellow Pearls, Home Builds, Douglas DC-3’s, Sport Planes, Float Planes, basically you name it, describe it, it was flying out.

Once again the FAA team and the ground handlers that were at Air Venture handling all of the air and ground traffic, performed excellently and were very impressive. By about 1330 (130pm) all of the traffic on the taxi way was cleared out and only a handful of planes remained that were trying to depart the area.

At around 1400 (2pm) a few of the planes were beginning to get airborne for the 1430 (230pm) airshow. The Douglas AC-47 “Spooky” gunship took to the skies, at first we all thought she was going to depart the area, but were about to be surprised within the next 30 minutes.

So once again and for the last time for us, the show began with the SOCOM Parachute team jumping and the singing of our National Anthem, and once again once this was done, it was time for the Air Force to take control of the skies above the area and bring in the big guns. Yeah the big guns.

The Douglas AC-47 “Spooky” gunship and the Lockheed Martin AC-130J “Spector” gunship made several passes over the airfield both together, which of course is great to see, then the “Spooky” gunship made it’s final approach and prepared to land. As “Spooky” was landing the “Spector” gunship made a low level pass of the crowd and the airfield. Just a great site to see.
After this, we got to see Jim Petiz, Michael Goulian, Jeff Boerboon , Rob Holland, Bill Stein and Kyle Franklin take to the skies in each of their individual planes and they performed all over the skies of Air Venture 2021. Each one of these gentlemen should not be missed as they throw their planes all over the skies.

During these performances both Rob and my old boss (John Rio) showed me their phones, on them was a view of the current weather front that began to move into the area. I was really hopping that it would at least hold out for a little while longer so we could see the “Warbirds” one last time.

The Supermarine Spitfire and the Hawker Hurricane took to the skies above Air Venture 2021 and we were able to see them make a lot of passes past the crowds, during this performance, the Tora, Tora, Tora group began to taxi out to the active runway on the other side of the airport, this didn’t last very long.

The weather front began to move in and the Tora, Tora, Tora gang returned to the hot ramp to shut down since they couldn’t take off. Then the rain began to fall.
It was at this point that I decided that enough was enough, and it was time to head out.

We said our good by’s to Steve from Jersey, I said good-bye to my adopted sister Julie and her family and even took a quick picture with her. Don’t have very many of those now days. My old Boss and his Fiancée decided to pack up too and head out, so with Rob, my Father-in-Law and I in tow, we all headed out, back to our vehicles. We eventually split up as my old Boss was in the Brown Parking lot and we were in another lot.

Once back at the truck, we got the show on the road, and headed back to Fond Du Loc and the campground. While on the road and after talking with our wives, we decided to pack up and proceed to the Wisconsin Dells area. This would allows us to have a good night's sleep and to have the entire day the next day (Sunday) to hang out together.

It took us about 30 minutes to get everything packed-up and the camper hooked back up to the truck, and with that being done, we said good-bye to my Father-In-Law and headed out on the road to the Dells.

The route that Rob and I took to get to the Dells from Fond Du Loc was exactly the same I took last Sunday (just reversed obviously), it was just too funny honestly. But hey it got us to where we needed to go. After about an hour and a half we finally arrived in the Lake Dalton Area and Rob, took me to the RV/ Campground that they stay at during the summer.

The Camp Dalton Club RV Campground is actually pretty nice and Rob and his family took care of us and got us a really nice spot to stay at.

Once we had the camper set-up, dinner was being served and then we called it a night. Tomorrow was going to be another day.

I plan on doing a synopsis of my experience at the Air Venture/ EAA 2021 event with a little more detail of what I observed, and giving a little bit of my own opinion what I think could be changed.

I want to again thank my wife, daughters, cousin, my mom and all of my Marine/ Corpsmen Brothers, fellow photographers, friends and co-workers for their support the past two weeks and for everyone that has taken the time to read my rambling.

Well that’s it for now, begin heading home on Monday, will try to find time to write up the Sunday Blog before we head out, if not it will be a two for one deal..

Have a great night everyone.

Semper Fi,
Frank Sellin
1/9 Everywhere

Oshkosh or Bust The Blog 2021 July 31, 2021 EAA Day 5

Well good morning to just about everyone, it was actually a great morning weather wise. The sun was up and the temperature is just right and there is even a slight breeze. But we seemed to have forgotten a sweatshirt, cause the wind had a little bit of a bite with it.

So today was the 5th Day of our little trip to EAA and the very first day that my Father-In-Law was able to fully attend, and man was he a happy little camper too.

We of course got up early and headed out to the airfield and found our usual spot for the week and proceeded to get set-up for the day. Our friend Steve from Jersey (yeah this guy has the accent and all, just waiting for him to say “Forget about it”) came out a little early and set himself up too. After some brief introductions and such, the guys took off to get coffee and to see about the possibility of getting on one of the Tri-Motor Flights. For myself, I set up my camera’s and began taking some pictures and then of course worked on the previous days Oshkosh of Bust Blog.

The morning slowly progressed and as usual the air traffic was pretty busy with lots more people and planes leaving the area as the week was drawing to a close. Once again the Ground Handlers and the Air Traffic Control Team handled all of this so gracefully and professionally. The one thing that has impressed me while sitting here watching the days events was the willingness of people to jump in and help out the Volunteers and the pilots here at EAA to get their planes moved out of the parking areas and pushed out towards the main taxiways and such. Just a great feeling to see people helping people especially this day in age.

During the course of the day I was once again able to reconnect with two (2) more Marines that I served with, it was great to catch up with Kevin Bernheisel whom I served with at Marine Barracks Subic Bay, Philippines about 30 years ago and then I was able to see Brad Jorgensen with whom I served with at Camp Pendleton, Golf Company, 2nd Battalion 1st Marines (Camp Horno, 53 Area). It was great to see both of these Marines and get the chance to catch up with them both.

1430 (230pm) seemed to come pretty quick and the airshow events were not going to begin, with the usual beginning of the singing of our National Anthem by one of the young ladies here at the show and of course SOCOM Parachute Team jumped from the plane and showed the National Colors and POW/MIA Flag’s. It is really a sight to be hold when they do this, and they have done this every single day this week.

After the National Anthem, the Air Force once again took over the skies above Air Venture but this time they had an old friend in the air from the Vietnam Era, the plane they had up was the Douglas AC-47 “Spooky” Gun Ship and man what a sight to see her, right behind her was the Lockheed Martin AC-130J “Specter” Gun ship. These planes were just incredible to see and the made several passes over the airfield and past the crowds. Now if they could only have done a live fire exercise and lit off the guns on both of the planes and done this at night, yeah that would have been epic.

Right after the gunship flyby’s the Air Force put up the Lockheed Martin MC-130J and the Bell CV-22 Osprey and these did a few flybys and during the first flyby they had the re-fueling probes out and the lines making it look like they were going to take on fuel. The CV-22’s did make a few passes and then demonstrated their landing and take off techniques and showed how the engines worked and such. The MC-130J made a short landing, showed how they could back the plane up on the ground using the reversing systems on the engines and then did a short take off.

Matt Younkin and Skip Stewart then took to the skies above Air Venture and whipped their planes around the skies. Matt was flying Twin Beech 18 and Skip flew his Prometheus 2 plane, and did one hell of a performance with both of these planes it is a must see.

Kevin Coleman took his Edge 540 to the skies after Matt Younkin and Skip Stewart, and then then a group called Two Buch Chuck performed for the crowds. Then the great Patty Wagstaff took to the skies in her Extra 300LX and wowed the crowds with her great flying skills and showed everyone out there what a woman can do when flying a plane. Patty is one of those people you for sure don’t want to miss, just like Vicky Benzing and her flying abilities.

After Patty took to the skies, the Aeroshell Aerobatic Team took off and did their performance, at this point the air was pretty still over the airfield and the winds weren’t blowing hard enough to push the smoke from the planes out of the area. The Aeroshell Team did a great job of flying, but many of us here on the ground could have done without the excess smoke, especially with more performances to come.

Then the fun began once the acrobatic performers were done. The WARBIRDS took to the skies.

We had Douglas C-47 Dakotas “Goonie Birds), North American P-51 Mustangs, North American B-25 Mitchells, Vought F4U Corsairs, Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, North American T-28 Trojan, and then the Tora Tora Tora Gang took off and simulated the attack on Peral Harbor and they flew replicas of the Japanese Zero’s, Kates and such. Steve Hinton flew the Lockheed P-38 Lightning again as well and put that plane through its paces.

Eventually the Navy put up one of their McDonnell Douglas/ Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet from VFA-106 “Gladiators” took off with a lot of loud noise and would eventually come back.
Then the Goodyear FG-1D Corsair and another Vought F4U Corsair took to the air along with another North American P-51 Mustang. Then the Navy put up both of the Boeing EA-18G Growlers from VAQ-129 “Vikings” and once again with a lot of noise but it was really great.

The Growlers did a few passes and then eventually joined up with the Corsairs for the Navy Legacy Flight. They made several passes to honor all of the Sailors/ Marines/ Soldiers/ Airmen that have served in the defense of our country. Then they did a break over the crowd and the Growlers did more passes before landing, then the Corsair and Mustang joined up and made a few passes to honor all of our Veterans.

Finally to finish off the day’s flying the VFA-106 “Gladiators” Super Hornet bounced the airfield and tore up the skies above Air Venture 2021 and showed the crowd (what was left) what the “Rhino” was all about.

Once this performance was done, we decided to leave and head back to the camper and have dinner. The skirt steak we had for dinner (my wife’s dad brought these) were awesome and we eventually called it a night and crashed out.

Well this was short and sweet, the day was great took lots of pictures of course. More to come for the final Day on Saturday.

Thanks again to everyone for reading and commenting on line about everything. I will post pictures of the stuff soon, just a little hard right now.

Semper Fi
Frank Sellin
1/9 Everywhere

Oshkosh or Bust The Blog July 30, 2021 EAA Day 4

Good morning how the hell are yeah and greetings from Air Venture 2021.

Well we weathered the storm from Wednesday night, no damage done to the camper or in the local area (around us anyway). Rob talked to his wife this morning, and was told that there were a number of downed trees in the area from the night before and that some areas in Kenosha were without power, thankfully the girls were good to go. Now they were beginning to get ready for their trip up to the Wisconsin Dells.

We once again arrived at Air Venture 2021 pretty early and were able to once again get our little slice of space next to sign marker 390 right next to the main taxi way. The morning was actually pretty nice and cool and the sky was slightly overcast, the weather people were saying that it wasn’t going to get very hot today and the temperature was only supposed to get up to about 86 degrees or so.

As per the course of events, for the past few days, Rob went for a walk to check things out and I hung out by the our spot, typing up the days previous blog and snapping pictures as needed and such. This has been great for me in a sense that this is all that I wanted to do to be honest. Although a little later in the morning I did walk around and check out some of the exhibit halls and I did that just because.

All morning long and into the early afternoon many different planes took the skies around us and returned, some obviously did not return. Many of those that did leave the day before due to the storm were coming back into Air Venture from where ever they took off too.

A little later in the morning one of my Marine Brothers, David Cox and his family arrived to enjoy the day with us here at Air Venture. It was great to see him after about 20 years and finally meeting his wife and children.

By early afternoon the UPS 747 and the Samaritan’s Purse DC-8 were preparing to leave the area. The UPS 747 was the first to be pulled out from Boeing Plaza, they pushed the plane out onto the active runway and pointed her towards the south end of the field. The UPS Crew finally fired up the big “Jumbo Jet” and after about 10 minutes they release the breaks and headed down the runway and towards the heavens. It was amazing to me at how quiet the plane was, I honestly never thought that she’d be that quiet at a full power run up and take off.
About 10 minutes after the UPS Departure, the Samaritan Purse Douglas DC-8 was pulled out towards the active runway and fired up here engines and then proceeded to taxi to the south end of the runway. The cool thing with this DC-8 (and what was explained) is that this plane had to be re-engined before the FAA would sign off on the air worthy certification. The original engines on the DC-8 smoked just a little bit… Eventually the DC-8 took off too, and again was pretty dang quiet.

Then the afternoon airshow took off, with the opening being performed once again by the SOCOM parachute team and after that the Air Force did a SAR (Downed Airman) demonstration that included an Lockheed Martin AC-130 Specter gunship a EC-130 Communications and an MV-22 Osprey. When that concluded, the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II’s did a tactical demonstration which is awesome to just see all the time. Then General Dynamics F-16 “Fighting Falcon”/ “Viper” demo team did a quick demonstration over the field and with the aid of a Lockheed P-38 Lightning flown by Mr. Steve Hinton and a North American P-51 Mustang, the made several passes doing a Heritage Flight Passes.

Once was this was done, it was the Navy’s turn to do the Heritage Flight, this consisted of one (1) Vought F4U Corsair and one (1) Goodyear FG-1D Corsair which was painted in the colors of NAS Glenview, IL and two of the Boeing/ McDonnell Douglas EA-18 Growlers from VAQ-129 “Vikings”. The group did the same thing as the Air Force and then once they were down, the “Viking” Growlers did a demonstration of their planes and showed off what they were capable of doing. At the tail end of the demonstration as the Growlers were preparing to land, to McDonnell Douglas F/A-18F Super Hornets from VFA-106 “Gladiators” came in from behind and broke over the field and eventually landed.

After these demonstrations, we were able to see several flights of L-39 “Albatross” jets make some passes and then the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk and Mikoyan-Gurevich MIG-17 took to the skies and chased after one another for a bit. It was really neat to see the Skyhawk in the air. I know I got some great pictures of her…

After all the jets had landed, we were treated to a demonstration by Jeff Boerboon and Dell Coller in their YAK-119 and the Jet Waco Biplane. This Is extra awesome since both of these planes also have jet engines attached to their planes. These two pilots bounced these planes all over the sky. If you get the chance to check them out do so.

It was at this point that we left the show and head back to the camper, we were supposed to catch up with my Father-In-Law and get prepared for the events on Friday.
Well that is it for now, a little shorter than the previous days, but people get the jest of it.

See you tomorrow.

Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel

Semper Fi,
Frank
1/9 Everywhere

Oshkosh Or Bust 2021 July 28, 2021 EAA Day 3

Good morning, on from the Air Venture airfield and right at section 390 next to the very active main runway.

Well after kinda learning from our mistake (I guess you could call it that) we came out to the airfield a little bit later than we did on Monday. And honestly that plan worked out much better, we were able to get onto the field right at 7am as the gates opened and we were able to take our time walking around and getting back to our little spot for the days events.

The weather wasn’t that bad and the skies were clear to cloudy, but we knew that there was a weather front moving in later in the day and based on what we saw on line and what our wives were telling us, it was going to be a nasty storm.

It was a pretty eventful and busy morning here at Air Venture as the main runway and taxi way that was in front of where Rob and I were sitting was jammed packed with every type of aircraft imaginable. You could see nothing but planes for what seemed like forever and the folks here at Air Venture had them stacked up on two (2) different taxi ways and the planes seemed to be taking off every minute or two and we even had planes coming into land too. But it was all very orchestrated, as one might think especially if you think about how the big airports like Chicago’s O’Hare or Los Angeles’s LAX handle all of the big plane traffic.

At one point while walking back to our little spot on the flight line, an Air Force/ Air Guard McDonnell Douglas F-15 “Eagle from the Louisiana National Guard took off and shook the crowd up for about 2 minutes before departing the area. I didn’t get any pictures of her leaving but know that a few other photographers did.

Rob and I sat and watched this orchestration of movements of women/ man and machine from the time we got here (which was about 0730) until just before the start of the afternoon air show (which was about 1430). I estimate that approximately 200 (maybe more) aircraft had departed the area to seek shelter from the in-coming storm. That’s a lot of airplanes BTW…

At 1430 the afternoon air show began with the SOCOM Parachute and the playing of the National Anthem. Then just as the SOCOM Parachute team landed an Air Force U2 made a couple of passes past the crowd, and then climbed up and departed the area. It was much of a flight demo of the Lockheed U2 “Dragon Lady” but beggers can’t be choosers.

Right after the U2 “Draggon Lady” flyby’s the Goodyear Blimp did a flyby and a flight demonstration, which is really unique in a way, since you don’t get to see the Blimp do much of anything most of the time.

Once the Blimp departed the area, we were entertained by the Red Bull Air Force/ Parachute Team, if you haven’t seen these ladies and gentlemen perform before you won’t be sorry. The do a really great job of whipping the planes, helicopters and parachute around the skies and of course make it look so simple.

During this part of the airshow I began to look to my north and noticed that the skies were getting dark which meant that the weather front was now beginning to move in. The weather service did say that the storm wasn’t meant to hit us until later in the evening.

During the Red Bull flight demonstration the warbirds began to taxi out and get ready to take to the skies above Air Venture. This time we had a number of trainers, like the “Yellow Birds” or Stearman trainers, O-1 Bird Dogs (Light Observation) and then a Vietnam Era Helicopter and Forward Air Control plane also flew around the area. Not to put the pilots/ planes or the EAA Organization down, but a lot of the people (myself Included) were not overly impressed with the warbird demo on this day. We wanted to stay for the remainder of the show, but couldn’t as I had made previous engagement. So at about 1600 we left the field and headed back to the truck and then eventually the camper.

Once back at the Camper Rob and I cleaned up for a New York second and then proceeded over to the American Legion to meet up with one of my Marines that I hadn’t seen in 23 years. It was awesome seeing Sgt Jeffrey Bowen yesterday and it was even better to be able to catch up on a lot of things that I missed after I got out of the Marine Corps.

At around 1900 (7pm) we all left the American Legion and proceeded back to the Camper for the night and to get some sleep. Yeah that didn’t last very long as the storm that was predicted for the evening finally made it’s appearance at around 2330 (1130pm) and then both Rob and I had our phones going off with Emergency Alerts about the weather and then of course all of our friends and family sending messages making sure that we were both safe and making sure everything was okay.

The storm was something else, there was a lot of lightning/ thunder/ rain/ wind/ tornado warning, and this seemed to last for about three hours or so, with Emergency alerts continuing to go off throughout the night. Finally at about 1am or so, I decided to go back to sleep and call it quits as I didn’t think the storm was going to be much worse and that it was beginning to pass and die out.

Well that is pretty much the day in a nut shell, Day 4 of the Air Venture is fast approaching and it looks like it will be a nice cool day today and hopefully we will get to see a lot more flying to day than we did yesterday.

Until tomorrow.
Semper Fi,
Frank
1/9 Everywhere