Day 5: Tuesday 29-jun-1999
At WBCCI International
Wright Patterson Air Force Base
Dayton, Ohio
We started the day with a bird watch tour organized by WBCCI some 10 miles from our campsite. Some 40 people joined us, including Rich and Kathy Kushman. It did not take long for us to realize that we were not going to see any birds during this walk. Instead we decided to break off from that group and then do our own hike in the nearby trails. Per used this an excuse to learn how to operate the hand-held GPS system. It worked out really well. He could find his way back to the car even though he walked behind everyone else :-) The trail walk was nice, too. We walked about 2 1/2 miles (4km). Karl was in a good mood and walk all the way. The GPS came in handy towards the end as Per used it to find our cars; there were plenty of trail choices back.
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| Bird watch and hiking in Yellow Springs State Park outside Dayton, OH. |
After the hike Rich and Per went to Wright State to listen to a solar panel seminar, while the girls went back to the trailer. We were going to have Region 1 lunch today at 11:30. The boys came back at around 11:20, so we quickly get ready and went to the restaurant. As usual we were late... but actually the only thing we have missed was the cocktails before lunch. All girls got a little blue handmade bird on a pin; fine artwork by Sue Rutty our Region 1 first lady. The birds followed the theme of this week's Airstream meeting "The sky's the limit"
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| Izzy and Kathy in a lively conversation at the Region 1 lunch. Kathy is wearing one of those blue birds on her shirt. |
In the afternoon Karl and mom took a nap. We had a simple dinner since we still are not feeling completely ok.
At 7pm Per went over with Rich Kushman and Rich Walbridge to the airstream.net list gathering. About 15 people showed up. Per thought it was really fun to meet all the people he had been conversing with over the past 12-15 months and putting faces on them. Dan Dureiko showed his incredible collection of Airstream sales material from the "good 'ol days". While the basic design of the Airstreams have not changed, the interiors have changed with the times. The one from the 60s and 70s are so typical of their era. And so are all the pictures Dan had, complete with hair-do:s and intensely colored food.
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| Ever seen Hunter, our fearless moderator of the Airstream mailing list? She is as nice as she looks. |
After the list gathering Per walked back to our trailer. A big social gathering was taking place there, with cocktails and ice cream. About 30 people were there. We took out chairs and joined in. It was now about 10pm in the evening. Most of the party broke up shortly after we got over there, but we continued with our local neighbors.