Oshkosh, Wisconsin:
En Route To Airventure
by Sean Fulton Photo's Courtesy Oshkosh Convention & Visitors Bureau
Must-see stopovers you should know about as you plan your cross-country journey to Oshkosh, WI.
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Photo: Courtesy Aeroshell Aerobatic Team
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Few events stir the heart and mind of a pilot like EAA’s AirVenture, held each summer during the high humid season at Whitman Field in Oshkosh, Wis.
The weeklong event is a magnet for those of us addicted to aviation, and we return each year to the one place in the free world where a crowded lunchtime food tent empties at the sound of a B-52 making a low pass over the nearby runway.
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But let’s face it: not everyone loves the smell of pistons burning 100LL. Not everyone is willing to sit through the same air show performers doing roughly the same routines more than three days in a row. And surely, not everyone is willing to forego a hot shower and comfortable bed to sleep in the weeds beneath the high wing of a 182.
No matter how much they love you, if you plan to turn AirVenture into a family vacation, courtesy dictates that you blend some non-aviation stops into your trip.
To help with your planning, we scoured the midwest to find family-friendly sites to serve as alternate vacation spots once you’ve gotten your fill of airplanes in Oshkosh. These great destinations are uniquely suited to general aviation because they’re off the beaten path, and somewhat difficult to reach. All offer something you’re not likely to find in your typical vacation spot. And of course, all offer great family fun to round out that special AirVenture vacation.
Mackinac Island/St. Ignace, Michigan
Nearest Airport: 83D(fuel), MCD(no fuel)
This secluded area attracts vacationers from as far away as Detroit and Chicago to one of most genteel and interesting summer vacation spots.
There are two sides to this cozy, summer resort: The historic Mackinac Island, which sweeps you back to the elegant splendor of the 19th century, and the more modern beachside resort community of  St. Ignace on the mainland, where dozens of reasonably priced hotels and motels line Lake Huron.
Flights into either St. Ignace (83D) or onto the island itself (MCD) offer wonderful views of wooded forest breaking away to the clear blue lake. On a summer day, it is an incredible site.
Mackinac Island’s Victorian architecture dates back to its first use as a vacation refuge in the mid-1800s. Today, many Victorian hotels and storefronts dot the island’s main street, and the only modes of transportation are horse-drawn carriages, bicycles or walking.
The island’s premier attraction is the Grand Hotel, a stunning 300-room Victorian hotel built in 1887 along the shore. The Hotel has been the scene of several movies, including 1980’s “Somewhere in Time,” starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. Accommodations are not cheap but still fairly reasonable given the luxury Victorian ambiance.
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Prices start at $199 per person during peak season, which includes breakfast and dinner at the resort’s elegant main dining room. Aperitifs are served in the parlor after dinner, with music by the hotel’s house orchestra.
On the less expensive side, visitors can stay at St. Ignace, where more than a dozen reasonably priced motels are within walking distance of town, and many respectable (although not elegant) restaurants can be found.
Be sure to check out the local fudge shops while you’re in the area. Just as Atlantic City has become famed for its saltwater taffy, the Mackinac area has gained renown for its fudge. No rationale we can find for it, but it’s good fudge. For more information, visit www.mackinac.com.
Wisconsin Dells/Baraboo, Wisconsin
Nearest Airport: DLL
There’s plenty of family fun in the Wisconsin Dells, from the Circus World Museum celebrating the region’s history as home to more than 100 circuses, to Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Campground Resort, and just about everything in between.
Wisconsin Dells was formally established in 1857 at the point where the first railroad crossed the Wisconsin River. In the years since, this community in the southwest corner of the state has established itself as a vacation spot featuring boating, fishing, golf and a variety of other local attractions.
The Ringling Brothers’ Circus was established in Baraboo in 1884. In 1959, the Circus World Museum was established here to celebrate the rich history of the many circus and tent shows that made this area their off-season home.
Wisconsin Dells features idyllic riverside settings, unique rock formations, six golf courses, and a river district filled with local businesses, restaurants, gift shops, and more than 6,000 rooms ranging from bed and breakfast accommodations to cozy, riverside resorts. Noah’s Ark water park, one of the largest in the country, is great for kids.
And if you haven’t had enough camping at Airventure, check out Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Campground Resort,
an enormously kid-friendly campground designed around the popular cartoon bear and his band of campground ruffians. Plenty of information can be found online at www.dells.com.
Madeline Island, Wisconsin
Nearest Airports: 4R5, ASX
Located in Lake Superior off Wisconsin’s northern coast, Madeline Island’s population of just over 200 swells to nearly 3,000 during the summer months, as vacationers stop by to hike fish, and enjoy some of the most beautiful, unspoiled beaches the Great Lakes have to offer.
Madeline Island is part of the 21-island, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore area managed by the National Park Service. The islands are known for clean sand, clear water and hundreds of spectacular caves hidden in cliffs along the water line. Madeline is the largest island in the group, and the only one with any commercial activity.
This exceptionally beautiful corner of the world provides a quiet respite from the crowds at Airventure, and children of all ages will enjoy the range of outdoor activities in the clean, northern Wisconsin air. Accommodations range from rustic, lakeside cottages to motels and condominiums. Activities include golf, a local casino, fishing, hiking, kayaking, swimming and just plain relaxing. For more information, visit www.madelineisland.com, or www.nps.gov/apis/.
Mount Horeb, Wisconsin
Nearest Airports: O29
This little town 20 miles west of Madison is renowned for two things: Its mustard museum and its Trollway.
Celebrate National Mustard Day on Sat., Aug. 2, in style at the Mount Horeb Mustard Museum. The brainchild of a Wisconsin assistant attorney general, the museum boasts the largest collection of prepared mustards in the world (some 3,700 varieties), as well as hundreds of items of mustard memorabilia.
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The museum’s curator, Barry Levenson, supervises judging of the Napa Valley Mustard Festival each winter in northern California, and is a well-known authority on the history and varieties of mustard available today. Many can be purchased at the museum’s gift shop or online.
Once you’ve had your fill of mustard, cool your palate with a leisurely “Troll Stroll,” what locals call a walk down Main Street, also known as the “Trollway” for the lifesized trolls that have been carved into tree trunks along the street. Mount Horeb’s Little Norway, an outdoor museum built in 1860, contains the largest private collection of Norwegian antiques in the United States.
Mount Horeb brings small-town appeal, some antiques shopping, and plenty of mid-American style to any Wisconsin vacation, and is well worth a stopover. For more information, visit www.mustardmuseum.com or www.trollway.com.
Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio
Nearest Airport: SKY
It may seem unimaginable that anyone would leave a perfectly good airplane on the ground to go ride a rollercoaster in an amusement park, but if these manufactured thrills are your cup of tea, don’t miss the Cedar Point amusement park on a peninsula jutting into Lake Erie from Sandusky, Ohio.
Six onsite properties offer accommodations ranging from beachfront cottages at Lighthouse Point to the beachfront classic Breakers hotel, and everything in between. All offer easy access to Cedar Point and the milelong Cedar Point Beach.
Crowds flock here each summer for the nearly 70 rides, including two carousels, and 16 rollercoasters, including the 420-foot-tall, Top Thrill Dragster with a Vne of 120 m.p.h. If the lake doesn’t have enough water for you, the adjacent, 18-acre Soak City water park features 14 water slides, including the 76-foot-tall Zoom Flume, two inner-tube rivers, and a 500,000-gallon wave pool. You can learn more online at www.cedarpoint.com.
 Austin, Minnesota
Nearest Airport: AUM
Hormel Foods was established here in 1891 as a local pork processing company. The company developed the world’s first canned ham in 1926, and in 1937, Hormel launched the pork heard ’round the world, SPAM luncheon meat. Lest you think everything about SPAM is un-healthy, it’s important to note that it helped fund the Hormel Institute, an Austin-based research center dedicated to the study of lipids and fatty acids, which play a role in heart disease and cancer.
This relatively small town has been dubbed SPAMTown USA. Local attractions include the SPAM Museum, which features a 15-minute film entitled, “SPAM, A Love Story,” and the SPAMTown Belle, a miniature stern paddlewheel boat that plies the East Side Lake. More mundane attractions include the historic Hormel family household, a 278-acre nature preserve, and a tour of the Hormel factory itself. For more information, visit: www.austincvb.com.
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Playing the
Mayor Daley Card
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Wherever you plan to go to round out an AirVenture vacation this year, please don’t visit Chicago.
As you know, AOPA, EAA and many other pilots organizations are fighting the brutally abrupt closure of the historic Meigs field by Mayor Richard M. Daley. Pilots across the country are boycotting Chicago in an effort to show unity with this fight and to demonstrate the economic impact the closure will have on the city.
Pilots across the country have written to their state, federal and local representatives protesting the Meigs issue, but it has had little effect. There have been lawsuits and counter lawsuits, but the runway remains closed.
So wherever you do go this year on your way to or from AirVenture, send a postcard to the editor of the Chicago Tribune, 435 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60611. You need only include a simple message: I would have stopped in Chicago, but instead I stopped here.
Hopefully the result will continue media coverage of the financial and spiritual turmoil Meigs issue has brought to the city of Chicago. Even if it doesn’t change the status of Meigs, enough negative publicity would be a warning mayors in other cities that destroying a local airport is anything but a local issue. And maybe other elected officials will think twice before taking such action.
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