I had the pleasure of joining the Southern Illinois Unit camping last weekend at Giant City State Park. They were a great group of folks.
They have a really interesting rally coming up in August at the Greater St. Louis Regional Airport in Bethalto, IL and were enthusiastic about me posting the information to Airforums to bring non-WBCCI folks into the fun. The unit normally has between 20 and 30 Airstreams at these events and I'd love to bring in another 10 through Airforums.
Believe it or not, the airport has 30 amp hookups along the fence line. They're going out of their way to take care of us.
Your destination is Alton where you will land your “Silver Bird” at the St. Louis Regional Airport in Bethalto, with Alton just minutes away. Arrival time depends on the Pilot and/or Co-Pilot. After landing and touchdown you will taxi over to the staging terminal, there you can chalk your “silver bird”. As soon as you disembark from your “silver bird” and enter the Airport Terminal you will be given a packet with maps and information regarding the Alton area.
Thursday, 8/13/2009 Early Arrivals - you're on R and R.
Friday, 8/14/2009
8:30AM, Light breakfast (Bring your own table service)
11:30AM, Lunch at Fast Eddie's (Dutch treat)
1:00PM, Tour - Underground Railroad and other points of interest (2 hour guided tour, $5 per person)
5:30PM Light dinner (Bring table service and drink) in the Airport Conference Room.
Saturday, 8/15/2009
8:30AM, Breakfast (Bring your own table service)
11:00AM, Tour - Locak & Dam, Confederate Prison, Confederate Cemetery
Lunch - Sack lunch provided at scenic overlook
Afternoon - Free to explore the surrounding area
5:30PM Dinner provided (Bring your own table service and drink) in the Airport Conference Room.
Sunday, 8/16/2009
7:30AM, Light breakfast
9:00AM, Church services
11:00AM, Brunch - Potluck
It looks like a great schedule, all optional of course, so check out the event on the Rally Calendar and come on out and join in the fun, food and festivities.
I'll post the link to the rally calendar as soon as I create the event.
I'm currently waiting for a response from the WBCCI Rally Organizer on the cost of parking per night. It should be reasonable. I'll post as soon as I find out.
These airport rallies are a lot of fun. The first one we went to was the Region 5-7 VAC rally at the Poplar Grove, IL airport in 2007. See photo below. (Although I think the Cessna 140 is just a little light to be towing that trailer. . . a 210 might be more like it. . .)
I was all set to contact Wally Byam Control on the CB, "Poplar Grove, this is Caravelle Two Five, Parking Poplar Grove" and if WBC was any cool at all, they would come back "Caravelle Two Five, cleared onto final, you're number two for parking behind the Excella" or something like that. (As it turned out nobody was on the CB.)
If you like the Airstreams in Flight rally, come on up to Osceola, Wisconsin Sept 10 - 13 for the Wheels and Wings rally at the Osceola airport!
I would have never thought to have a rally at an airfield. That's why I'm so excited about this rally. It should be really interesting and I think the kids will like seeing the planes take off. I work on an Air Force Base and every time one takes off I watch. It never gets old.
Speaking of kids, Nick, Lisa and the kids are coming and a lot of times Lisa isn't up for a night on the town. There's a chance we'll have a babysitter for the Fast Eddie's crowd.
Sounds like a great rally, and wonderful that the airport is being so accommodating. We would be especially interested in the Underground Railroad and Confederate prison/cemetery. Unfortunately, we will be in the UP at that time.
The airport is accommodating because they are broke and going out of business aren't they?
You may be confusing the Regional Airport in Alton for Mid-America Airport in Mascoutah, IL. The Regional Airport is entirely business flights and private aircraft.
Quote:
Originally Posted by soldiermedic
There is an issue though. Many people would like to attend Fast Eddies, but have children. This is STRICTLY a 21 and up establishment.
All events are optional and there are plenty of family friendly restaurants in the area.
Are you going to stop shooting down the rally and sign up or what? You'd be an asset to the group.
I think this sounds really neat....having an electric hook up is just icing on the cake. After boondocking last weekend I realized that is all that's really needed if its hot. This sounds like a really neat experience.
I'm sure Lisa will appreciate you volunteering her for babysitting duty....haha....
I read an article the other day about quite a few airline employees living in one of the parking lots outside of LAX. They have to pay $60 a month and I think they have electricity. The article reminded me of this rally. I looked though the images on Bing and of the four different images there was only one Airstream. The pictures from this Rally will look quite a bit better.
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