OP here. Thought I should post a followup.
I did indeed go up for one day (Monday). While it was one LONG day, I thought it was definitely worth the effort.
I didn't make Ripon by 7, but I was there by 8:15. I'd pretty much memorized the arrival procedures, and watched the videos posted by EAA. It was exactly as presented, no surprises. There were three or four guys in front of me, no one immediately behind. I didn't think it was particularly stressful; I was prepared for much worse. It helped that everyone seemed to be doing what they were supposed to. Fisk ATC was chatty, gave all of us our choice of 36 or 27. Not knowing any better, I thought 36 would get me closer to the action -- as apparently did everyone else on frequency too. But nooooo...they had us all taxi north of 27 to parking. After getting the plane tied down, it was a 30+ minute wait for the shuttle. I thought about walking it, but another guy told me it would be over an hour walk to the entrance, so I waited...and waited. Don't know what the issue was that shuttles were so infrequent.
I'd studied the grounds map and location of the vendors I especially wanted to visit, but still found the grounds confusing. The maps could have been much more detailed, in my opinion. I spent a fair amount of time wandering around, looking for where I thought something should be, only to discover it was elsewhere. Next time, I'll have a better grasp of the layout.
I attended only one seminar, although there were others I'd like to have attended. I mostly needed to be off my feet for a while, and found myself right outside the federal pavilion, so I popped in. Unfortunately, I thought the presentation wasn't particularly well done...but I gave my feet a bit of a break.
Not having been, I had nothing with which to compare, but I had no issues at all with getting food. It wasn't necessarily great or cheap, but it was plentiful, and I never had to wait more than a minute or so in line.
I did not sit down to watch the afternoon airshow. I continued wandering the grounds, in and out of the various exhibit hangars and displays, looking up when I heard airplane noise.
I did spend a fair amount of time in the classics display area, but never made it to the warbird or homebuilt areas.
I was surprised that 90% of the vendors closed up shop by 5. I didn't make it over to the Flymarket area until around 5 p.m. Most of those vendors were still open.
I then started to make my way back north, to be in position to depart when the field opened after the airshow. I observed plenty of pilots sitting in their airplanes, cranking the engine the second the field opened. I wondered what their rush was all about. I found out soon enough, after leisurely starting up, when I found myself sitting in line for about an hour and 15 minutes for departure. They were using only 27 for all the departures. While the "pink shirts" seemed efficient, it still took forever to get to the front of the line.
So to summarize, yes, there was a lot I didn't get to see, I was exhausted when I got to my destination after a two hour flight from OSH, I was sunburned and my feet were in agony, and my wallet was empty...but I am not at all sorry I went for a day, and would do so again in a heartbeat!
