The problem with Gastons

It was a proplem because AGAIN I didn't make it. Lost my prop govenor last week (50hrsnew)and there was no way anyway we are so dang busy with the dogs.
When the dates are set for next year I am going to book my cabin..
I would be willing to book the House if I can get some of you to plan on sharing the space and cost. That would mean that those that are close and fur sure will be there we could share.

Jon
 
SkyHog said:
and in fact, the lunch BBQ the second day was Bill and Kevin's doing really, I just ate the food!
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Brent did a lot of grilling on Saturday as well, to me nothing beats airplanes and grilled dogs at a flyin. (Well, maybe Mike's sausage, that stuff was fantastic!)
 
bbchien said:
The heart and soul of Gaston's isn't Denny Gaston. It's our "Momma", Ms Diana. It someone else wants to host the details somewhere else, speak right on up. It's a job.

Hearing none, I think it'll be................Gastons again!
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Absolutely, Diana is our Momma, and Gastons to me is my premier flyin event. That said, I hope to visit Adam next year, do the next gliderthon, and maybe visit EdFred at the 6Y9 thing this year.
 
Ahem, well, I didn't really mean for this to turn into a venue-bashing thread. Perhaps my tongue-in-cheek subject line was a mistake. The problem I was trying to point out was that I didn't come for long enough and it would be nice to see the folks from around here more often.
 
Ken Ibold said:
Ahem, well, I didn't really mean for this to turn into a venue-bashing thread. Perhaps my tongue-in-cheek subject line was a mistake. The problem I was trying to point out was that I didn't come for long enough and it would be nice to see the folks from around here more often.
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Some of us show up on Thursday. :D
 
The Days Inn in Mountain Home is actually very, very high quality. There's an Enterprise and Hertz in town that will serve BPK. There's also a Super 8, Comfort Inn and Holiday Inn Express

I'm changing strategy in interests of not paying for an empty cabin. I think I'm adding Mountain Home into the mix. I'll only reserve a cabin for Friday and Sunday night.

This year I paid Gastons for four nights. Now I'll pay for two. I'll see if I can add Thursday or Sunday or Monday night if/when I want to. Otherwise I'll relocate. That will be MY policy.
 
yea alexispark inn sounds good to me :) nothin beats somewhere close by.

another nice thing about gastons is the atmosphere. i dont think we'd find that at Iowa City, at least at the airport. we certainly wouldnt have tents with food and beer out by the runway. and if we have a fly in where the main meeting place is across the road at a hotel it makes it hard to just jump in the plane and go fly. seperates the crowd. This is where Gastons and EdFreds and Wings (it seems) really shine.
 
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I've always wanted to visit "the land between the lakes" area. What are the ground transportation options for a group like ours at these facilities?

Bill Jennings said:
Both of these come close, with good facilities and lots of diversionary activities for non-pilot family members, but there is one catch. The runway is 1.5 and 3mi from the village in each case.

Does look nice, though.

http://parks.ky.gov/resortparks/kd/details.htm

Ooooh! Kentucky Dam has what they call Air Camp, a campground next to the runway where pilots can camp with their planes.

http://parks.ky.gov/resortparks/lb/details.htm
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Steve said:
I've always wanted to visit "the land between the lakes" area. What are the ground transportation options for a group like ours at these facilities?
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I do not know, but will find out, sir!

I can give them a call, and see if they have a shuttle van to transport folks back and forth, or at worst, we can chip in and rent a 15pax van from somewhere, does Enterpri$e rent those?
 
I agree with Ken - the problem is that there is never enough time at fly-ins to get to know folks.
 
Food for thought:

1. Every destination will be a compromise; Gaston's is a mighty good compromise, and its key point of objection- the cost of food and its attendant service issues- can be addressed through prior planning and use of the readily-available kitchen facilities (food for thought about food: the event's big enough we could bring or hire a cook and helper to produce timely, basic meals for significantly less than the tariff in the restaurant);

2. As this thing grows in popularity- gains its own existence, so to speak, it might be good to consider making it a day longer, perhaps;

3. Still might be worth considering having one Wings-type seminar.
 
bbchien said:
OK everyone, Lissen up. :)

The heart and soul of Gaston's isn't Denny Gaston. It's our "Momma", Ms Diana. It someone else wants to host the details somewhere else, speak right on up. It's a job.

Hearing none, I think it'll be................Gastons again!
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Bruce, Joe, and Bill...thank you so much for your kind words. :redface: I'm not sure how to adequately respond, except to say thank you. :)
 
you got it spike. this seems to be the annual post gastons thread. the fact is, I plan on seeing you all at 3M0 the second weekend of next June. We will all be there and will once again love it. the event seems to be naturally expanding to include more days. I suspect there will be more thursday arrivals next year, Im considering it. As Kathleen told me - "Eventually it will be a weeklong event, and thats just fine with me" :yes:

Im torn about organizing a wings seminar for the weekend. yes it would be a great time to do one. captive audience, some really good instructors will be there. but trying to make a definite plan for the weekend seems to be impossible. the three things i really wanted to do for the weekend - fly with you, chat with tommy, and fly with diana - never happened. just too much other stuff going on. so while it would be a perfect venue i dont think having definite scheduled events really would work out that well. thats part of the appeal too. take off the watch, turn off the phone, sit by the runway for the weekend.
 
The restaurant was fine. Nothing great...but fine. The biggest issue that I had is that a chicken fried steak that was $12 for lunch on Saturday was suddenly like $21 for dinner on Saturday night. Likewise somebody told me Saturday morning that the breakfast buffet was $9, then it was suddenly $5 more expensive on Sunday morning.

I'd have been happy to pay the lunch prices from Saturday for all of my meals...it just seemed as if they were jostling around the prices a little bit too much.

That said, I understand that a resort is a resort. I was prepared to have to pay top dollar for stuff like that. If I hadn't been, then I would have run to the grocery store. Frankly, it was worth it to me to not have to run down to my cabin to prepare my meals.

The one thing that I didn't like was the $17/night for every extra person in a two bedroom cabin. They put four beds in our cabin (two in each room) but we're only allowed to have two people stay in the cabin without paying extra? I think that you should be allowed to put at least one person in every available bed before the money has to start flowing.

Once again, I'm not upset...just something that seems like it was a bit of a poke for the money that we brought to the resort. All in all I had a fabulous time and plan on going back.
 
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tonycondon said:
you got it spike. this seems to be the annual post gastons thread. the fact is, I plan on seeing you all at 3M0 the second weekend of next June. We will all be there and will once again love it. the event seems to be naturally expanding to include more days. I suspect there will be more thursday arrivals next year, Im considering it. As Kathleen told me - "Eventually it will be a weeklong event, and thats just fine with me" :yes:

Im torn about organizing a wings seminar for the weekend. yes it would be a great time to do one. captive audience, some really good instructors will be there. but trying to make a definite plan for the weekend seems to be impossible. the three things i really wanted to do for the weekend - fly with you, chat with tommy, and fly with diana - never happened. just too much other stuff going on. so while it would be a perfect venue i dont think having definite scheduled events really would work out that well. thats part of the appeal too. take off the watch, turn off the phone, sit by the runway for the weekend.
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I agree with all points.

I expect we'll be 5 plus the dog next year, arriving on Thursday as well.
 
I suggest ya just go anywhere Diana goes. She's always happy!:D I hope to be there next year. What folks need to remember is that on fly in event is not exclusive of the others.
 
Dr. Bill said:
Is the dog a boy?

:D We'll have Daisy's hair done.
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Sorry, no. Tia is our 5-month old female Samoyed who this year WOULD NOT have behaved in the airplane. Maybe next year. But with my luck she'll be doing dog shows by then and this idea will fall apart anyway.
 
tonycondon said:
. the fact is, I plan on seeing you all at 3M0 the second weekend of next June.
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Well, considering the First of June is on a Sunday, the third Sunday is in the "Second" weekend of June, which is Father's Day weekend. Tentative idea is the "third" weekend of June which would be June 20 through 22.
 
If I may I will inject one comment about prices at Gastons.
Yes they are higher than most of us pay at home, but not wildly more. I have paid way more at some resorts. I don't think they are getting rich off it. Heck they will let you take their van into town to buy a meal....you are using their resources to support their competition! Likely we could get it to take 8 people to the nearest motel if we wanted.
I think its something we live with for the benefit of being able to fly in to a beautiful place. I have no problem with people trying to make it affordable with avoiding the restaurant etc. but I think we need to realize how lucky we are - these days. Despite liability issues, we can still land an airplane walking distance to rooms, restaurants, fishing! I would just hate to see the place go away (don't snort; its happened) due to financial issues. I have not seen signs that the place is 'booming'. Just wanted to make sure we considered the business owners perspective on this.
I have no substantial complaints about Gaston's.
 
I know a good sized airport that has a restaurant, one of the top US Aviation museums, a Super 8 and a Hilton right off the runway.







OSH. ducking



We did meet up there once on an off-Airventure weekend.
 
The BIG problem is I missed the last episode of The Sopranos!


It was on in the room in the motel last night but I refused to watch.

I'm too tired to view the TiVo now.

It's gonna be a challenge to keep avoiding hearing how it ends.

LA!-LA!-LA! Don't post it here, either!
 
Not a bad idea, actually. The place is quite laid back in the off season. I know you can park a few planes next to the Hilton. Might be able to get permission to park more on the grass next to their ramp.



mikea said:
I know a good sized airport that has a restaurant, one of the top US Aviation museums, a Super 8 and a Hilton right off the runway.







OSH. ducking



We did meet up there once on an off-Airventure weekend.
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SCCutler said:
All of that said, you'll find few places with G's combination of central-ish location and available facilities. But I am always open to ideas, and I certainly intend to try to make it to 6Y9 one of these years.
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Spike,

I had a dream last night where you hosted a fly-in down in TX which also happened to be near a very muddy river. I don't know where the airport was, all I remember was hanging out next to a bend in the river, sitting there enjoying everyone's company and some beverages. :)

Considering how rare it is for me to actually remember dreams when I wake up, I'd say... I need to go to a fly-in with you folks again, pronto! :yes:
 
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