MAKING OUR VOICES HEARD

The exclusive island next to us hosts an annual conference for the American Enterprise Institute, a collection of billionaires and millionaires and other well-heeled right-wing people. Current or former members include Newt Gingrich, Betsy DeVos (no longer listed on the board), Dick Cheney, et cetera. There are also business officials from such companies as Coors, International Paper, American Express, Dell and others. People attending this year possibly included (they are very secretive) Mitch McConnell, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, George W. Bush, the Koch brothers, Paul Ryan and other government officials.

Anyway, there were over a hundred corporate or private jets parked at our little airport. Here's a photo of the ones parked on the back runway.

The bunch of conservative attendees came to the attention of a new resistance group I've joined. The island they met on is private, so on the last day, our leaders set up a protest at the airport gates where limousines enter to drop off passengers. A young relative helped make my sign:

Since our area is mostly conservative, we were unsure of the turnout but eighty to a hundred protesters showed up, some for a few minutes, others staying for over two hours. We were thrilled, especially since we had little time to let people know. Here's a picture taken before the limos started arriving:

After a few SUV limos went in, they stopped coming.

Ah, but we had someone following them out from the exclusive island who tipped us off: the limos were detouring to another entrance to the airport.

So a few of us ambled down about half a mile down the road to that gate. Here we are with our signs:

When we got there, a guard in a truck got on his phone and soon the limos stopped coming in there, too. So we went back up to the front for a while. Ended up coming back to the second gate. Finally had to give up about two or so hours.

Drivers in passing cars didn't know what to make of us. We had several go by shouting "Trump!" or "Make America Great!" or "Go home!" The nicer people among us called back "Thank you!" to every one of the jeers. I just hid behind my sign. One diesel pickup got up close to us and revved his engine, sending black smoke all over white outfits. But we persisted. And then people started driving by honking horns and giving us thumbs up. I didn't know we had so many sympathizers on our island!

I'm sure the bigwigs took little notice of us, but we got to voice our disapproval of what's going on in our government. And that's democracy, isn't it? That's what truly makes America great!

AROUND THE ISLAND

It's been kind of damp so we've had mushrooms popping up everywhere. These are part of a bunch we passed on our walk last week, begging for little girls to make a fairy village out of them.

And here are a couple of pix of our historic inn. It looks very cozy and quaint though I've never stayed there so I can't attest to its comfort.

And here is one of the last pics of our tiny airport terminal before the bulldozer got it. A new terminal is going up, one that will be connected to a new hotel. Visitors can get out of the plane and walk into the hotel, register, get a rental car, and see the island. It'll also be handy for pilots and plane crews, I'm sure.

FLY-IN ON THE ISLAND

Two or three months ago, I blogged about a fly-in event on the mainland. Today I'm blogging about a fly-in we had here on the island sponsored by AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association). There were scads of planes but the most interesting to me was a B-17 bomber.

It gave some veterans (who had been inside one during WWII) a ride when it first arrived Friday which I thought was very nice. Yesterday, people could tour it for a small fee, and even ride in it for like, four hundred dollars. It carries about ten at a time so shared, that doesn't seem too bad.

Here it is in the air during one of its flights:

A closeup:

And these are just a couple of the others attending. There were planes lined up on both sides of one our island airport's runways!