Place: Which Wich?
Lunch: Italian grinder, house chips, ice water
Dumb name, right? The whole experience is weird to boot. You order by finding a (sand)Wich on a menu board, then finding a corresponding bag number. Then you take a red Sharpie (or green if it's to go) and fill out little ovals on the bag like you were taking one of those SRA tests in school. You enter which (sand)Wich you want, you enter how you want it made and with what ingredients, and you write your name in a box at the bottom. Then you hand the bag to Frowning Counter Guy, tell him if you want other things like chips and a drink, and pay. Then Smiling (Sand)Wich Maker makes your (sand)Wich and hands it to you in said bag.
In any case, the resulting (sand)Wich is awesome. Pepperoni, salami, and capicola on a toasted white bun with mozzarella, pickles, black olives, mushrooms, red onions, and spicy mayo.
SO good.
I spent yesterday at AirVenture 2011, an absurdly huge air show/expo held annually in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The show has been going on for years and just has to be the biggest show of its kind. Hundreds of planes (edit: "over 10,000 planes" according to an article I read) from every era of flying are on display. Hundreds of vendors relating to anything involving flying are hocking their wares. Major aircraft manufacturers such as Cessna and Beechcraft were there. Rolls Royce, who manufacturers jet engines, was there. Even Zeppelin was there. I was surprised to see both Bose and Sennheiser, who apparently make pilot headset/microphone sets, among the vendors. It was THAT extensive. The show is so significant that Boeing flew their forthcoming 787 Dreamliner in on Friday and gave the first ever public tours of it. Historically, they've even had visits from a British Airways Concorde when it was still flying.
I first heard of this show last year and thought it would be neat to see, and I considered making plans to go this year, but ultimately decided against it. Until, that is, a contest came up I was reasonably sure I could win.
And I did.
The winners got seats on Southwest's employee 'ferry flight' to the show. Southwest was scheduled to put a 737 on display at the show Saturday with tours of the aircraft. This is a marquee highlight of the show...most planes are hands-off.
The 110 passengers on the plane were largely Southwest employees who had volunteered to take shifts working at the event. This included manning the plane for tours, manning Southwest's public lounge, and manning Southwest's 'private party' employee/VIP tent.
We made the 29 minute flight from Chicago's Midway airport (which is now an all new airport...new terminal, new parking garage, new concourse...very nice), arriving just before 8am. People were sitting on the grass parallel to the length of the runway, stationed to have prime viewing of the flying shows. It's really neat to have lines of people waving at you as you taxi in.
We got off the plane outside on jet stairs as people watched. Southwest made it as big a spectacle as possible by dressing us all in special event shirts and caps with the intention of creating an impressive visual. This had an unintended side effect that happened throughout the show...Since I looked like a Southwest employee, people assumed I was an employee of the whole show and regularly asked me all sorts of questions about "where is this" and "how do I find that". Somebody asked me if the Southwest jet was "the Dreamliner".
(No...that was only here Friday.)
Anyway, I saw lots and lots of planes, got really really hot (89 and humid, you know...I look like a boiled lobster today), and had a bratwurst for lunch, being in Wisconsin and all.
The air show was awesome. They had flyovers of several aircraft and a faux air battle between fighters that included ground pyro. Very impressive.
But probably the most impressive part of the day for me was experiencing the Southwest employee culture up close. These people love their company and it's very apparent the company loves them. Pulling this off was significantly more difficult than it looks on paper and required a lot of logistical planning, and like anything of this magnitude, not everything went right. But there was no shortage of employees willing to take the lead in solving a crisis, and no shortage of employees willing to assist.
There's a reason Southwest is better at what they do than any other airline. And I enjoyed experiencing it up close for a day.
