Titusville FL

MON June 28

Well the day started out fine with a Cantaloupe that Marian gave me yesterday but it went downhill from there.

What I thought was going to be a simple call to AAA to have someone come out and put my spare trailer tire on turned into an all day big-buck event that will include tomorrow.

I called AAA and they said I was not covered currently and for the trailer would be about $200.00 per year. I called Good Sam Club and they said $112.95 per year, discounted to $79.95 for new members. I’m still thinking about this and will call USAA to see if they offer a service and I’m going to call Dianna.

Next I went to the check in center and asked if there was tire service nearby and they said their maintenance guy could do about 1:00 PM and they set that. I decided I didn’t want to wait 4+ hours so I called again and asked for a service number, called and set them to come with a new tire. I had a spare but they quoted only $53.00 for a new tire and I didn’t think I could beat that without a lot of shopping so new tire.

I understood the truck would be on its way shortly but after waiting a couple of hours and no tire service show I called again and sorry yada, yada, yada, he’ll be there in an hour, he showed at 1:28 PM and when he was changing the tire that had thrown the tread, curbside, he showed me a tire on the roadside that was showing through to the steel-belt and another tire that had a large bump meaning the tread was separating on that one also. Ok that’s one new tire replacing the flat on the trailer, the trailer spare on the other tire showing the steel-belt and tomorrow I will drive to their shop to save me the $70.00 road service fee, drop the trailer for the day and let them give me two more new tires and keep the current tire that really doesn’t show any problem as my spare.

Well that shot the day but breakfast was good and I’m reading a good book and tomorrow back to being a tourist. It was different sitting outside reading and hearing the squirrels running through the dry palm trees to get to the oak trees they really wanted to go to. And watching BIG rain storms blow through.

Tonight I am grilling pork chops and having a cold one.


J F Kennedy Space Center

TUE June 29

This morning I pulled the trailer over to the tire shop and left it for two more new tires, counting the tire replacing the one that threw the tread and the “new” spare I had them put on yesterday that makes all new rubber on the ground; I feel safer.

After dropping the trailer I headed over to the J F Kennedy Space Center and spent the entire day there; I had a ball. I did a bus tour that took me to, well close to, a shuttle launch pad and the assembly building, then to an old Atlas/Saturn complex and lastly to a International Space Station assembly building. All stops had very outstanding displays, mostly original, and outstanding mockups. Back at the welcome center I went to several more buildings showing the history of both the US and other countries and I learned a lot and it brought back a lot of memories. After the Space Center I went down the road to the Astronaut Hall of Fame building, very much the same as the main NASA Welcome Center but focused more on the people and not the hardware.

Interesting facts. 1 = stars on the American flag on the big assembly building are 6 feet diagonally. 2 = there are two main cranes in the assembly building used when mating the Shuttle to the external tanks and 1 can move as little as 1/16,000 of an inch North, South, East or West and the other can move as little as 1/50,000 of an inch up or down. How about that for precision?

I also found out that the next Shuttle launch has been postponed again, this time until October 29 so I will definitely have to knock this off my Adventure itinerary.

I walked and walked and then I picked up my trailer went back to the RV park and went to the pool, ah!

Miami, Miami Beach, Delray Beach

SAT June 26

Nice drive up the Keys and once off the Keys a short drive up the coast to Miami.

The RV park I am staying at is nice but two comments. Most parks have nice little signs saying to not park on the grass so they can keep it growing, here the grass blanket is so deep you couldn’t kill it if you tried, legally tried that is. Second comment is on their swimming pool; it is round, 3’ deep at the edges going to 6’ in the middle. I haven’t ever seen a pool designed like that and the biggest problem as I see it is that it allows small children to be all around you, can’t go to the deep end and hang on to get away from them. Ah but the water was nice and refreshing.

I went into Miami Beach and the South Beach area and to compare Key West Duval Street with South Beach, I like Duval Street better, seems like a better class of people.

They have some really tall apartment buildings here and with my earthquake mentality from California I don’t think I would be very comfortable on the 25+ floor. They also have a lot of boats, seems like per capita, Florida tops the list for personal boats. But topping the list are the out of control drivers. The politicians let the population grow without a growth in infrastructure and then had to turn 2-lane roads into thin lane 3-lane roads and the drivers drive way over the speed limit and swerve between lanes without signals cutting you off, not for me.

SUN

Drove north from Miami with a stop off in Delray Beach to have lunch with my Aunt Marian Knox Buehler and meet her son Chuck. We talked for three hours catching up each other and enjoying a good lunch. I also picked up mail that Marla had forwarded to me in care of Marian.

Watch out for Florida Turnpikes, I paid $9.00 to drive about 42-miles.

I pulled into a beautiful RV park in Titusville and when hooking up I noticed that my curb-side rear tire had thrown off all the retread and was going flat fast; you know those long pieces of tire rubber you see on highways, well one of them is mine. Boy was I lucky it didn’t happen 4-miles earlier when I was on the Interstate. Tomorrow I’ll get it changed and buy a new one.

Key West Day Three

FRI June 25

Out on my bike for a little exercise and to explore around the area, good to stretch out muscles. I have decided that Key West and in particular Sigsbee Park where I am staying looks and feels a lot like GTMO [the weather, sun-reflecting coral and sand base, Iguana lizards, water birds] and that’s to be expected since Key West is only 90-miles from Havana. “…looks and feels…” but isn’t thank goodness, the civilian atmosphere here is a thousand percent better than military atmosphere of GTMO, what a great attitude I’m experiencing from both the locals and the tourists.

Also today I went to the beach. Again like GTMO, Key West has coral rock beaches and since I don’t have cheap tennis shoes I want to swim in and ruin I elected to go north a few Keys to Marathon Key and Bahia Honda State Park which has three sandy beaches on its leeward side and I swam, laid on the sand and read my book and enjoyed lunch.

Tonight after supper I’m going back downtown to Duval Street and just wander up and down and tomorrow I out-of-here for Miami.

Key West Night One & Day Two

WED PM

Duval Street, it's all attitude and was so much more relaxing for me than a certain New Orleans street. I walked up and down and took it all in, the people, the shops, the street musicians [who seemed to multiply after the sun went down]; even the smell of cigar smoke from the shops and men playing a role didn’t bother me that much.

I had a wonderful supper at Conch Republic Seafood; stir-fry shrimp and scallops with Asian vegetables and a Passion Fruit sweet & sour glaze served in a pineapple quarter with rice. Plus a cold Coors and a glass of Riesling wine. Followed by desert of Key Lime pie, what else, and a beautiful sunset.

THU

Today was tourist day. I first went to local Cemetery to see Battleship USS Maine plot and memorial that was offered by the citizens of Key West to the Navy because Key West was the closest American port to Cuba and accepted by the Navy since the Navy did not have a burial site. Next was Earnest Hemingway’s house and followed that with a tour of the “Little White House” that President Truman used so often. What I like about these tours is the way they have reinstalled the original furnishings or done near perfect copies from photographs; really gives me a sense of how it was when they were using the house. I wanted to take the tour out to Dry Tortugas National Park but after I found out it was an all day tour and cost $135.00 I let that one slide. I did a lot of walking and driving around the downtown historic section.

There are antique stores and then there are antiques in use. There is a payphone on the wall at the park shower, when was the last time you saw a payphone?

Back to the base to rest a bit and cook some hamburgers for supper. It started to sprinkle a bit about 10-minutes after I started the coals at the time I was going to put the burgers on but I went about my plan and the shower passed on, that doesn’t look like what going to happen in the next hour so I guess I will stay home tonight.

Key West FL

WED June 23

A nice relaxing drive down Highway US 1 through first Key Largo [Where’s Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and Edward G. Robinson?] at the speed limit of either 45 or 55 to Key West and you could feel the change in attitude the minute you hit the chain of keys. Had to stop one for a draw bridge so sail boats could pass under and notice an immediate change in gasoline prices, up at least 25₵.

Check into the RV park at Naval Air Station Key West, $21.00/night vs. Good Sam or Passport America at $45.00+ with membership discount. I have an wonderful view and as I was walking out about 20-yards to enjoy it I saw two dolphins swimming by and naturally I didn’t have my camera.

Off to supper and to check out the nightlife.

Homestead FL

TUE

Today I went to the Everglades National Park and strangely with all that water around me I believe the humidity was down and it was rather pleasant.

When I was driving along the northern edge of the Everglades was one of those time you wish you could click an instant picture; big sign, “Burns Lake Campground” and under that a smaller sign “No Camping”. Followed a mile later by “Monument Lake Campground” “Closed”. Not very hospitable.

I didn’t do an airboat ride and I didn’t see any alligators or crocodiles or manatees but I did see a lot of birds and heard a lot of bull-frogs, ribbet. I did see a Florida Soft Shell Turtle and bromeliads growing in a “Pond Apple” tree.

I hike a couple of trails and just enjoyed the pleasant quiet of nature.

Sarasota FL

MON June 21

Here I am in Sarasota FL at a very nice RV park; nice that is in appearance and in swimming pool but no internet access and no community shower, life’s a beach. Ah, there’s nothing like a swim to relax me after a long day.

SUN I headed south from Pensacola along the Gulf through Fort Walton Beach, Panama City, Apalachicola then up to Tallahassee to spend the night and then today through Suwannee, Crystal River, Weeki Wachee and Spring Hill. My GPS wanted to send me to a toll-road but I kept it recalculating until I got tired of all the small town stop lights and turned east to the toll-road. Mistake, it took me 30-minutes longer and cost me a total of $7.25 in tolls.

The thrill of the day came early when I was traveling down US-19, a nice 4-lane divided FL highway with lots of grass in the median and on the shoulders. Of course the grass is slick and soggy with all the rain lately. Anyway, there I was going 65 in a 65 zone when a Pontiac charged passed me like gangbusters; he had to be doing 80+. And a Florida State Trooper was patrolling North on the other side and must have had forward looking speed radar because he immediately hit his lights and siren and started a fish-tailing u-turn across the median. I thought he was going to hit me and I started for the right shoulder and then changed my mind because of the wet grass and braced for impact. The Trooper must not of seen me when he started his u-turn but saw me moving over so he hit his breaks and I wiggled on past. After he saw I had control of my car and trailer he took off and caught the speeder. That’ll get you heart beating.

Oh yea two things I forgot. Last FRI at NAS Pensacola I heard them blow a siren and then make a loud speaker announcement that because of the heat a “Black Flag” condition had been declared and all unnecessary outside work and instruction should be curtailed. Ok, the only noticeable change in activity I saw was in increase on the number of joggers on the running paths.

The second item was this AM when I got up and discovered I didn’t have any water. I opened the trailer door and saw a lot of water but thought that was from the rain most of the night but when I went to the road-side of the trailer I saw that my water hose had popped off the female end and the flood was coming from the park connection; off to Home Depot for repair parts. The joy of trailering.

More Pensacola

SAT

Hanging out at the beach, swimming, reading and eating lunch; just relaxing.

I think pelicans are cool.

I don’t think ankle-biting sand fleas are cool.

Pensacola

FRI June 18

Last night I learned that the RV campground is REAL close to the flight-line and the helicopter area but the REALLY LOUD noises come from the engine test cells; the sound of freedom can get REALLY LOUD

Also the RV campground beach is closed but open about a quarter mile in either direction.

The last time I was here was about 30 years ago with Dianna and Mickey for Gerry’s wedding, don’t remember a thing.

They have a great Naval Aviation museum here and I really enjoyed it. Lots of refurbished old planes and explanatory movies and posters, very Navy aviation educational. In addition they advertise that they have the old NAS Cubi Point Officer’s Club plaque bar that is incorporated into their café. I had been to the original bar in the Philippines many times and can’t attest that this is the original because there was a lot more light in the museum than there was in the Philippines Cubi bar.

There is also the early American Fort Barrancas that incorporated an earlier Spanish fort for the protection of Pensacola Bay and its Navy Yard. The earlier Spanish fort is called the Water Battery because the Spanish built it to skip cannon balls over the surface of the bay to hit ships at the waterline.

NAS Pensacola is the most squared away Naval Station I have seen in decades. They have really put a lot of work into keeping the buildings and grounds in great shape, wish I could have been stationed here.

I saw something at the O'Club that I havent's seen before, two parking places reserved for Veterans, cool.

I went to the beach today only to arrive shortly after a clap of thunder and that meant they chased everyone out of the water for 30-minutes and restarted the 30 clock with ever new clap; I went back and worked on my new trailer door window and drank a Coors.

Gulf to Pensacola

THU June 17

Traded the heat, humidity and rains of New Orleans for a beautiful drive along the Gulf coast to NAS Pensacola arriving just in time to enjoy heat, humidity and rain so hard I had to slow down to 10 MPH.

I headed east from New Orleans to Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Gulfport and then back to the Interstate a Biloxi and onward to Pensacola.

I first pulled off to go to the NASA John C. Stennis Space Center that bills itself as America’s largest rocket test complex. I wanted to take their tour but as luck would have it they were closed today for a “NASA Event”.

Please do not take the following comments as in any way diminishing the environmental and economic problems brought on by the Deep Water Horizon.

I saw my first oil spill containment boom from the bridge leaving Bay St. Louis to Pass Christian. It seemed to be deployed as preventative in case the oil moved toward the bay; saw other booms at a couple of other bayous where they opened to the Gulf.

What I did see was a lot of clean beaches and only 2 clean-up workers strolling down the waterline.

I thought Pass Christian was a beautiful town with columned homes facing the Gulf, oh for the money to be able to afford to own and vacation. And afford the hurricane insurance.

In Gulfport MS I did see many workers being trained in how to do cleanup. I knew it was training by their number; they weren’t picking anything up and there were people swimming in the gulf where they were along the beach.

I also saw the broken tree art done by Marlin Miller and Dayton Scroggins,
http://www.gulfcoastnews.com/GCNnewsMillerSculpture012209.htm , and thought about the saying lemons and lemonade.

New Orleans

WED June 16

So I took advantage of the French Quarter free shuttle and spent the day there walking and drinking it all in. I made the rounds of all the usual places and some unusual places.

I started off by walking over to the river and watching the boats and then on to Jefferson Park where I listened to a Park Ranger explain about the founding of New Orleans. One of the things he said was that the word "'Dixie'" refers to privately issued currency from banks in Louisiana. These banks issued ten-dollar notes labeled "Dix", French for "ten", on the reverse side. These notes are now highly sought-after for their numismatic value. The notes were known as "Dixies" by English-speaking southerners, and the area around New Orleans and the French-speaking parts of Louisiana came to be known as "Dixieland". Eventually, usage of the term broadened to refer to most of the Southern States.

After that I was wandering around the Park when it started to rain lightly so since I was planning on going inside anyway I went over to the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis King of France. Wow what a great church; that’s how churches should be built again.

When I came out of the Basilica it was pouring rain [Thank you Marla for leaving me your umbrella and for the record one of the supports isn’t supporting; “Not my fault Dr. Jones.” It was rains so hard it had run the tarot card readers and mimes off. Just FYI, the balconies in the French Quarter do a very bad job of keeping rain off the sidewalk, had to keep the umbrella up. The rain did lower the temperature but not the humidity so all in all it was a positive thing.

I was walking down Bourbon Street thinking about what the price of real estate with a Bourbon Street address must be and then I noticed how tawdry it was with all lingerie stores and strip clubs.

You know one of the things that has made an impression on me this trip is big rivers, the Mississippi and the Cumberland, and big bridges.

Love the feel and architecture of the French Quarter but off tomorrow for new places.

Vicksburg – Natchez – Baton Rouge – New Orleans

TUE June 15

I stayed MON night at a RV park in Vicksburg that was an annex of a riverside casino and when I checked in they gave me a voucher for a free buffet breakfast at the casino. There was also a free shuttle service so I couldn’t pass it up and stuffed myself with a ham & cheese omelet, sausage, bacon, sausage gravy, fried potatoes and corned beef hash. Um, um, good.

Off to the Vicksburg National Military Park and it made up for my disappointment with the Tupelo National Battlefield. I started with the Visitor Center 20-minute movie to give the overall perspective and then I did the driving tour. Thinking back to the pictures of the era that I had seen there weren’t many trees shown but today the area is full of trees. But the driving tour took me up and down hills and the North and South positions were well marked and explained. I was very easy to see the advantages the South had with the high ground and how hard it was for the North to attack uphill. This is an excellent Civil War battlefield and you can see the pride taken by the various states by the monument they erected early last century. Also lots of cannon and lots of Generals.

Onward to Natchez, lunch and a visit to the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians; I enjoyed the small museum and visitors center showing arts and crafts of the Natchez and then I walked the area to see the burial mounds for chiefs and a replica house.

I drove through Baton Rouge looking for a McDonalds so I could get Wi-Fi. Didn’t see any signs so I got off at the LSU exit thinking I could find something and that didn’t work either so off to New Orleans without a real plan on where I was going to stay since a call told me that the RV park run by the Naval Support Activity was closed down. Finally found a McD and got a couple of addresses and moved out to the less expensive one, pulled in and pulled right out, nope. My second choice is very good; on a waterway, across from a yacht repair facility and also with a shuttle to the French Quarter.

Natchez Trace

SUN June 13

Left Clarksville and the Special Forces McLeans and headed for the Nashville airport to drop Marla off for her flight back to Phoenix and Sun City West while I head down the Natchez Trace to Tupelo MS to see the Tupelo National Battlefield and oh by the way Tupelo is the birthplace of Elvis.

The drive was pretty but long, 130 miles of tall trees and mowed grass road shoulders broken every now and again by fields of corn and sometimes hay fields. The Trace is one of the very early “highways” in the U.S. opened to support commerce between Nashville and the South down toward New Orleans.

Oh yes, Meriwether Lewis, he of Lewis and Clark, died and is buried on the Natchez Trace and I stopped there.

Stayed at a very nice RV park.


MON morning I headed off to the Tupelo National Battlefield Park and was really disappointed. I don’t know where I heard of the Park making me wanting to visit but it was only 2 cannon, a couple of stone monuments, a flag pole and an information board, all in a Park about a quarter of a city block totally.

Next was off to Elvis Presley’s birthplace and then down to Vicksburg MS.

MS roads really have me slowing down, they aren’t level and whip the trailer tossing clothes off hangers and moving other things around if they aren’t held down.

Something interesting about MS license plates; most states have special plates and that includes license plates for their universities. But MS has a plate that has the LSU logo on it. Why would one state give special attention to another state and a football rival?

More Clarksville

We also visited Forrest’s office at Fort Campbell and met the members of his team that were there. They were in a new building that was much more suited to their needs than the old building we last saw.

We also enjoyed a very good BBQ lunch in the Nashville area with Dave Pigg and talked about family. But the trip down to the restaurant and the trip back was weird, our Garmin GPS took us down and back essentially paralleling and not on the Interstate highway.

We got to go to Kira’s gymnastics class and watch her and since it was the last class saw her awarded a medal

The real true highlight of the visit was FRI night joining Forrest and Kit at the 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group formal Dining Out. The Colonel and his staff planned and executed a great occasion and we met very many people who all had good things to say about Forrest.

Clarksville Bound and There

SUN June 7

Good Laudy [remember I’m in the South], this is embarrassing, this isn’t right. Am I that slow pulling a trailer? I just got passed by a SMART car on the Interstate to Nashville.

Arrived at Forrest, Kit & Kira home for a BBQ steak dinner; um, um, good, both good food and great company.

MON June 8 we were off to Fort Donelson TN where after a year of war the Union won a major victory that opened up TN to Nashville that was a major railroad switching area and also effectively lost both KY and TN to the South. Two Confederate generals skedaddled and ordered a third General to surrender 13,000 Confederate soldiers, the largest number ever surrender in the war.

But MON night was the highlight of the trip so far. Highlight? There we were relaxing in the evening when a lady that neither Forrest nor kit knew pulled into their driveway and asked if they owned black cattle. To shorten the story, 5 of their 10 had gotten through a gap in the fence that was caused by the recent rains silting up the wire and eventually bringing it down. So we drove around the “neighborhood”, found the cattle, Forrest and I then drove them back across neighbors mowed green lawns and then through the woods and finally back on to their property. That’s when the real work started and Forrest gathered up barbed-wire, fence stakes, clips, staples, hammer and cutters and we mended about 10-yards of fence-line across a creek where the cattle had gotten through. When the mending started it was dusk and we finished in the dark about 9:00 PM with flashlight headlamps on.

TUE Marla and I went to The Hermitage, the home of President Andrew Jackson and did there museum and the walking tour of the house and grounds. President Jackson is buried on the grounds and his marker is for General Andrew Jackson because they say he considered that to be the top achievement of his life.

We finished the day with a feast at the Red Lobster; drinks, lobster pizza, crab legs, fried shrimp, shrimp scampi, more lobster and chicken for Ms. Kira.

More Memphis Pictures

See blog below for narative.

Memphis TN

FRI June 4

Back to the city I was born in for the first time since 1979 or 1980, can’t remember exactly.

FRI Marla and I started with breakfast at IHOP followed by the tour of Graceland. It is on my list of recommended things to do in Memphis because Elvis Presley was such a great performer and I also feel a great American because when his number was called for the draft he put his career on hold and went into the Army. He didn’t go hide in Canada or change his name and claim a religious objection, he went.

After the tour we ate lunch at Corkey’s BBQ on Poplar St, I remembered the Pig & Whistle BBQ in Memphis but Google did find the P & W I was looking for.

Oh, side story, walked into Corkey’s wearing an In & Out t-shirt and the hostess said where in California are you from, she recognized In & Out. Similar thing happened in McKinney TX when we were out for lunch with Gus & Di, In & Out t-shirt and as we were leaving the folks at a table stopped me and asked if I worked for In & Out because they had heard that I & O was looking for a location in the area to open for business; love t-shirts that start conversations.

Back to Memphis, after lunch I wanted to do a drive-by of 229 N. McNeil St, old family home from the 1940’s when Mom& I lived with her Mother, Grandmother and assorted Aunts. House is now designated historic and looks fairly well preserved but you could tell the neighborhood was 80+ years old, but I saw it.

From McNeil St we looked at our map and headed for Elwood Cemetery to go see some relatives. On the way over and driving down Cleveland St I saw a church and when almost passed it made a hard right turn. Sacred Heart Church and across Jefferson what was once Sacred Heart School where I went to the 1st and 2nd grades in 1948 – 49. The neighborhood has changed, church signs are now in English, Spanish and Vietnamese.

After a couple of pictures, onward to Elwood, check in with the office on location information and then Marla and I spent 20-minutes schlepping around where we were told to go, covering the area at least 3 times and not finding any markers; went back to the office to confirm the area, yes, but this time she asked if I wanted a superintendant to meet us and I said yes. The superintendant took a look at the copy of the registration she gave us and took us to a different part of the cemetery where the markers I was looking for were easily located; one of these years I’ll really get to work on my genealogy project instead of picking at it for an hour a year.

SAT June 5

Today was Mud Island River Park, Mud Island was really just mud 30-years ago when I was last here but they have developed it to a Mississippi river Museum and a 5-block water-flowing model of the lower part of the Mississippi River, Ohio River merge to Gulf of Mexico disappearance, lots of walking but educational and enjoyable. Love the Mississippi, cargo moves by ship and barges; air and trucks get a lot of attention but in order of tonnage it is ship/barge, rail road, truck and then air.

After Mud Island we went to lunch on Beale St and enjoyed VERY LOUD blues music and the different places tried to get you to come in and more pork BBQ. Beale St, a fun happening place for drinks and music.

Then back to the Mississippi River to a place where I saw they had some paddle-wheel boats, I’m always a tourist.

Also had to go back to Sacred Heart Church for mass. Small group, only 17 people, but the church was in very good condition.

Forgot to mention that we are at the Memphis-Graceland RV Park & Campground just off Love Me Tender Blvd on Heartbreak Lane.