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?