A long drive from Bakersfield to Redding

     A really long driving day, 475 miles of viewing every kind of fruit and vegetable grown in the US!  Or so it seems!  We drove up US 99 through the San Joaquin Valley to Hanford, cut across the state past the Lemore Naval Air Station (why in the world is their a NAVAL air station in the middle of an agricultural valley???), then up Interstate 5 to Redding.

     US 99 was the most interesting part of the journey, as we traveled through this heavy agricultural area predominately growing citrus fruits.  Off to the east, the whole ride north, were the Sierra Nevada's covered with snow tops, and they made a most impressive backdrop.  

      We saw a sign for a California Welcome center as we drove, and after turning off in Tulare CA were most surprised to see a B-17 and F-4 Phantom parked on the service road!  Jim got out and took some pictures.  Turns out the B-17 was a gift from the USAF to the AMVETS commemorating the WWII veterans from the area; the plane, "Prestons Pride", was named after a local USAF General (Preston, of course!) who flew the plane in.  The F-4 Phantom was another gift from the Air Force, and has a memorial plaque in front of it with the names of all the local veterans who were killed in Vietnam.

     Going across the state, probably about 50 miles or so, the mammoth fields under cultivation give one only the barest picture of why we have the abundance of food that we do.  Thousands of acres, and occasionally we'd see a "gang" of agricultural workers picking stuff or planting things in the field.  What really surprised us was the lack of living quarters for these folks--where in the world DO thay live?

The drive up I 5 was really pretty boring.  Again, it was mostly agriculture, but now we were more into trees. Lots of evergreens, with an occasional redwood.;  The west side of  the road was foothills almost the entire route north, and what was most surprising to us was how green they were, mile after mile.  We've never seen anything but brown foothills in California before!
     Sacramento is supposed to be the "city of trees", but the highway is enclosed by those noise barrier walls the entire distance through the city.    North of there, we saw numerous olive groves and grapevines along the route.
     As we arrived in Redding, we saw how the city was surrounded by beautiful mountains (predominated by Mt. Shasta), but we couldn't see the tops due to the heavy clouds.  The campground was beautiful, large lots surrounded by trees and very well laid out.  One of the best we've been to!

On the road to Bakersfield

     It was a driving day for us, 411 miles from Williams to Bakersfield, CA. We took I40 to it's terminus in Barstow, CA (home of the Marine Corps Repair Depot for the West), and then US 58 all the way to Bakersfield.

Transiting the various deserts was interesting, and the change in scenery was fascinating. Coming across the Mojave desert makes one wonder how the West ever got settled. We got a kick out of going through Boron, and 40 mule team Borax road running across the highway to the Borax plant.

It was "look at planes parked in the desert" day, too. We stopped in Kingman Airport in AZ where there are all sorts of planes, including a lot of American Eagle and Continental Express ERJ's. Later we stopped in Mojave at their airport, which has a similar collection of parked military and civilian airliners. The photo above is of one of the last surviving Convair 990's, which greets you at the gate of the Mojave airport.

After getting up to 20 degree weather the past few days and high's in the 60's, you cannot believe how we enjoyed eating our dinner at a picnic table in 80 degree weather tonight!!

The Grand Canyon

     Spectacular! Awesome! Magical! Pick any superlative word, anyone you want, and it describes the Grand Canyon!

     The day started early--Dudley wanted up at 5am again! We walked the dogs to the Grand Canyon Railroad RV Park Doggie Day Care kennel, and they seemed quite happy to be there for the day. We walked around town a little, and settled on the "classic" diesel powered train. We were in old Buddliner cars, and the ride up and back (2 hrs 15 min each way) was comfortable and well done by the rail company. Each car had it's own host or hostess, ours being Morgan who was celebrating her 55th birthday. She was full of info, most interesting being her description of living "off the grid" herself 40 miles from nowhere in a log cabin she built, solar power panels providing electricity, and no water except what she trucked in. The entertainment also included a cowboy guitarist, a harmonica and accordian player who was an absolute riot as a comedian, and a staged holdup on the way back. Good show altogether!

       The park itself was the attraction, and truly is one of the wonders of the world. The views are breathtaking, and Becky took movies while Jim took still pictures (some shown above). We were there for 3 1/2 hours, and walked over 3 miles along the rim at 7000 feet. It was a little tough getting used to the thin air at that altitude, but the exercise felt good and we enjoyed every minute of being there. We plan on going back again someday, and see more of the south rim and the north rim, which is closed because it's still winter there!

It was simply a great day!

Williams, AZ

     Williams is a delightful little town, founded in 1846 by--William S. William, pictured above. It came into it's own with the advent of the Sante Fe railroad, and the Grand Canyon Railroad founded in 1901. It was also a prominent stop on old historic Route 66, which has become a major industry in and of itself as far as tourism is concerned. There are lots of little "mom and pop" restaurants and stores, very "western" in theme, and a cute little town.

     We didn't see much of it Thursday or Friday, but walked around a bit Saturday morning before getting on the train to the Grand canyon.

Xanterra Corp owns the RV Park, the railroad, and operates a good part of the tourism infrastructure on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. They seem to do a quality job, and the RV park is excellent with all the amenities, and paved level spots throughout. The enhancement that enticed us here was the Pet Resort facility they have attached to their office building, a "doggie day care" or overnight facility. It was the perfect place to leave Rosie and Dudley while we headed off on the all day train to the Grand Canyon!

Will have a seperate post on our trip to the Grand Canyon today

Sedona, AZ

 

     It was incredibly windy overnight here in Williams; temperature in the 20's when we woke up, but clear skies. After driving to Flagstaff on I40, we headed south on old route 89A. This is a beautiful drive, winding roads through Ponderosa Pines. We saw a "scenic overlook" sign as we were getting towards Sedona, and pulled into it. Fantastic mountain views (first picture above)

in all directions, and we could see the switchbacks we would be driving as we went south. There was also an area where native American women were selling arts, jewelry, and other locally made products.

     We drove into Sedona, and were surprised as to how busy it was on a Friday morning. Tough to find parking, particularly in an RV! We walked around for awhile, admiring the beauty of the surrounding sandstone mountains and the picture perfect, clean town that Sedona was. Streets were packed with art, bronze statues, every kind of quality "art" shop one would want, and--unfortunately, an awful lot of touristy outlets. Sandstone tee-shirts anyone???

Sedona is one of those cities that has adopted an animal as it's town "mascot" to be painted in various schemes. Sedona has chosen the Javelin, and we saw numerous examples around town. Jim particularly got a kick out of the one sponsored by the local Rotary Club.

     Driving out of Sedona, we went south and ended up climbing into those incredible hills!  The RV handled the climb and the hairpin turns with great aplomb.  The views were just spectacular, and we were really glad we had tried this alternative route back to Williams.  The land to the south of the mountains was back to your basic desert.  We had to stop and let the dogs do their business, and our big concern was rattlers!

Meteor Crater, AZ

     The day started in the low 30's as usual, and we took our time getting started and heading west on I40. Becky spotted a sign to Meteor Crater, which she had seen from the air when she was a bit younger, and it was only 5 miles off the highway. What a great find! It's quite fascinating, to see how a meteor only 150' across could do such incredible damage. When it impacted 50,000 years ago, it weighed several hundred thousand tons, and struck the plain with an explosive force greater than 20 million tons of TNT. The crater it carved was over 700' deep, and 4000 feet across. The three photos above show Becky with Katahdin sitting on the rim; a second photo of the pit, where you can see some excavation at the bottom. The third photo is a closeup of the excavation area, and though it's barely visible in the lower right corner of the excavation (right in the center of the photo), there is a 6 foot cutout of an astronaut with an American flag to give perspective.

     They have a very informative museum regarding this crater and others, and a 10" animated movie of the history of the crater. We really enjoyed the stop!

We changed our plans on where we were heading for the night, and went to the old Route 66 town of Williams and a great RV park, the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park. It was a short driving day for us, and we spent the afternoon cleaning the RV, doing laundry, and letting the dogs enjoy the crisp clean air at 6000 feet!

Dallas to Holbrook, AZ

     We spent almost 18 hours driving over the two day period, 878 miles of basically boring driving, though the scenery across New Mexico was pretty interesting. The first day from Dallas to Amarillo on US 287 and then Interstate 40 to Tucumcari, NM could be summarized as--lots of beef, endless oil wells, and then cotton fields. We were also amazed at the number of huge BNSF (Burlington Northern Sante Fe) Railroad trains we saw, most propelled by 4 locomotives and seemingly miles long. Scenery got somewhat better when we hit New Mexico, and started seeing some Mesas.

     The following day from Tucumcari to Holbrook was a bit more interesting. While the day started off cool and clear, we found ourselves at one point driving through blizzard conditions before we got to Albuquerque! Saw several bad vehicle accidents during the day, including an overturned RV that probably got hit with a wind gust. West of Albuquerque Jim was looking at what appeared to be a mining complex, situated next to a mountain, when all of a sudden the mountain literally exploded with yellow, gray, and black blossoming out of nowhere. It reminded him of what is called a "time on target" in the military, when an artillery battery fires all six guns at the same time to impact in a small area. Explosion was very similar, and seemed quite unusual with 25 miles or so of the city. After that, it was one endless series of mesas after another. One certainly gets to appreciate the vastness of the West when one drives I40!

We paralleled old historic route 66 much of the way on I40, and there is a lot of tourism associated with it. After stopping at a gas station, the Rio Puerco automotive bridge was sitting there just waiting to be included in a photo op! The other two pictures above are of the Tucumcari campground, and a panorama of the Tucumcari Mountain.

A day at Kay Singer's in Hurst, TX

     Monday was a busy day. Becky spent a good part of the day raking leaves in Mom's backyard, and Jim spent a bit of time down in Fort Worth at McClains; they do warranty work on Itasca RV's, and they did a good job for us. Initially said it would be several days, but in the afternoon said they would have it finished for us today. We enjoyed talking with the relatives, and showing them our photos from the "Tulips and Windmills" cruise we had been on last year--Jane is going to Bruges in December, and we wanted her to see our photos of that beautiful city that we had enjoyed so much.
After dinner, we drove over to Jeff's house in Dallas to spend the night and pick up our bicycles and bike gear, that we had left there for the week.

Off to Hurst, TX

     Woke up to nicer weather than yesterday, but still cold and very windy. Didn't bother the dogs, though, and Rosie enjoyed her last "race around the yard." After helping tidy up "the Ranch", we all headed back to the DFW area--Lea and the kids to home, Becky and Jim to his mother, Kay's home in Hurst.

Had a nice time sitting around talking with Kay and Jim's two sisters, Jane and Mary Lou. Our dogs got along fine with 2 of their 3, Star and Buda (Dudley in particularly likes to make friends with "little" dogs). The 3d one, Cocoa, felt like he needed to protect his turf and let us know it the entire time we were there.

Jane made a nice dinner, and we watched the first episode of "The Pacific" that evening before retiring to the RV for the night.

"The Ranch" at Possum Kingdom Lake

     After several terrific weather days in the Hill Country, our first night in frigid Possum Kingdom Lake was characterized by heavy rain all night long, 35 degree temperatures, and winds up to 30 mph! Weather actually deteriorated all day, and by late morning (and the rest of the day) we were getting sleet and SNOW! Good grief!! The dogs loved being here, though--they got to run free, and the weather suited them fine! The top photo of sunset was actually taken last night--didn't download it till today. The panorama is what it looks like today!

     It was an administrative catch-up day for us; laundry, refueling the RV, relaxing. We did have an air hockey tournement down in the game room, which brings everyone's emotions out big time! Winner is irrelevant, but it's always fun and even petite Beth can hold her own with the biggest and baddest of us!

Jeff and Lea took us out to their favorite steakhouse here, the Wildcatter restaurant and resort. They took us there last time, too, and for the second time in a row it was cold and snowing. Southport, incidentally, is much warmer and snow free!

A driving day - to Possum Kingdom Lake

     A travel day, 307 miles from Fredericksburg to Possum Kingdom Lake. Not much exciting to report about--saw hundreds of goats--more than anyplace we've ever been! If we're here in April, we can go to the great goat meat cookoff! Guess we'll miss that!

     Jeff got here about the same time we did, and after supper we watched some March Madness and then Batman Begins, the first movie.

     No pictures today--just picture a long day in the RV for us, and in the Odyssey for Lea and the kids!

Fredericksburg

It was a beautiful day in Fredericksburg, and we started the day with a visit to the terrific Museum of the Pacific War, entering through the Admiral Nimitz house and museum. After a short trip through the house, one goes through an open courtyard with plaques commemorating all the units that served in the Pacific under Nimitz. The main museum is complete, educational, and fascinating. We got through 1/2 of the tour in a little over an hour, then visited the gift shop.

     We then went to visit Treys Petmecky's parents, Bill and Fay who retired in Fredericksburg. Their daughter Licia and kids Fiona and Liam were there, and you would think they had been best friends with Beth and Drew for years! The kids flew kites and played Wi while the grownups visited, then we went to Charlies for lunch. Charlies is an unknown local treasure that few tourists find out about, but is crammed full of locals everyday who enjoy wonderful hamburgers (specialty on Jalapena cheese rolls!) and play FREE miniature golf. Needless to say, the kids loved the place, and we all enjoyed it, too. Turns out Bill's family goes back to the beginning of Fredericksburg, and his great-great grandfather was the first Pastor of the VerEins church that we visited yesterday! In addition, his father was a first cousin of Admiral Nimitz! We had a great visit with them.

Lea and Beth then went back to their rental home to relax, and Becky, Jim and Drew returned to the museum. We started with a walk to the "Pacific Combat Zone" 3 blocks away, which is a great add-on to the main exhibit hall and has a one hour tour. One sees among other things a TBM bomber on a simulated carrier deck; the last surviving PT boat that actually fought in the Pacific (PT-309); and a replical of the Tarawa beach head, complete with Japanese tanks. We returned after that to the main museum, and completed the self guided tour. There is so much to see, and it is so well done, that we missed a lot.

     We returned to the house, got the dogs (who loved played in the big yard), and ate sandwiches and relaxed together for a few hours.

Naturall Bridge Cavern and Kerrville

     It's been a beautiful day here in Fredericksburg, and we had a good time in a few different ways. Becky, Lea and the kids drove to Natural Bridge Caverns down near New Braunfels, and had a great time touring and exploring the caves. The went on 2 long tours, hiked for quite a distance vertically, and the kids panned for gems (and came home with some souvenir finds!).

     At the same time, Jim met an old friend of his from American Airlines and Parsons, Bill White. Bill retired to Kerrville, and he picked Jim up and drove him down there where they had lunch with Bill's wife Becky. We had attended their wedding in Corpus Christi in the early 80's, and it was fun getting together. They live on a golf course in Kerrville, and golf every day--thoroughly enjoying retirement.

       After we (the Singers) met up again around 4:30, we went over town and enjoyed another  great Fredericksburg meal--this time in a Southwestern style restaurant, Bejas Grill. Drew had a huge  plate of Chicken fried steak, and did it justice. It was a beautiful evening, so we then walked around the town for awhile and Becky and Jim enjoyed the 1/2 mile walk back to the RV park.

Fredericksburg and Austin

     It poured overnight! Glad we were in our nice cozy RV! We headed off for the Dodge dealer in Austin some 90 miles away, and they quickly diagnosed the problem and said they could get the part in a few hours and have us on our way. Long story short, we were back at the RV park at 4pm. Enjoyed the ride coming back, seeing the sights from Austin to the Hill Country. Lea stayed with the kids, and they enjoyed going to a historical area where they learned how a blacksmith works his shop.

     We rejoined Lea and the kids and headed downtown again, and found a delightful park in the middle of the city with a great playground for the kids to burn off energy on. They did! There is a museum in the middle of the park, a recreation of the first church in Fredericksburg originally erected in 1846 by the original German settlers, the VerEins Church. Interestingly to us, it's shaped much like the "Silent Night" Chapel that we had visited on Christmas Eve in Austria on one of our river cruises about 4 years ago. We enjoyed walking around more of the town, and stopped in a t-shirt souvenir shop where Becky got these cute pajama bottoms featuring moose figures texting to each other. Katahdin will be glad to see her in them!

     The picture at the left is the  "Gelb  Haus" (Yellow House) where Lea and the kids are staying.   The picture below is the impressive Chester Nimitz Museum building that was designed to evoke a river boat.

     As it was Jim's Birthday, Lea picked out a great little German restaurant that she and Jeff had been to a few times before called "Altdorf's", and the Opa sausage in particular was great. The kids had picked out some cute birthday cards for Jim, and they all got a few chuckles. After walking around some more, we headed back to the RV where Jim found lots of birthday wishes from friends on both Facebook and his emails. Nice ending for the day!

Enroute to Fredericsburg, TX

     Today was a driving day, and we went from Jeff's house to Fredericksburg, TX in the Hill country driving a good part of the day - 293 miles. Lea caravaned with us in her Odyssey with Drew and Beth. Had some mechanical problem that retarded the engine on hills, and we made an appointment in Austin, TX at a Dodge dealer tomorrow to get it fixed.

     Fredericksburg is a beautiful little town, and very popular with tourists. We are in a very nice "Good Sam" park, Fredericksburg RV park, that we can highly recommend. Very close to downtown, nicely laid out park, internet & cable, and quite inexpensive--no wonder it's booked full most of the time (or so they tell us!). Lea and the kids are in a cozy yellow rental house for the 4 days we'll be here. It was cold and somewhat damp, but we had a good time walking around the downtown area. Went to a nice German restaurant (after all, it's a good German town here in the Hill Country!) and got ice cream cones to finish the evening.

Jeff and Lea's house

     For years it's been a standing family joke that someday we will buy an RV, drive around the country, and park in our kid's driveways for extended periods. Well, here it is! We're in Jeff's driveway!! Jenny, you're next!!

     The highlight of the day was to go up to Frisco to the cycling oval to watch Drew do some of his practice runs. He will be competing later this year in Trexlerville, PA, and it was fun watching him zoom around the highly banked oval track.

Jeff and Lea's House

     After 800 miles in two days, it was nice not driving! We had a delightful morning working in Jeff and Lea's backyard raking leaves (11 bags!), cleaning the pool, watching the dogs get to know each other (it's working out great!), and overall just being with family.

In the afternoon Jim drove over to Hurst, and brought his mother Kay and sister Mary Lou back over for a barbecue dinner. Lea's parents, Ken and Kay joined the party and we had a great time together as family. Mary Lou brought a cake for an early birthday party for Jim, and we then spent some time watching slide shows on their wide screen TV. A very nice day overall!

Traveling from Lafayette to Dallas

     This was a pretty boring day, as we drove 400 miles from Lafayette, LA to Dallas and were on I49 or I20 almost the entire way. Interesting scenery was virtually non-existent, and outside of stopping at the Louisiana Welcome Center (near Alexandria in the MIDDLE of the state, no less) and Texas (larger than life size, as one might expect), the only other interruptions were rest stops or gas stops. Weather was supposed to be rainy and miserable. It wasn't; only liquid on the the RV came from smashed bugs! It was sunny, but very, very windy; coming across Texas, for the most part, Jim could only do 55-60 mph in a 70 mph zone because of the wind. Oh, update on mileage--we've now traveled 3201 miles and are average 15.7 mpg!!
     Arrived at Jeff and Lea's house around 6pm, and let Rosie get acquainted first with Winston, Jeff &  Lea's King Charles Spaniel. They hit it off fine, though there was a bit of a mishap. Rosie decided to take a drink out of their backyard pool and leaned forward too far, and splash! She swam to the side, and with a little assistence climbed out. Wasn't a real happy puppy, particularly when we put her in the RV alone to dry out and cool off (she's VERY excited being here and finding all kinds of new toys!) Then Winston met Dudley (10 pounds vs 150 pounds!), and they also are doing fine. Dudley is fascinated by this little dog running around, and Winston is a wee bit intimidated but doing OK. After our Pizza dinner, Dudley retired to their deck out back while Rosie stayed inside to play with Winston's toys. Winston persisted in following Rosie from room to room barking, until Lea picked him up and held him. All in all, the dogs are doing great!
After dinner Beth helped Jim set up the RV, and she is fascinated by it and is sleeping on the spare bed with us in it tonight. In fact, she went out early to read in bed after getting in her pajamas, as she thinks it's really cool!
     No new pictures today. Outside of the arrival excitment here with the dogs and the grandkids, can't say we saw much on the drive worth photographing!

Driving the Gulf Coast

     Very heavy rainstorms, with some thunder and lightning during the night. More was promised today by the weather folks, but they were completely wrong--no rain at all! Very heavy winds and rough sea at the Destin beach (note the waves in the photo of the volleyball net) when we awoke, but as the day went on it was in the 70's most of the day and sunny. Excellent driving weather, in fact!

     After decamping, we left at 8am fully loaded and went to a Cracker Barrel for a final breakfast with Bailey and Lois. We enjoyed having them as companions for the past week! We then left at 9am, and eventually drove 422 miles today finally arriving at the KOA campground in Lafayette, LA at 6:15pm. Though it was a long day and a long drive, we really enjoyed the route we took and got to see the aftermath of Katrina, even five years later.

     Becky and Jim had previously driven the Texas to Florida route (Becky twice!), and there are few routes more dull and boring than taking Interstate 10 between the two. We opted instead to turn off I 10 at Mobile, and take the old US 90 route along the coast. As we reached Mobile, we saw the Battleship Alabama and the other ships/planes in the museum park from the road, but didn't go close up. We got onto US 90, and after driving through typical evergreen forrests lining the highway with rain laden drainage ditches on the side, we arrived at Pascagoula. It is clearly a Northrup Grumman town, totally dedicated to shipbuilding and repair, and that industry seems to drive the economy there.

     After leaving Pascagoula, we drove along a stretch of beautiful white sand beaches, literally for about 40 miles through Biloxi, Gulfport, Long Beach and Pass Christian. What a riveting drive!
       In sharp contrast to the beautiful beaches  across the highway, the devastation on the land was mind numbing. Five years after the hurricane, the empty lots, the concrete foundations with nothing on them, the live oaks with 1/2 their branches torn away, the hundreds of empty buildings--just unbelievable! The photos are merely representative of what we saw mile after mile. Thepicture on the left, as an example, is the current Gulfport fire station. One of the walls is still missing!!

Down the center strip of highway is a divider about eight foot wide, that clearly was once covered with palm trees. Most of them are completely gone, but on several of the stumps some local artist (or artists) have carved birds and other assorted creatures--the slim picture up top is one of those shaped like a pelican. As Becky puts it, perfect example of turning lemons into lemonade!

     After Gulfport we got back on I 10 and took it through downtown New Orleans. The carnage that Katrina reaped is mind boggling. What we presumed was Ward 9 is still almost totally denuded of life. Blocks and blocks of empty, destroyed buildings. Going through the city, and out to the north is more of the same, though not quite as bad. The whole ride through that area gives one a perspective you'll never get from news reports on television. What a nightmare so many people lived through, and probably still are today five years later.

     The other observation we made comes down to, what was the US government thinking when it made the Louisiana purchase? Miles and miles of totally useless swampland! We couldn't believe all the swamps, the bogs, the water and the causeways that we were exposed to. Not a particularly nice place to live!!

     We're glad, however, that we got to see the sights we saw today, and it was clearly worth the extra few hours of driving to do so. Quite the education!

Another easy day at Destin

     This was a pretty relaxing day here in Destin. While it rained during the night, we had a partially cloudy but mostly sunny day in the high 60's, but with a high wind and heavy surf.
     Becky and Lois had a great time exploring the huge outlet mall near here. She bought Jim's birthday presents and gave them to him early--nice slacks, shirts and socks that are needed and appreciated. Also bought a few items for herself. They had lunch and enjoyed the day.
     Jim did a lot of computer work, and became familiar with the map program that Greg found for us and set up. Nice to have an expert consultant in the family! You can now see the results on the first page of the blog, where we can now put in our various stops along the trip. Jim also reconnected with one of his best friends from high school, Ken Howard, who he hasn't talked with in 44 years! 4 of us from the "Royals" High "Y" group (YMCA youth groups) have now reconnected, the other two being Jim Holden and John Danielson. Becky was able to track Ken down via her internet "sleuthing", which she's very good at!
     Late afternoon we went to the Bass Pro Shop just to explore it. Somewhat similar to LL Bean's and Cabela's, but not as large and primarily dedicated to fishing. We went to dinner at Longhorn Steak house, then back to our respective RV's for a quiet evening.
Our allergy problems seem a little better today; possibly because we've gone to air conditioning instead of fresh air. Guess we'll find out more tomorrow when we head west!
Weather prediction for tonight is thunderstorms, though they seem to be angling north of us. Packed up as much as we could so we can get an early start tomorrow.

The Naval Air Museum at Pensacola

     We drove to Pensacola this morning in Bailey and Lois' Jeep, and stopped at the Good Sam Club mail depot to pick up their forwarded mail. This system has worked well for them doing their two months here in Florida. We arrived at the National Museum of Naval Aviation around 11, and ate lunch at their Cubi Point cafeteria (so named because the Naval Air Station at Cubi in the Philippines was considered a crossroads location, as is this Museum).

It's a terrific museum, with two large halls crammed with vintage and modern aircraft. Jim took the picture of Becky and Bailey (and friend) at the USS Shangri-La model as they were reminiscing about the time they went onboard that actual aircraft carrier with their dad when they were much younger. The Corsair aircraft pictured is the final aircraft that their Uncle Frank flew during World War II, when he was a U.S. Marine instructor pilot at Pensacola and elsewheres.

The final museum photo is of a Dauntless Dive bomber depicted in a special exhibit as being underwater in Lake Michigan, where there are well over 100 aircraft "buried" that crashed during training in World War II. One of the reconstructed aircraft is out on the exhibit hall. The special exhibit features a short movie from the History Channel talking about the training that was conducted on Lake Michigan, where over 17,000 Navy and Marine pilots completed their mandatory 8 carrier landings on two converted river cruise boats fitted with flattops. Great exhibit!

      On arrival back at the RV, we found a small flood in the passenger compartment. It seems that, for some reason the water refilling the toilet had been running the whole time we were gone, and we have no idea why other than to guess that the refill valve stuck. Fortunately, nothing of importance was damaged and the dogs were none the worse for wear.

     The wind has become really heavy, and the sea is quite rough. We noticed they only had a "yellow" flag up for caution, but by the time we left for dinner it had been changed to a red danger flag (meaning don't go in the water!). It's hard to tell from the photo at the top how rough it is, but the lighting is accurate. Note how close to the water some of the RV's are--we're back about 100' from there, and up one level.

Baily and Lois gave Jim his birthday presents tonight, which he thinks are really neat. One is a USMC license plate holder, which will go on the front of the SAAB. Second is a USMC teeshirt from the Museum earlier today. The third is a USMC flag to go on our flagpole back home. Becky says he can put it up once she gets a Girl Scout flag to fly! Dinner was at "Cheeseburger's in Paradise", a theme restaurant hyping Jimmy Buffett music and a "Key West" theme. Apparently he gets a royalty from them, but has no ownership interest. Huge hamburgers, and good place for dinner.

In the evening we returned to our respective campers, and Becky spent a good 2 hours brushing the dogs as we watched NCIS. Jim worked on photos and blogs.

Hopefully we'll feel better tomorrow!

"On the Beach" in Destin

     We spent the morning cleaning the RV inside, doing laundry, and watching the dogs. They're quite enjoying the outdoors, and particularly exploring the campground walking in the fine white powdery sand. We're parked just above the beach front, as far as one can get for full hookups (water, electric, cable and sewer). You can see our RV above (second from right), and right next to us (second from left) is Bailey and Lois's. The adjoining photo is of Sadie the collie, and Bailey--our dogs can't understand why she was up there and they were down below with me.

In the afternoon we drove a few miles to the Henderson Park Inn here in Destin. It was designed and built by 2 brothers from Ogunquit, ME. They wanted to re-create the famous Sparhawk Hall from Ogunquit, so they had this inn designed and built back in the 70's to look as much like it as possible. Becky and Bailey had actually stayed at the original one in Maine, and the top photo is of the two of them walking out of the Henderson Park Inn.

     The rest of our non-exciting day was shopping at Publix, the "upscale" supermarket chain in this area.

     Becky and Jim are both still suffering from Pine Tree pollen; Becky in particular.

We shared a meal in "The Chateau", and watched the movie "the young Victoria" which we quite enjoyed, and made it a relatively early evening.