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!
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