Jacksonville, Florida - Jan 16-20

We spent a travel night near Tallahassee on our way to Jacksonville.  This is the first time this trip where the campground I selected was full when we arrived.  So we ended up at a KOA campground about 15 miles further down the road.  The place was interesting – it was heavily wooded and no one had cleaned up the fallen leaves.  So the sites were full of rotten leaves which, when wet, made a slick mess. The place was out in the country and we were treated to a concert of cicadas in the early evening.  I always thought these were spring/summer bugs so I was surprised to hear them in the dead of winter.

Arrived at our destination in Jacksonville in the early afternoon. Quite a contrast to last night’s campground.  This place is huge and obviously a destination for snowbirds.  Sites were paved, landscaping was very pretty and the amenities were plentiful.  This made a nice base for the next couple of days where we are planning to do some sightseeing around Jacksonville.

The first day we drove up to Amelia Island and walked around Fernandina Beach.  This is a very nice little town where the buildings and houses are well restored Victorian. Like many places in Florida, Fernandina has been ruled by several different nations, in fact, it claims the distinction of being the only town in the U.S. that has flown eight different flags, including….The Patriot Republic of Florida.  Never heard of that nation before.

Elsewhere on the island, we toured Fort Clinch State Park. Inside the park and on the way to the fort, we drove down a canopy road that was quite peaceful and lush. Some type of fort has existed on this site since 1736. The Spaniards, British and the U.S. (both Union and Confederate) have spent their share of time building and fortifying the fort. I learned something new (or at least I didn’t remember) – even though Florida had seceded from the union, the Confederates determined early on in the war that they could not adequately protect Florida from sea attacks and they abandoned all sea fortifications.  So the Union occupied this fort from 1862 on. During the 1930s’ Great Depression, the fort was restored to its Civil War state as part of the CCC work. The park rangers provide Civil War interpretations, including the imprisoning of some Apache tribe groups. The fort was heavily fortified; the canons could fire cannon balls 3.5 miles which was twice what any ship at the time could shoot.

We tried to view some of the Atlantic coast since we had heard that the beaches were beautiful. But all views from the road, A1A, were obscured by developments.  Russ says that they don’t have the same rules as we do in California about the beach being public accessible, so a lot of the beach was blocked from access.

The next day we traveled south to St. Augustine – the oldest continuously occupied town in the U.S. This town has a distinctly Spanish look and feel and wears its age quite well.  The first tour site we visited was the Castillo de San Marcos. Another fort, this one was quite different from Fort Clinch. Built by the Spanish, this is the oldest and only existing masonry fort from the 1600s in the continental United States.  I felt like Jack Sparrow was going to pop around a corner any moment.  It just oozed old. This is a national monument and you could sure tell that the federal government had more resources to apply to the preservation of these old sites than do states. This place was very well taken care of.  There were several interpreters spread throughout the rooms and marching grounds.  This place has been restored to the 1700s and the interpreters wear Spanish military uniforms. It was interesting that the fort was made of a local soft stone called coquina which is a type of limestone. Canons could not knock down the walls partly because they were 19 feet thick and partly because the walls would absorb the impact of the cannon balls like shooting them into Styrofoam. It withstood several sieges during its time of duty – the suffering of the solders came from the solitary environment, poor water and lack of food.

The layout of the downtown area reminded me very much of the old towns we saw in South America with several plazas and roads radiating out from them. Narrow and crooked cobblestone roads made us glad that we did not decide to stop by the town on our way down to Cape Canaveral. Pulling a trailer through that would have been quite a challenge.

Jacksonville itself didn’t have a lot of sights that we wanted to see but the surrounding area was full of Florida history. It was a good start to our tour down the Atlantic side of Florida.

Next stop – Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center.

In DeFuniak Springs, Florida there is a beautiful street surrounding the lake that is filled wsith beautiful Victorian homes like this one. This town is the one that started the Chataqua rage of the late 1800s.

This is the oldest bar in Fernandina Beach.  There is a lot of pirate history in this area.

The restored business buildings paid attention to all the details.

A beautiful home in Fernandina Beach.  Many of these homes are now B&Bs.

 

It was a beautiful day along the bay.

We enjoyed a delicious dinner out in the warm sunshine.

We were treated to a Martin Luther King Day parade which lasted about 10 minutes.

 

The road to Fort Clinch was covered by lush greenery.

I felt like we were coming out on the football field from the tunnel.

Much of Fort Clinch has not been fully restored.  In fact, some of it never was finished in the first place.

This is one of the rifle positions.  Not that different from the arrow windows you see in European castles.  In some ways, war technology did not evolve much until the 1800s.

These cannon were the largest I have ever seen.  They could fire balls up to 3 miles away.  Not sure how accurate they were though.

There was no part of the coastline that could not be seen from the top of the fort.

This building held housing for officers and VIPs.

We were treated to a fife concert in the late afternoon.

 

This is the entrance to Castillo de San Marcos. The moat was never filled with water, rather it housed cattle during the 1700s.

The coquina stone that was used to build this fortress was limestone made out of seashells. It was soft but withstood cannon shock quite well.

Similar to Fort Clinch, these cannon could fire on ships up to 3 miles away.

Russ says this mini cannon was actually a mortar, used to rain fire down on attackers who were just outside the fortress' walls.

These lions frame the entrance to the Bridge of Lions, a recently restored bridge from St. Augustine over to an adjacent island. It is often called the most beautiful bridge in Dixie.

This is the Basilica in St. Augustine, It was closed for renovation so we weren't able to tour inside. There is a rumor in the town that Pope Francis will visit here on his U.S. visit because this is the oldest parish in the United States. The plaza in front is famous in the civil rights world since it was the place where in 1964, Andrew Young, among others, were beaten as they led a peaceful protest march. The act enraged many in the country and was key in the passage of the Civil Rights Act later that year.



This is a sun dial on the wall of the Basilica. It was only off by around 10 minutes.



 

 

Pensacola, Florida - Jan 14-16

Weather is clearing and today was actually sunny.  It is still cool by my standards – in the 50s, but hey, it beats 20s and 30s! Our campground is actually in Pensacola Beach on an island.  We were camping in the middle of a beach resort town. Across the street were several seafood restaurants and sports bars and on either side of the campground were small shopping malls. The back side of the campground bordered an inlet and we had beautiful views of the water.

Our two days in Pensacola were spent at the National Naval Aviation Museum. Russ had a great time for those two days.  I have to say I enjoyed myself also. There was a ton of restored aircraft in the museum, several placed into exhibits which set context for the time period when the plane was in use and others that were hung from the ceiling. You had to kind of watch where you were walking because you could bump your head on a tail section or wing. We were surprised that the planes were, for the most part, not roped off.  A docent told us that they want people to have close access to the planes and it was ok to touch them. The planes were beautifully restored and the descriptions were interesting.  They didn’t overdo the technical descriptions and make the whole thing boring.  There were two floors in one of the buildings and on the second floor, they had displays and exhibits honoring women in naval aviation, the space program (I didn’t know that the majority of astronauts had been naval aviators), lighter than air flight programs and the home front.  Even the café was historical; it was a replica of a well-known officer’s club in Cubic Bay, Philippines. The walls were covered with plaques that various squadrons left when their tour was over. When the club closed after the volcano exploded in the 90s, they shipped everything over to the museum, including the carved wooden doors, the bar, and somewhere around 4,000 plaques.

I particularly enjoyed the flight deck operations simulation. It turned out that the docent (almost all docents are retired Navy), had been on the same aircraft carrier as Russ on the tour of duty immediately following Russ’. So they had a good time reminiscing about that time period. And the simulation was pretty cool because you got a sense of what it was like to be part of the flight deck crew as planes were taking off and landing.  There was noise and lots of wind, but Russ said it was pretty tame compared to what it was really like.

The second day we came back to take the tour out on the flight line where there are 90 more aircraft waiting to be restored. This docent was extremely knowledgeable about every aircraft and there were several people on the bus who had serviced or flown some of them. Russ saw a plane that was a trainer like the one he had trained on.  And while we were out there, four trainer jets took off that were the Blue Angels trainer planes (Pensacola is the home base for the Blue Angels.) We were in the area at the wrong time to watch them train, but starting in March, they train a couple times a week and you can go out and watch them. 

On our way out of town, we stopped at a tire service to get one of our tires replaced.  We had had a tire shipped out from Tiremark.com to one of their approved installers in Pensacola. We wanted to put the same make of tire on to replace the one we had to get back in Texas when the original tire went flat. Also, Russ wanted them to check out another tire which has had a slow leak since we left California.  Well, imagine my surprise to find out the leak was because of a nail in the tire! I thought it would be something simple like a bad valve. They were able to fix it and send us on our way.

Now we are headed to Jacksonville to see the sights in that area, including the Atlantic Ocean!

An atrium in the first building had this display of a previous generation of Blue Angel planes.

This is an example of the vignettes that were spread around the museum. This one depicts a beach camp during WW I with a very early amphibious plane.

You can get a sense of just how crowded the museum was.  Planes, engines, ancillary equipment and models were crammed together in an artistic fashion.

A Japanese zero plane in the background along with a display of the kamikaze pilot's flight gear.

My dad was an aircraft mechanic in the Chinese theater during WW II.  He worked on this type of plane, a P-40.  This was the plane that the Flying Tigers flew during their participation in the war.  We have several Flying Tiger items from Dad's momentos.

Another vignette which helped to set context for the plane displays.

The Homefront Exhibit depicted a main street and home during WW II.  I recognized several of the appliances (Yikes, everything looked old, but how can that be?  I am so young!!!)

This is the actual cold weather clothing that Admiral Byrd used in his adventures to the South and North Poles.

A Sopwith Camel, made famous by Snoopy as the WW I flying ace. Right behind it was the plane flown by the Red Baron.

Russ, his parents and Chris once took a ride in one of these Ford Tri-Motors (built in 1920s or so) out of Long Beach.

 

This is the helicopter that was used as Marine One when Nixon was in office. That's him behind the window.

This plane was built by Grumman (which merged with Northrop in the 1990s.) It seemed like Grumman built about half the planes in the museum. I knew that Grumman had a huge history with the Navy, I just never appreciated just how big a partner they were.

This is a WW II Nazi plane, the first operational jet in the war.

 

The same type of plane that George H. W. Bush flew in WW II. This is another Grumman design.

This is a Grumman A-6, which is the kind of plane that Russ was a bombardier-navigator for during the Vietnam war.  His squadron was stationed on a carrier that was in the Mediterranean.

This is the radar console that Russ had his head stuck in while he was chauffeured around by the pilot. Every day he was on the carrier, he got to fly off and on the ship.  Had a great time - like  Boy Scout camp for grown-ups.

The walk  between the two buildings passed by a Grumman E-2C AWACs plane.

Another vignette - this one of a camp in the Pacific theater on one of the tropical islands.

Russ thoroughly enjoyed his visit to the National Naval Aviation Museum.

Louisiana and Alabama - Jan 12-13

Weather remained cold but no rain so I was happy.  Didn’t do marathon drives these two days, only about 200 miles each day. We try not to stop at truck stops for our breaks unless nothing else is around, but we just had to stop at a Buc Eees.  We have never stopped at one – it isn’t actually a truck stop because there weren’t any trucks there, but it has much of the same feel.  About 100 gas pumps were lined up in 25 rows outside a huge store.  Inside the store, you had your standard snacks and drink dispensers, except instead of one Slurpee dispenser, there were 10! And you could order almost any kind of hot dog/hamburger/sandwich you wanted. Plus, the souvenirs included deer feeders, humungous BBQs and every kind of Lodge cast iron pot/pan you could imagine.  Seemed kind of weird – I mean how many travelers are going to pick up a 5 foot long BBQ and put it in with their luggage in the back of the mini-van? Fun to look thru though. We ended up with a couple of BBQ chopped beef sandwiches which were delicious.

Spent the first night of this leg at a campground on the banks of Dog River, Louisiana near Baton Rouge. Too muddy and cold to go exploring so we went over to a Bass Shop which was nearby and enjoyed looking at the fish tanks and shooting opossums, gaters and raccoons at the shooting range.  The store had a bayou theme which was fun. Dinner was pizza from the local pizza takeout so we could watch the national college football game. Surprised Ohio State won but that’s the thing about college football, you often can’t predict the outcome.

The next day, we headed towards Mobile, Alabama.  The campground here was quite nice despite the muddy interior roads.  The sites themselves were concrete pads which meant level sites and a lot less dirt tracked into the trailer.

On our way down to Pensacola, we spent a few hours at the USS Alabama Memorial Park.  We passed the ship last year on our way to Ft. Lauderdale and Russ said he wanted to stop and tour it sometime.  And, so here we are!

The ship restoration was very impressive.  Painting was in good shape and much of the ship was open for tour. I found it interesting that even though the ship was in nine major battles, including Okinawa (500 U.S. ships were engaged and 7800 Japanese planes were destroyed), it suffered little battle damage and the only fatalities were the result of an accident.  Conditions on the ship were spartan to say the least.  Would not have been a pleasant tour of duty even in times of no conflict.

Next door to the ship was an aircraft display pavilion. Every F-series aircraft was represented, well...not the F-35, but all the others.

Now we head to Pensacola and, guess what?  We get to spend some more time looking at planes – at the National Naval Aviation Museum.  Goodie! Oh well, I am racking up the points for my quilt shop visits. I think I am good for 10 or 15.

The USS Alabama. Weather was cold and dreary.  Hard to believe but this was shot in color.

 

The guns were huge.  Hard to understand how the ship was able to store all the ammunition and still carry 2500 men!

Accuracy was not great in those days.  I think current day toy guns have more accurate sights.

This is a replica of one of the shells that the big guns fired.  16 inch in diameter and 2700 pounds.

A view from the bow.

There were several plane/helicopters/tanks on display in the park but we didn't tour that area - too dang cold and windy! You can see our rig in the parking lot - it is the one on the left,

Russ welcoming us aboard.

A pretty imaginative Christmas tree - made out of regulation socks.

Pretty close quarters for the crew.

This is downright disturbing.  Reminded me of a drawing I saw of Andersonville prison during the Civil War where troughs were also used. Pretty minimal privacy and, in my opinion, not very sanitary.

Russ also took a short tour of the USS Drum. This submarine is the oldest in existence in her class and was the first of her class to enter World War II.

Very cramped quarters.

These two wheels steered the submarine up and down.  Another wheel served as the rudder. An awful lot of gauges and things to keep track of.

As we were trying to find the entrance to the Memorial Park, we took a side trip on the island and found this Naval catamaran (High Speed Vehicle) being built. This is ship #5 of 10 planned for joint Navy/Army use.