May 27, 2001
Memorial Day Weekend. And a year ago our departure date for this season of our life. How wonderful it's been. More "new" things in this one year of travel than in many of the years in the past combined.
So a fond farewell to Diane who was so kind to Barb as they worked the main gate together, and Moby Dick is ready to roll with the bikes and boat on top.
Our last Crown class at church Tuesday night, with from L to R, George, Pastor Tom, Kathy, Domingo, Gail, me and Barb. It was a bittersweet class, as the last ones always are. Glad the class is done after 12 weeks, but sorry to say goodbye. And the next day, we parked the Road Abode in the lot of Lazy Days RV Super Center. The following morning after checking in with the service advisor, we took off for St. Petersburg. Barby loves the beaches, sand, and shells. St. Pete is on the Gulf coast, of course.
I'm more of an observer than a participant at the beach, so I was watching everything that was going on around me. And I learned quite a bit. For instance, you can spend money with helicopter rides like on the left, you can spend money on parasailing while being pulled by a boat (the picture didn't turn out well as they were so far off-shore,) and you can rent all kinds of gadgets to go play in the water with or sit on the sand in. I also learned that you're never too old, or too fat, or have too many bulges or too many wrinkles to wear the skimpiest bathing suit you can find if you're in Florida. And that's not gender specific, either. Both male and female letting almost everything hang out. And they appear to be comfortable about it. Good for them. On the right is just one of the many cute mailboxes we've seen down here. I think Barb would have an album of mailboxes if I'd let her, or if I'd stop at every one she spots so she could take it's picture. I have to admit it would be interesting, as there are many that appear to be custom made. These manatees were in more than one spot, however.
These are homes along the waterway. And the whole area is full of them! The contrasts between the wealthy and the poor is evident in almost every waterfront city here in Florida. And then there are Barb's favorite diving birds, the Pelicans. How they keep from breaking their necks going after their dinner is another marvel of God's handiwork.
And speaking of Pelicans, that's another of Barb's mailboxes on the left, and on the right is the pier we walked down after parking the truck at the park on the right side of the pier just beyond the beach. What? You can't see it? Even with it's blue boat bag and the bikes on top? Well, neither can I. The end of this pier (where we're standing) is a 5 story structure, full of cutesy little tourist shops and restaurants. We're up on the 5th floor observation deck. There's also an aquarium here that has a huge tank sitting on the first floor that goes up to the 3rd floor (at least I think it's the 3rd floor) where the rest of the aquarium is.
More views from the observation deck. The pirate ship takes short cruises around the harbor area, and then there's the ubiquitous airfield. Private jets constantly coming and going. We've noticed that phenomenon at Sarasota, Naples, and now in St. Petersburg.
So, what is it with pink buildings around here, anyway? Fancy-smanchy hotels are pink. Mansions built on the water with servants quarters in the back are pink. Humble everyman homes in pink. I've seen more non-Mary Kay pink Cadillac's here than any other place we've been. This little shrimp was making no apologies for his non-pinkness, though. Just one of the many critters in the aquarium here on the pier.
Yeah, yeah, I know it's outa focus. But he wouldn't hold still for his portrait, and the flash only reflected off the glass. But I had to include him because of the fact that he was really "with it" in his pink top and yellow bottoms. Anybody'd think he'd come down for the season from Ohio. When we got back to Lazy Days we found out that they weren't done with the work on the Road Abode yet, so we spent the night right there. In the service bay (2nd from right). Barb found the plug to the fan that was roaring on the post near us, and we had a restful night with full hookups.
Naw, those aren't peacocks. But because I was wandering around trying to find the peacock who was crowing at the top of his lungs, I did come across this couple. I can't tell male from female when it comes to sandhill cranes, but the one was only faking sleep. It kept an eye on me the whole time I was taking pictures. The wide awake one was preening, and you can see its leg stretched out. And then the next day we were done with the maintenance work on the Road Abode and we tested our SmartTire device. That's a gadget I installed last year that has sending units inside each of the six inside wheels--four on the trailer and two on the truck. I can easily see the outside tires to see if they're soft or having trouble, but the inside tires hide from me. These little sending devices transmit to a receiver I have installed on the upper left corner of the windshield, and whenever the tire pressure falls out of specification (either too low or too high) and whenever the temperature goes beyond limits (all pre-programmed by me), this alarm sounds off and the red light flashes. Which it did as we were leaving the parking lot. The indicator said that the right rear inside tire of the trailer had 32 pounds of air rather than the 60 it's supposed to have. We pulled right back into our parking space and out came the air gauge, and sure enough, 7 of the 8 tires had 60 pounds of air, and the right rear inside tire had 32. No telling what would have happened without that little gadget. We'd have at least lost that tire, and with the heat increase of traveling at 65mph, it might have destroyed its neighbor as well, and tires that come apart often tear up the fiberglass around them. All we did was drive slowly back to the service bay where the technician replaced the valve core. No problem. Down the road to the Elks Lodge in Cocoa where we spent the night. (Picture on right) Sure am glad our good friends Dean and Bettye twisted my arm to make me buy that essential item of equipment! And here poor Barby thought I'd just found another "toy" to add to the truck. Hrumpfh!!
After checking in with Rick the cook at the Elks Lodge, we dropped the Road Abode and took off for Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. National Park, so our pass got us in for free. The boardwalk was fun, as they all are, and we're looking forward to coming here again after the drought is over. As we were walking back over the dunes from the Atlantic Ocean, we spotted what we thought might be the launching platforms for the shuttle in the distance.
At breakfast the next day, we decided we'd better stay a second night at the Elks, because we'd been told that the Kennedy Space Center was at least a full day's trip. And besides, we wanted to drop in on Ken and Sandy one more time before leaving Florida. On the right is the little gadget they use to move the shuttle from the assembly building to the launch pad. I don't remember any of the impressive statistics the tour bus driver gave about this thing except that each cleat on the tread weighs a ton, and it'll go as fast as 2 mph when it's empty. Talk about big toys!!
Out the window of the tour bus is the grass strip that separates the two sides tracks of the shuttle mover. And there's the second one in the picture on the right. Monsters. In the background, that tall building sticking up is the building where the shuttle is attached to the fuel tanks and rockets that kick it off into orbit.
These are the actual consoles used during the early launches of the Apollo-Saturn V project. This isn't Disneyland and these aren't mockups, these are the real things. And on the right is the business end of the Saturn V rocket. I was pleasantly surprised to see some of the engine parts that I was vaguely familiar with from my days of working for the Air Force at Aerojet General in Rancho Cordova, CA, some 30 years ago.
All these little bits and pieces all work in concert and all work simultaneously for this huge machine to do its thing. And that's me standing under it to give some perspective of its size. The largest rocket ever built. There are three of them (I think) "left over" from the project.
We're looking at the business end of the second of 4 stages on the left, and on the right is the emblem of Apollo 11, that put the first man on the moon ("the Eagle has landed").
The lunar module is on the left, that's the thing that actually landed on the moon, and on the right you can see Barb's hand touching a piece of the moon. That's right, they sliced a hunk off of one of the rocks brought back for us tourist types to touch. And, frankly, to be impressed by. Clever little "teller's window" kind of arrangement so we could sneak our hand in to touch it, but no way could we get a tool to pry it off its pedestal and take it home with us.
There's Barb by the Command Module on the left and then from the past to the future. On the right she's standing inside one of the sections of the International Space Station. This particular section is for display purposes only, and will not be going up to the ISS.
Yes, mom, that's your somewhat claustrophobic son standing in the doorway of another of the space capsule modules. And I actually went inside and was very comfortable doing so. On the right is a demonstration of how they grow food for experimental purposes up in space. This was inside the module.
I like gadgets. I admit it. Not that I had to for those of you who know me. But of all the impressive things we saw at the Kennedy Space Center, I was turned on more by actually seeing the construction and watching the workers building the pieces of the ISS that will someday be up there flying around the earth. It's so large we'll be able to see it with the naked eye easily. In fact, a large part of it is already launched and is visible at certain times (Barb saw it one dark morning at 6:10 a.m. at Avon Park), but it isn't complete yet; sections are added as they are completed and as a launch is made to bring it up to connect. It gives me a thrill just to see the pictures and write about it.
From the past, into the future, and now at the present. The space shuttle itself. The Explorer is retired now, and is used for display. It's identical (mostly) to the ones they're using currently to haul stuff up to the ISS for construction. On the left is the exterior of the command post, and on the right is the interior. I'm standing to the rear of the seats the pilot and co-pilot use when bringing the shuttle back to earth. It leaves as a rocket, spends time up there as an orbiter, and comes back as an airplane. Glider, actually, as it has no power for the return trip. The pilot doesn't get any "woops" to go around and try another landing.
On the left I've turned around from standing behind the pilot's seat and am looking into the cargo bay of the shuttle where something is waiting for deployment. The doors to the bay are overhead and open clamshell style to the sides to expose whatever it is that has been transported in here. The hinges to the doors are located just above the attachment points of that gold thing. And on the right you can see the hinges to the cargo bay doors, and behind the shuttle is the orange (no, that's not pink) fuel tank and the two solid rocket boosters that attach to the belly of the shuttle to get it on its way.
OK. Enough serious stuff. Now let's get down to what retirement is really all about. Play time. That's Ken in the lead (where he stayed) followed by Sandy who let me pass her early on, and then yours truly wildly waving for attention. We had a great time with Ken and Sandy, as usual. Barb was only good for a single ride, and then she opted to take pictures, but the rest of us were just getting ready for our third ride (two different race courses) when the heavens opened up and it poured for about 1/2 hour, at which time the fun stuff had to be stopped. We all got refunds, and left with grins and sore arm muscles (speaking for myself, of course). On the right, it's our final breakfast at the Elks Lodge, with Connie the waitress (and wife of the cook), Barby, Dan the caretaker/handyman, and Rick the cook. Great people all, and full of advice on what to see and do in and around Cocoa. Excellent food and very reasonable prices. To pay for parking in the lot, we picked up some trash that had blown in against the fence. Good deal for everybody. Our thanks to John Christman (jrc@rvspirit.com) who takes such excellent care of the Elks website on the Escapees website (www.escapees.com) for turning us on to the whole idea of parking in the lodges' parking lots, and to Gene Reed of Rapid City (not Grand Rapids), South Dakota, who was kind enough to sponsor me into the Elks, and a special thanks to the Elks Lodge in Carmichael, CA, for putting together some booklets listing the Elks Lodges that have room for RV's.
After breakfast, we headed to St. Augustine, and after getting settled we took off for the Tour Train to see what there was to see. And the first thing we saw was a look-alike for Barb's cousin Bobby Langlois. And I got to see the other end of the Old Spanish Trail. I knew it ended in San Diego, because I used to live there, but I couldn't have told you where it began. Well, it began right here. And that funny looking rock thing is a milestone.
Barb's standing by the milestone, which looks like poured concrete to me. Can't remember what the marker at the other end of the trail looks like, but I don't think it was a big concrete ball. And I'm standing by the gates to the city. The only reason they're still there is because of a bunch of women (the tour bus driver called them "ladies") decided that they'd have a three-day tea party right there sometime in the mid-1800's when the walls of the city were being torn down. Seems they felt that there was some kind of historical value to the whole thing. Is it always the women that are messing with our plans to destroy stuff?
Barb's standing by the anchor that is attached to the chain that is wrapped around "The Oldest Wood School House in the USA," according to the sign you can't read unless you enlarge the picture. The rational behind the anchor and chain, according again to the tour bus driver, was that there was a hurricane headed toward the area, and the schoolmaster didn't want to loose the building. The hurricane never hit, so the jury is still out as to whether the anchor and chain idea would work. On the right, Barby's sticking her finger on an oyster shell imbedded in the wall. Seems back then that using sand, lime, and oyster shells, the locals could make a building block good for walls. And the really early people (we're talking the 1500's here) found that the thick muck of the island just over the river from town, would harden real well once it was dried out. So they built lots of buildings with it, including the entire fort! Called it coquina. It's essentially the sediment resulting of years of buildup on what had been the ocean floor, being compressed for long periods of time. They'd cut huge blocks of it, haul it out to dry, and then go to building things with it.
There's a close-up of the shell wall with its oyster shell sticking out a little, and then the fort. There's so much history about this place it boggles my mind. I missed that day in school I guess, because it was all new to me. I had no idea St. Augustine was the oldest European continuously occupied city on the continent. When we declared our independence from England in 1776, St. Augustine was already 200 years old for crying out loud! And for what it's worth, it was loyal to the King at that time. Been run by the Spanish, the English, and the Spanish again. Sacked and burned to the ground more than once by pirates along with good old Sir Francis Drake. Of course, the Fountain of Youth is located here, and Ponce de Leon was the first guy to have made an authenticated landing here because of the fountain. Stinks like sulfur just like most of the Florida water.
This is the main street in the Spanish Quarter or Old Town if you will. Pretty wide street, considering when it was built. The gates of the city are just behind me, and as usual, Barb's just ahead of me.
The date on the camera is wrong again. It should be reading the 25th, because that's what day it was. Sorry about that. We've bought tickets to get into the Lightner Museum. Seems Mr. Lightner had a penchant for collecting stuff. Mostly collections of other people during the 1930's when a lot of people were selling whatever they could to buy food and shelter. He gathered it all up and put a bunch of it in this hotel he bought on the cheap from the guy who built it. A Mr. Flagler, who was an early partner in Standard Oil, who loved to build hotels and railroads. A winning combination so long as you didn't build your railroad past your hotel to a more desirable part of the country where you'd built some more hotels, which makes for a dismal business in the lesser enjoyed area. Like I said, the history of St. Augustine fascinated me, but I'm not sure of all my facts because I just listened to the different tour bus drivers we had off and on for the two days we spent here, and I'm loath to really put my trust in what they tell the tourists. Barb's standing on the little bridge near Mr. Lightner's tomb looking down at the beautiful koi fish, and then I took a picture of what I'd probably look like if I didn't trim my beard or at least my moustache.
Had a guy on the left and a woman on the right guarding this entry way to the museum. Of course, they were lousy guards, what with that thing on their head they were holding with one hand and the other hand busy holding a towel to hide their private parts. Well, most of their private parts anyway.
Now I wouldn't want you to get the impression that I was impressed by Mr. Lightner's collections, but I sure did take a lot of pictures. Mavis and Loren Hockett were the ones we thanked from "home" for telling us about this place. The intricate work on the porcelain (right photo) held my attention for more than just a few moments.
See what I mean about the intricate work? Oh, yeah, Barby caught me dancing with another woman. She was a kick. One of the docents of the place whose responsibility it was at 11 AM and 2 PM to wind up the old music boxes to play for us. I'd hung around to make sure I got a good place for taking pictures, and she had me helping her with some of the "work," and then she began to dance to one of the beer-hall tunes, and I was within easy reach. It wasn't my dancing ability that did it, I assure you.
The machine on the left played the piano and violin at the same time. What a racket. Not at all like granddaughters Robin on the piano and Holly on her violin. This contraption, built in 1927, was badly out of tune, but the docent warned us, so we didn't mind. Besides, the tune it played didn't last long. And then we're home doing what fulltimers do best. Taking it easy after a hard day's work of putting up the awning and sunshield. We're at the Thousand Trails Preserve in Orlando. Actually, it's closer to Clermont, but who's ever heard of that city, eh?
And a toast to celebrate our first year of fulltiming. And what a year it's been. Well, almost. Today is the 27th (regardless of what the camera date says), and we really didn't leave until the 30th last year. Close enough.