Palm Trees in southern Florida

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

On the road again!

We finally packed up the Pleasure-Way class "B" camper & made it to Florida!


The Gulf Of Mexico around Pensacola

It was almost a year ago that I left Holtville Calif, the free BLM camping & the hot springs with Florida in my GPS.... as place to go.   I wanted to see the Naval Air Museum.


Lot's of changes for me in the last year....


We found a Whataburger on the way! It had been a long time since I'd had a Monterey Melt! 

I'm here in Pensacola right now, at a friends house with the camper plugged in.


Our van parked in Pensacola 

We went to the beach, I went into the water but it's really not warm enough for me this time of the year.

The plan right now (written in sand with a stick :-) is to hang out for a little while, check out the sites (and the naval Air Museum) & then head deeper into Florida. We need to be back in Georgia the middle of March.


Naval Air Museum on NAS Pensacola

In Pensacola we did a Mardi Gras parade, my first.  WOW!

Karen & I at the parade

I can't believe the energy. It was from everywhere, all around me, the crowd AND the people on the floats. I couldn't believe it.

LOUD music from every float, always there & always different as the floats passed by.

And the beads, they throw them from the floats .. Good fun!  A crowd of happy people ... even at the bar after the parade. Pensacola...who'd a thought?

I enjoyed it.


A typical float


People throwing beads

The crowd









Too much to mention at the Naval Air Museum, a great collection of airplanes & aviation history!

A really nice section on Coast Guard Aviation.

I was a flight mechanic in the HU-16A,  HH-52A & the HH-65A during my 21 years in the USCG so I do have a slight lean towards the CG.


I think I worked on this HH-52A at some Air Station over the years



The start of Coast Guard aviation in 1917 


This sign explains it all


As a side note, remember the Wright Bros first flight? The guys helping out were from the Life Saving Service station there (early Coasties).











4 comments:

  1. I am so glad you were able to take your van on a trip. You guys look like you had a great time at the Mardi Gras festivities.

    The Naval Air Museum looks interesting as well. Enjoy yourselves!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You look plenty happy -- whatever you're doing . . . keep doing it! :) Lots of changes from one year ago at the January RTR in Quartzite, eh? Whenever I don't hear from someone online for a while I get to thinking, "Must've met a girl." Right more often than not! :)

    ReplyDelete