Pensacola and New Orleans

January 18, 2016

  

Arrived at Fort Pickens at around 1:00. After we set up camp we headed to downtown  Pensacola. Walked around to see what has changed since we were stationed here 30 years ago. A lot!! Except for the closing of Trader Jon’s, I guess all for the better. We loved the new Veterans Memorial Park; a beautiful little park with memorials to our nation’s military history from the Revolutionary War to the present. A few things hadn’t changed: Rosie O’Grady’s is still there and so is McGuire’s…although it seemed a lot bigger. Tried to find our dollar on the wall from 30 years ago (LOL) but with a million dollars worth of $1 bills stapled to the wall that would be an impossible feat. After dinner we returned to Fort Pickens and enjoyed a fire in one of the best sites in the campground.

Fort Pickens, Gulf Shores N.P.

Our living room was very private and cozy.

New Veterans Memorial Park...very beautiful.

A Pensacola institution and our favorite neighborhood bar when Dave was stationed here and you can see why below...

Six drinks cost less than one of the entrees!

The end of a great day

January 19, 2016

Went to the base today to see what’s changed there. The BOQ where Dave lived for two years looked the same as did all of the buildings, but the old hangars (rec center) that were located along the water are gone. And the base is no longer an Officer Candidate School. We headed for the Naval Aviation Museum and took a couple of tours given by former pilots. One was of the inside of the museum and the other was on a trolley that takes you past the planes outside. After the museum we went to Fort Barrancas and was treated to a private tour from one of the volunteer rangers. It’s an awesome structure…ingeniously built and beautifully constructed.

Entrance to NAS Pensacola

Barracks where I lived while going through AOCS (Aviation Officer Candidate School)

BOQ (Bachelor Officer Quarters) where I lived once commissioned

Mustin Beach Officers Club

Naval Aviation Museum, I was winged here by my beautiful fiance Wendy in 1986

Twenty nine years later

 My squadron patches, VAQ-33 and the (2) VQ-2 (FAIRECONRON Two) 

 ERA-3 Skywarrior (#75 center) The last whale to fly, flown by Ron Woltman to the museum July 2011.

January 20, 2016

Dave woke early to observe the five visible planets all at the same time in the sky and watch sunrise.  He found Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, but Mercury was hiding in the morning haze on the eastern horizon. Later in the morning we walked some of the trails in the campground and ended up on the top of the WW I and II era Langdon Battery. Great views from the top. It was drizzling a little so it was hard to take pictures. After lunch the skies cleared up and we rode our bikes to the Fort. Explored the fort for a few hours and then headed back to the campground.

Our camping friends, Linda and Kit, arrived at Fort Pickens today. They treated us to some wonderful fresh swordfish and crawfish from Joe Patti’s. Delicious!!

 Venus shortly before sunrise

Sunrise Fort Pickens

Battery Langdon

View of the Gulf from Battery Langdon 

Great Bike and Hiking Trails to explore the Island and Forts

Fort Pickens built in 1834 to protect the port of Pensacola.  The clouds were a prelude to the approaching cold front that would become the blizzard of 2016.

Thank you Kit and Linda for the delicious Crawfish from Joe Patti's

One way to shut Dave up!

January 22, 2016

Around 2:30 AM a line of thunderstorms passed over with very strong wind gusts and heavy downpours.  We were under a tornado watch so we were both wide awake when it hit. (Place two emoticons with wide open eyes here.) Bounced us around a little but that is all. This is the storm which would become the super blizzard that dumped two plus feet on the Mid-Atlantic 24 hours later.

Todays a travel day. Moving from Pensacola to Waveland, Mississippi…finally leaving Florida! Now we’re making progress. It’s still very windy and very cold! We left Fort Pickens at noon and arrived at Buccaneer State Park at 4:30 (with a stop at Flying J to fill up on gas and propane). Dave had to hold on tight to the steering wheel with the wind gusts. Waveland, MS was ground zero for hurricane Katrina in 2005. Ten years later there are still many lots with only foundation and slab remnants to show how many lost everything.  The storm surge water reached 6-12 miles inland from the beaches here. Another reminder Mother Nature does not mess around!

Site 124

January 23, 2016

Did some hiking around the campground this morning and then headed to New Orleans in the afternoon for some Mardi Gras fun. Parked in the French Market parking lot and grabbed a drink at The Corner bar then walked around listening to street musicians and watching parades go by. Also stopped in SoBou for a happy hour drink…didn’t like the inattentive bartender so left there and went to Napolean House for dinner. Had Muffuletas for dinner. The Muffuletta is the quintessential New Orleans sandwich and a Napoleon House signature that pays homage to the Italian immigrants who first opened grocery and deli stores along the riverfront of the French Market in New Orleans. Delicious!! Walked up to Decatur Street to watch the Krewe du Vieux parade. Krewe due Vieux is noted for wild satire, adult themes, and political comedy, as well as for showcasing some of the best brass and jazz bands in New Orleans. This year’s theme was XXX, double entendre as it is the 30^th year for the parade.  This is a family friendly blog so we had to edit out most of the photos. Just know It was awesome Fun! 

The Waveland seawall that didn't stand a chance against Katrina's storm surge

The French Quarter decked out for the Mardi Gras season.

Street musicians were amazing!

Outside Pat Obrien's where older brother Bill introduced Dave to the"Hurricane" in 1977

Great music on every street!

I don't know how I got this pic with no one in the background!

Krewe due Vieux 

 

Everyone was having a great time.

No Wifi - We'll try to post on the 26th

Went to a McDonalds this morning to use their free wifi and it's just too slow! We'll try to get to a library when we hit our next "home" in Louisiana.

St Andrews to Pensacola

January 12, 2016

Beautiful sunrise this morning over the lagoon. Took lots of pics from the bedroom window. We packed a backpack with sandwiches and headed to Falling Waters State Park to see Florida’s tallest waterfall (73 feet). It was about an hour drive and definitely worth the trip! The waterfall was beautiful! We hiked every trail and learned that two industries operated near the waterfall. A gristmill, powered by the waterfall, ground corn into grits and cornmeal during the Civil War period. And in 1919, one of the first oil wells in Florida was drilled there. No oil was ever found so the well was capped in 1921. Got back to the campground at around 4 and grilled some fish for dinner and then sat around the campfire. Some new folks arrived while we were sitting by the campfire – Linda, Kit and their cute dog, Jezebel. When they set up camp, they joined us by the fire.

Sunrise

One of many sinkholes in the park

January 13, 2016

Drove to Seaside this morning since a few people recommended that we see it. Seaside is a privately owned town that was the main filming location for the movie The Truman Show. We walked up and down the streets, had lunch in the town center, and had a drink at Bud and Alley’s rooftop deck while watching the sunset. Then we met up with Terry and Keith and Kit and Linda. Had a few drinks and a great dinner at the Red Bar. The jazz band in the dining room was awesome! Fun night!!

Seaside Post Office

Airstream Row (food trucks)

Lunch at the Melt Down food truck

Streets of Seaside

The Red Bar (hence the red photo) with Terry, Keith, Linda & Kit

January 14, 2016

So, today was the day we were supposed to move on to Pensacola, but when Dave went to the dump station, he noticed that something was off. He could feel every bump and when he took a look the back right side of the coach was riding low and he could hear a hissing sound. The sound of the airbag over the tire deflating. We made a few calls and we got an 8:30 appointment at Camping World tomorrow morning. Hopefully it’s an easy fix and we can move on. We’re anxious to get to Pensacola…but if we had to have a problem with the rv, it’s nice that we’re at a beautiful campground to wait it out.

January 15, 2016

Got to Camping World at 8:30 and explained our two situations…the important one – the deflated airbag – and the less important one (I guess ;)) – the “check antenna” issue with satellite radio. We went to Dunkin Donuts and the library to kill time and then we got the call that they fixed the satellite radio (Yeah!) but the warranty work on the airbag had to be done by a Freightliner facility. They said the airbag had a hole on the top and bottom. The folks at Camping World found a dealer in Pensacola (since that’s where we were headed) and at 11:00 we drove our droopy RV very carefully to Empire Truck ~two hours away. The guys at Empire Truck found the bag just needed to be reseated and had it done in about an hour. Everything was under warranty so all we lost was time (which we seem to have plenty of these days). So we’re back in business and we arrived at our new home base at Five Flags RV Park in Pensacola at 5:30. It was a long day, but everything worked out. 

January 16, 2016

Left to go kayaking at Blackwater River State Park at noon. Got on the river at around 1 pm. Decided to paddle upriver since we don’t have two vehicles like we did in NJ. It was a really good workout…we paddled for two hours against the current; stopping once in a while for a breather on the beaches along the way. At 3:00 we turned around to take the leisurely float back…that lasted 40 minutes. It was a fun time! The river was crystal clear tea and the little (actually big) beaches were fun to explore. Saw lots of bobcat tracks.

Blackwater River has a paddle trail over 25 miles long.  Blackwater River Paddle Trail

The Blackwater is a meandering stream and therefore has some very steep banks and some very large beaches (Great for camping along the way!)

Bobcat tracks in the forefront of this photo

Heading to Fort Pickens tomorrow, look for our next post on the 24th. We always have to wait until we have wi-fi access.

St. Andrews State Park, Panama City Beach, FL

January 7, 2016

We left for St. Andrews State Park at around 10 a.m. and arrived at 2:30 central time. It was a pretty drive and very remote; part of the way through Apalachicola National Forest. The campground is beautiful; our site is #10 in the Lower Grand Lagoon section; right on the water.

We set up camp and had just put out our camp chairs and talked to our new neighbors (Jackie and Lou) when it started raining. So into the RV we went. Dave also found a small leak under the kitchen sink so he tried to figure out what he has to do to fix it. Wasn’t able to fix the leak today. Have to make a trip to Walmart.

Rained all night so just relaxed and watched tv.

 Site #10 at St. Andrews State Park

View of the sunrise from our living room window

View of some snowy egrets from our living room window; hopefully the most snow we see. ;)

January 8, 2016

This is supposed to be the best weather day for the entire week we’re here (70’s and partly sunny). Figured this would probably be the best day to kayak. We were able to launch the kayaks right from our campsite which was pretty cool. We hugged the shore of the campground into the wind (not a strong wind, but a good workout) so we could get a leisurely ride back. The sun struggled to come out, but never really made an appearance.

After lunch we hopped on our bikes and rode around the entire park. The beach in the park (where we brought our kids ~15 years ago) had a steep drop due to erosion, about an 8 foot drop. It looked crazy when we first saw it.

Headed to Walmart for plumbing supplies for Dave, groceries and fire wood. After dinner Dave built a fire.

Dave launching his kayak from our campsite

Kayaking on the Lower Grand Lagoon

Wendy kayaking along the shore of the campground

The steep bank had treasure hunters digging for, well, treasure.

January 9, 2016

Hiked around the state park today. They have a few trails you can walk along. Also stopped by the little museum they have at the park registration office. Learned about the Hermit of St. Andrews. Dave worked on the kitchen sink leak and fixed it…we hope. Watched football the rest of the day. :)

Interesting story about the hermit of St. Andrews

 Watching football

January 10, 2016

We drove to Conservation State Park this morning and hiked a bunch of trails. It was a chilly morning (high 50’s) and a bit windy. I think we did about 3 miles. Watched the playoff games.

Cypress Pond Trail looked like a scene from the apocalypse

Osprey Trail at Conservation Park

A few more days in Panama City Beach and then we'll be heading to Pensacola on Thursday. We'll have access to internet there! (We're using the wifi at the local library to put this out today.)