2023 - 24 Road Trip

   We are now truly on our way to a new life. We departed our house of almost 18 years on March 5th. Tomorrow will be April 20th and we are supposed to close. But before I get into that we have had great travels so far. The weather has been from over 110 and down in the low 30's.

     OK, its official we are now homeless!!!

   Now for our adventure that started back on the 5th of April. Seeing how we hadn't taken our home for a stretch in over a year I didn't want to take her to far. During our 2019 trip we had a blow out on one of the car tires - so we bought a tire monitoring system. I also had purchased some new car dolly straps that I wasn't to sure about. 

     Our first stop was at Camp Blanding's in Stark FL. As it mentions being a camp it was an Army post. The camp sites where nice with full hook ups. The weather while here was reaching 110 degrees. As we moved on we were wishing for that heat. We just wish we had that heat with our pool that we left behind at almost 90 degrees. The Amenities on the post were a bit limited and the local town had all of the franchises you could want. But they didn't have any tow dolly straps. As I mentioned previously I went to this base so I could get some of the bugs out and the tow dolly straps were one of them. By the time we arrived here there was only one strap holding my car on. So after we set up we went looking for car dolly straps. Do you know hat no one carries them any more. You have to purchase them through Amazon. That is an interesting story in it's self. So we stayed here one night. The next day we were heading to Florence SC to 5 Star Tuning. They helped with the horse power and shifting of the transmission in this V-10. But as usual I digress. Our drive up there I pulled over every two hours to find that again I was only driving with one strap on my tires. This is now making me think flat towing - which I really don't like. While working at LaMessa RV. every one of our tow vehicles had problems (frame breaking) due to flat towing.

    Once I completed the upgrades to the motor and transmission we headed to our next port of call -Weston Lake at Fort Jackson in Hopkins SC. Again a very nice camp ground with full amenities. Again I tried looking for the tow dolly straps but to know avail. I finally decided to order them through Amazon - but true to form I was to late to have them delivered here. Did you know that Amazon will deliver to a business for you to pick up if you don't have a physical address. We ordered but they would be picked up at our next port of call - Arnold AFB.

    So again as we headed towards Arnold AFB we were stopping every two hours to redue the straps. I had never heard of Arnold AFB before. It is in Tullahoma TN. Not only the base a well kept secret - the fam camp is gorgeous. Unfortunately the sights didn't have dumps at them you had to go to separate location. So before we headed to the local Dollar store to pick up our straps. The camp host informs us of a local restaurant come bar in the local town. The food was great and they give military discount. 

Pictures of the camp area;

    We finally received notification that our straps were in. We went to the Dollar store and they had no clue of what we were talking about they hadn't received any thing. My notification said that USPS had delivered. So If these people didn't want to help. I had to go to the USPS. They were really confused but very helpful. So much so that the assisted post master lead me out to the dollar store and looked in there mail box and there were my straps -.what a relief.

The planes that stand guard at the gate of Arnold AFB are below. The F-4, F-16, & F-15

     Our next port of call was to Camp Atterbury in Columbus IN. I hadn't realized it until we arrived that we had been here before. Another nice Famcamp. Unfortunately their BX and Commissary are a bit sparse. But this place is clean and friendly. From here we were heading to just west of  Indianapolis for a friend of mine who had been an Airmen when I was assigned to Keesler AFB.

    This wedding was a reunion for me as well as a friends wedding. One of our friends from those days at Keesler was the grooms best man. I hadn't seen him since I left Keesler AFB back in 1984. We stayed at a friend of the grooms parking lot. This is one of the benefits of having a fully contained motorhome. The day of the wedding was a very beautiful day. So much so, that you could drive around with windows down. It is good me made the most out of it. It turned nasty the next day - it turned cold and rainy. From here we headed further west about six hours to Scott AFB.

    Scott AFB, when I was in they were mother MAC (Military Airlift Command) now they are AMC (Air Mobility Command). You know that the only consistency is change. But what I have seen is that they reinvent the wheel. You will see by the phots below one of the planes was sent to the bone yard prior to the command name change. This is the C-141. I worked them and was part of the Blue Ribbon Team at Rhein Main.

My next lease favorite air plane is the KC-135 which is a Boeing 707

The next to plane are my favorite. The first one is the first plane I worked. When I was first stationed at Langley AFB we had three squadrons of C-130s we had 110 ten planes. I worked them again when I was stationed at Rhein Main after I finished with the C-5A and the C-141A's I then again worked them at Keesler AFB, where we had EC and HC - 130's These pictures are of what we call the Trash Haulers. These planes are the work horses of the Air Force. Another reason I like them is because they came out the year I was born.

This last air frame was a career changer for me. I started working them at Rhein Main with the C-130s. We eventually took one of them to Belgium to Support the SACEUR. This might not have been the plane that we had in Belgium. But I still believe there is an interesting story behind this specific air frame. I believe this is the plane that our commander and first pilot flew out of the factory and to the Philippines. You will notice that the tail number on this one is 1-0877 our plane in Belgium was 1-0876 (Spar 76). I can't remember if my boss and friend said it was this one or one before Spar 76.

    I'm really surprised that Scott AFB is a major command base (As in MAC, TAC, & SAC). and to be so small. I do know where there MWR money goes. You can split the base in equal thirds. You have the flight line, the base, and just as important and the last third is the gulf course. Unbelievable. The Famcamp is OK. like a previous AFB, the dump station is separate then from the sites. I'm also finding out why we who are paying or who have paid our dues can't get in to the sites. They are now allowing the parents and family members of the active member to have access.

    One of our excursions was to Eckler's farm.- a beautiful place with a lot to offer. They have apple orchards - with really good fresh apple cider, cheese, restaurant and a cider mill. If you pass throw here you must check it out. I had some of their ribs and they were good.

This is all for now - We traveled to St Louis today and the Arch. Those pictures are still in the camera and will be in the next writting.

 

Our 2019 trip

 In September 2019 (before that COVID crap) we headed west towards north of Seattle to join our children and their partners on a cruse to Alaska out of Seattle. But as always nothing is simple or straight forward. Attached you will find photos of the trip out, the cruse and back. 

Our trip out was interesting to the point of visiting the Grand Canyon (southern rim). Checking out all of the different gorges with the different shade from the different centuries. By the time we slowly roamed around the canyons it started turning dusk. As we were heading out - all of a sudden the traffic stoped. OK now what’s up - what would cause the traffic to stop. As we creeped up we finally found out what? There were buffalo on both sides of the road just roaming around with their calves. What a beautiful site,

Once in the Seattle region we were able to enjoy the north west. But the real enjoyment was the pleasure of our children during a seven night cruise to Alaska. After spending four years in the UP (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan and being on Lake Superior I didn’t see much difference. 

After departing the great north west - we started heading to the central Northern Territory but we hadn’t made it out of the Rockies when we stopped through dead would and visited while bills grave site and Calamity Janes resting place. From there we ventured to the Geronimo monument and stayed around for the night illumination. 

From here we headed further east along I-80 and headed thru the badlands - a lot of vast open lands. 

The first pictures are to Whitby Island which is off he coast just north of Seattle. We took the ferry over and drove around. There is another way off which is north of where the kids live in Marysville, WA. One of the reasons for the drive back is because sometimes there are whales that travel under the bridge. 

The next set of pictures are our departure from Seattle for our eight day cruse to Alaska and back.

Once we departed from the wet northwest - we headed east over the Rockies. Once in the area we were able to check out four places. The first will be of the Geronimo monument that we saw during day and then for the night illumination. 

From here another of our visits was to a paleontology dig up in the Dakotas.

From here we headed through Deadwood and to Wild Bill and Calamity Janes Graves

After Dead Wood we headed through the Bad Lands on our way back to Florida via Keesler AFB so after these pictures I will finally be able to start working on the 2023 trip that we are already in.