NAS Oceana; Check Six Lounge; Chincoteague; Gratitude; Cambridge; Oxford; Annapolis; US Naval Academy; St. Michaels; The Inn at Perry Cabin

After New Bern, NC, we stopped for a night in Virginia Beach. Our campground was near Naval Air Station Oceana, the East Coast version of NAS Miramar, where Top Gun was filmed. We made an obligatory stop at the Officers' Club bar, the Check Six Lounge (named for the warning that aviators give to watch their 6 o'clock, or rear, a very vulnerable position when in aerial combat).

The naval aviators were mostly out flying, but we did get to meet six NROTC midshipmen who were attached temporarily to a training fighter squadron for familiarization. They were some of the best and brightest young men and women we have met. From colleges across the country, they are eager to serve their nation as naval officers and Marines. In the bar was a table set for servicemen and women who are Prisoners of War (POW) or Missing in Action (MIA), a sobering reminder that military service is not all just fun and games...

Phyllis, the long time bartender, told us lots of stories about the history of the bar, and many of the memorabilia there. We are standing in front of a vertical stabilizer and rudder assembly from an F/A-18 Hornet.

This is from an EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare/jammer aircraft, hence the lightning bolt in a mailed fist symbol. These specialized aircraft fly into heavily defended areas in advance of attack aircraft to stimulate enemy fire, identify threats, and reduce the effectiveness of enemy radars and missiles using jamming or anti-radar HARM missiles. Their flight crews are said to have have "brass balls"...

From Virginia Beach, we headed up the Eastern Shore of Virginia, spending four days on Chincoteague Island, Virginia's only resort island. There are no high rises, boardwalk or traffic jams. Here is Beach Girl - no bikini, because we rode to the beach on our bikes. Darn... and note the terrible crowds... I think there was someone about a mile away!

From Chincoteague, we moved north to Cambridge, Maryland, where we have enjoyed two delightful weeks on Chesapeake Bay aboard our 2003 trawler Gratitude. We spent two days with Jim, the previous owner, getting to know her systems and idiosyncrasies (like people, boats have them, too).  

A day cruise to Oxford's Robert Morris Inn (the oldest inn in the USA) for crab cakes with Jim was our first underway as Gratitude's owners.

We enjoy walking the docks at marinas, and we are always amused by at least one strange boat name. When we were cruising, the most bizarre was Blueberry Pancakes... but this sailboat took the prize. Can you imagine listening on Channel 16 and hearing her captain request a bridge opening or a marina berth? 

Two days in Annapolis, Maryland, was a delight. We moored right downtown in "Ego Alley", probably the very best spot in town.

Two hours after we arrived, there was a knock on the hull, and we heard a, "Jim, are you aboard?" I walked out to find the previous owner's brother-in-law, Dennis Brady, looking down from the dock. You will note that Dennis does not live in Annapolis. He lives two states away and was in Annapolis on business. Imagine his surprise to look over and see the boat named after his sister tied to the pier! We invited him aboard, and had several glasses of wine together. Dennis is a medical devices expert who developed a system to repair broken pelvises... way over my head, but very cool technology. See his web site at www.curvafix.com. 

Did I mention funny boat names???? Well, here is one of the best... can you guess what they may be thinking/drinking? Ha! (And yes, that is a fully stocked bar above "Princess"...)

No stop in Annapolis would be complete without a visit to the US Naval Academy. Founded in 1845, USNA provides a top notch education to young men and women who want to serve their country. Here are MLB and myself in front of Bancroft Hall, the Brigade of Midshipmen's "dormitory". We both taught at the Naval Academy, Suzanne in the 90s and I in the... er... 70's... (Nah, it could not POSSIBLY have been that long ago!!!) As you can see, these two sailors did not let a little rain slow them down.)

Suzanne taught Political Science, and even better, taught offshore sailing aboard these 44 ft sloops that "sail like witches", as the saying goes. The boats have great names like Honor, Courage, Commitment, Adventurous, Fearless, Courageous, and Daring. It was exactly 26 years ago this week that she escorted a crew of midshipmen from Maryland to Maine and back on their summer cruise. She says she remembers the date because we had just been married in the Naval Academy chapel and she hated to leave me for this arduous duty!

Boating on the Chesapeake Bay requires vigilance, as you may end up cruising with the big boys.... this ship was on her way to Baltimore.

Suzanne is seen here keeping up with work on the bridge while I was driving. She was getting support and inspiration from Nellie and Rusty!

A two day stop in St. Michaels, MD, for our 26th anniversary (just a few days early) was a real treat. Here is My Lovely Bride at our dinner at St. Michaels Bistro - am I lucky or what?

A bike ride in town was mandatory, and we rode over to The Inn at Perry Cabin, where we had visited with daughter Susan many years ago.

The Inn at Perry Cabin is legendary - it was built in 1816 by Purser Samuel Hableton, a veteran of the War of 1812 and an aide to Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, famed for his message, "We have met the enemy and they are ours; two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop" following the victorious Battle of Lake Erie against the British. Commodore Perry (pictured below) was the quintessential naval officer, fearless and courageous in nine battles before and after Lake Erie. This was the first time in history that an entire Royal Navy squadron had surrendered.

On our departure from St. Michaels, we cruised past a log canoe sailboat race- since the 1840s these oyster boats have raced. There are only 22 log canoes left, and no longer work the oyster beds. Crews of 8 sail them, and you can see 4-5 crew (mostly big guys) being used as ballast on the windward side of the boat, since these are very shallow draft boats with big sails.

Finally, here are the male crewmembers of Gratitude... a happy man and his faithful dog, Rusty.

Fallen Heroes - Apache Police and US Marines; Back the Blue; Semper Fidelis

One of the "movements" that we read about is to "Defund the Police"....  A close friend sent me news the other day of two fallen heroes, members of the Apache Nation Police Force. Only about 20 of these young men and women patrol 1.8 million acres of reservation and respond to 32,000 calls per year. The photos here show the wives and children of the fallen officers, and two members of Secret Santa's ELF force who made contributions to the families to cover basic necessities. A third police officer who was shot in a separate incident is also one of Secret Santa's ELFs. She was shot four times, but survived. Try to think about the sacrifices these men and women make to provide some order to other peoples' lives. Put yourself in their position; one of the officers was in a car chase, and the perp struggled with the officer, shot and killed him, and escaped with his weapon and patrol car. Thankfully, he was stopped and neutralized before he could kill again. 

As you may have read in the last blog post, our Sergeant Susan died 16 years ago this past week. We have a soft spot in our hearts for all Marines, so it was especially sad when we learned of the crash of a Marine Corps Osprey aircraft last week with all hands on board killed, on the same day Susan died in 2006. Fewer than 1% of Americans serve their country in military uniform these days, and with budget cuts imposed by irresponsible politicians, these young men and women are suffering more casualties than in years past. These five young men are all from small towns across America. They wanted to serve their country, and died in that service. Like the Apache policemen and women discussed above, these Marines and their families deserve our utmost respect and admiration. God bless them all. Semper Fidelis! Donations to fallen Navy personnel and Marines can be made to the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society at  https://www.nmcrs.org/

                                            Cpl. Nathan E. Carlson, 21, of Winnebago, Illinois

                                        Capt. Nicholas P. Losapio, 31, of Rockingham, New Hampshire

                                        Cpl. Seth D. Rasmuson, 21, of Johnson County, Wyoming

                                                    Capt. John J. Sax, 33, of Placer, California

                                        Lance Cpl. Evan A. Strickland, 19, of Valencia, New Mexico

Beach Walks; Sailboat Woes; Going to The Dark Side; Gratitude; The Hobbit?; UNDERWAY! Myrtle Beach, SC; Wilmington, NC; OUTRAGEOUS DIESEL PRICES; New Bern, NC; Men Have Style, Too! A Marine Corps Sunset

Gosh, it's been a long time since my last post in February. After my Florida Trail hike, Suzanne and I went for long walks on the beach at Hilton Head. Here is a typical winter scene - a wide windswept beach with only a few people (and no other dogs) in sight. It's low tide in this picture; at high tide the water is well up the sand, allowing only a few yards of sand on which to run. Rusty is on the lookout for seagulls; he loves to run after them! (Audubon Society members, rest assured that he is always on lead and not allowed to catch one!)

March and April were two of the most frustrating months we have ever endured. As many of you know, we were on an open-ended sailing adventure from 2003 until 2006. We had sailed across the Atlantic on our 1980 Morgan 46 sloop Liberty, thinking about a circumnavigation, and were cruising the Mediterranean when we got word that my daughter Susan, a Marine Corps sergeant, had been struck and killed by lightning back in North Carolina. She was 6 months pregnant with our first and only grandchild. After returning for her funeral, we went back to the boat for a couple of months and I decided to give up sailing and return to work. Suzanne started on her spiritual and mediumship path and the rest is history. 

We always missed sailing, and after visiting friends aboard their Jeanneau sailboat in April, we decided to get back into boating We found a similar boat just an hour's drive away from home. She was "on the hard" in a cradle, and met all our desires. The boat was only three years old, and had very low hours on the engine. We went aboard, met the owners and broker, and loved the boat. Our offer was accepted on March 3, and we made arrangements for a pre-purchase marine survey two weeks later. 

Imagine our surprise when the broker called and said, "Um, we have a minor problem. When the boat was put back into the water to prepare for survey, the engine and generator wouldn't start, and none of the electronics worked. It appears that while on the hard, she was struck by lightning. It will be a couple of weeks before she will be repaired and ready for survey and sea trial." I told Suzanne that based on my experience with boats over the past 50 years, it would be at least 2-3 months before repairs could be completed. In fact, on May 3 we went to survey and sea trial after we were assured that she was ready to go. Sadly, the day was an almost complete bust - the only thing that worked reliably was the engine. Every other system had serious issues. We decided to reject the boat based on her ongoing problems.

On the drive home, Suzanne asked if we should consider a power boat - less likely to suffer lightning strikes and less work. (To sailors, that is called "Going to the Dark Side".) I said, "What, do you think I'm getting old or decrepit? Don't answer those questions!" On arrival home, I fixed dinner and she really went to work. In two hours she had found a power boat in Maryland and I had booked a campground. The next day we made an offer contingent on a personal viewing, survey and sea trial, and she set everything up for the following Monday (broker, owner, marine surveyor, engine surveyor, and boatyard for haulout). That never happens so quickly - usually it takes weeks to get everyone's schedules coordinated.

We drove up Friday and Saturday, and met the broker to see her on Sunday. Here she is preparing for a short haul the next day, where we and the surveyor could inspect her hull, bottom and running gear. She is in splendid condition.

The survey and sea trial went beautifully, and we are now her proud owners. She will be named Gratitude. She is 19 years old, and was lovingly built by Cherubini Yachts and ordered/supervised/cared for by her previous owner over two decades. (Jim, if you are reading this, we are eternally grateful to you!) We truly feel we were led to this boat by Susan, and that it is no coincidence the sailboat was struck by lightning. As we drove away from the survey on the new boat, even Susan's song came on the radio. Gratitude is a fitting name.

While in Maryland, we enjoyed a celebratory dinner at The Hobbit in Ocean City, near our campground. GREAT MEAL and TERRIFIC SERVICE!!!

We returned to South Carolina and prepared for our (now abbreviated) summer RV trip. Now it's early June, the latest that we have ever started our summer tour, and I am not a fan of heat and humidity. In past years, we have been in Flagstaff, AZ, or even Montana or Wyoming by now, enjoying cool dry weather and wearing fleece in the evening. Instead, we are in coastal North Carolina, New Bern, to be precise, on our way to join Gratitude. We are very happy campers!

We departed Hilton Head last week and spent one night in Myrtle Beach (too crowded for us), getting a long walk in on the (crowded) soft sand beach there. We are used to the hard packed sand back home, and more trees near the beach than in the more touristy (and crowded) Myrtle Beach. (Did I mention that we aren't fond of crowds?)

The next night was spent in Wilmington, NC. Those who are not geographically challenged may note that we aren't driving 300 miles a day this summer. Part of the reason is the OUTRAGEOUS PRICE OF DIESEL FUEL that we are seeing: $5.75 - $6.15 per gallon, whereas under the last administration (summer 2020) diesel averaged $2.25/gallon. 

But I digress... back to Wilmington, where a riverfront walk took us to a viewpoint near the retired US Navy battleship, USS North Carolina (BB-56). During my Navy career, I served aboard USS Iowa (BB-61). She is also retired, and is moored in San Pedro, CA. Battleships are a sailor's dream assignment, and I enjoyed two fabulous years aboard Iowa.

We just finished a walk through a riverside community near New Bern. We had been talking about the differences between men and women, and Suzanne pointed to a colorful house and said, "Now, Ty, even you can tell that this home has a woman's touch." I admitted that yes, it was sorta cutesy...

A short distance away, we saw another cutesy house... "Oh, Ty, again, you see that women do have more style consciousness than men - isn't that house nice?" "Harumph... yeah, it's cute, I admit..."

I was feeling just a little picked on... guys can have style as well! Fortunately, I found two examples of houses with a guy's touch, and pointed them out to My Lovely Bride. "Well, My Darling, even you can see that this house has a man's touch!" She was speechless.

We walked another block, and I didn't even need to say a word. She said, "Yes, Ty, I know... another man's touch, right?"

Tomorrow we move on to Virginia Beach, VA, and then to Chincoteague, VA. Each stop is merely catching our breath after driving before spending two weeks aboard Gratitude. Here is our bus and the beautiful view we are enjoying in New Bern.

New Bern is a charming town on the Neuse River, with lots of marinas and a rejuvenated business district with lots of shops, restaurants and bars. So far we have eaten all our meals in the bus; hey, I can do a mean BBQ chicken, and MLB made gourmet marinated pork chops with a fig glaze the other night that foodies would love! And yes, we do have a modest wine cellar in the belly, stocked with some drinkable wine.

Speaking of wine, we had dinner recently with our friends Kim and Tom Kennedy at the South Carolina Yacht Club. We brought a bottle of one of our favorite wines, Amapola Creek Zinfandel, lovingly crafted by other friends, famous Sonoma winemakers Richard and Alis Arrowood. 

Nellie and Rusty are doing well, and getting reacclimated to life on the road. They particularly like the dog parks that most KOA campgrounds have. Sharing tennis balls can be an issue, though. Rusty won't pick up any old ball, and often Nellie takes his and won't give it back. But being a girl, she has more style than Rusty, so there.

Here is a photo of sunset over the Neuse River, reflected in a pond at our campground. As the sun set, I heard helicopters taking off for night maneuvers at nearby Marine Corps training areas. Our Sergeant Susan was a helicopter airframes mechanic who worked on helos at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, just 15 miles away. Ooh Rah, Susan! Semper Fi!  

Finally, as I hit the "publish" button on this post, we note that June 8 is Susan's angel date. We miss you Susan, and Liam, your unborn son. God Bless you both. We know that you are still right here with us!

Karen and Mitch Crawford; High Tide; Bus Glass and Paint Repairs; Unity of Vero Beach; Prevost Rally; Florida Trail; Bear Vault and Spray; A Formal Affair

It's now the end of February, and I will try to catch up on recent events in our lives... one of the best things to happen in January was a visit by our dear friends Karen and Mitch Crawford, who live near Akron, Ohio.  Karen is an ER physician and Mitch is a real estate agent and actor. While we are on the road in our bus, Suzanne will often ask Karen for her thoughts on medical issues; on a Zoom call, Karen even diagnosed a problem I was having that I was not even aware of, and which our local medical people had never heard of! Karen, You Rock!!! Mitch is also a very cool guy who does TV commercials - he even looks like an actor...

 

We took Karen and Mitch to nearby Windmill Harbour Marina to look at boats and the sunset. It was still chilly, but being from Ohio, they were more used to the low temps than were we. I think it was in the teens there during their visit - too cold for this Southern boy!

We took several walks during Karen and Mitch's visit, including one to Fording Island here in Moss Creek, but the tide was low (5-6 feet below the boardwalk) when we walked there; oyster beds were above water then. A few days later, Suzanne and I arrived at a very high tide, with the water only a few inches below the boardwalk. Our tides are semidiurnal, meaning we get 2 highs and 2 lows each day. This was a plus 8.5 foot tide, about as high as it gets here.

One of the interesting issues of driving our bus is the vulnerability of two large windshields to rocks thrown up by passing semis or other vehicles. Over our 11 years of RVing, we have replaced 4 windshields. This was our 5th - it had three chips and a six inch long crack. Fortunately, Archer's Auto Glass in Beaufort, SC, has a windshield replacement Wizard, Mike, who took our old windshield out and replaced it with a brand new one in a relatively short 4 hours.

Our 2008 bus has over 114,000 miles on her now (we are the third owners), and had suffered many chipped paint dings on the front and both sides. We had them repaired at Gander/Camping World in Ridgeland, SC, only 45 minutes drive from the house. Here is our bus in the paint shop - the guys did a superb job!

In February, we took our bus (with its new windshield and a small fortune in paint chip repairs) down to West Palm Beach for a Prevost Rally. On the way, Suzanne gave her Let Your Spirit S.O.A.R. workshop at Unity of Vero Beach. She had a full house, and lots of enthusiastic students. It was the first large group that has met in the church since the start of the pandemic.  Members remarked that at the Sunday service the next day, the lingering energy from the workshop was felt by all, and that everyone felt it had breathed new life back into the church.

Every now and then I will post a photo of an exceptionally bad parking job... this one from Vero Beach... really???? The driver is either spatially challenged or the car ran out of gas before getting into the parking spot. There was barely enough room behind for a car to get by.

Our little Dachshund Rusty can be a clown - he experienced his first fountain at Unity of Vero Beach - and loved it! He kept sticking his head into the fountain until he was soaking wet! The predominantly female audience was enthralled by Rusty (Suzanne says he is a "Chick Magnet").

Rusty loves to lie on the couch with us; here he is peeping out from between my legs - and he knows that he is CUTE!

While at the campground south of Vero Beach, we went for a walk at Fort Pierce inlet. There had been a surfing contest the day before when I hiked by myself while Suzanne was teaching, but this day we only saw sea birds, in this case Black Skimmers (Rynchops niger). Skimmers use their lower mandibles to furrow the water, closing the upper mandible when they contact fish. The skimmers' eggs were harvested commercially during the late 19th Century.

On the way back north, we stopped in The Villages for Suzanne to give a Sanaya session at the Unity Spiritual Center in Lady Lake, FL. It was great to see many old friends after a couple of years away. (I regret to say that I forgot to take pictures there....)  As always with these special channeling sessions, 100% of the proceeds went to charity.  Thanks to the donations of all participants, we were able to present a check that evening for $4118.00 to Seeds of Hope, the local food bank and soup kitchen.

Once or twice a year, I will go on a backpacking trip for 4-5 days out in the woods or mountains. An opportunity came up in February, and our neighbor Ron decided that he would like to accompany me on the hike, since he had never backpacked or slept in a tent. After buying his own boots, tent, inflatable air mattress, and sleeping bag, and borrowing one of my backpacks, he now says that he had too much wine that night and made an error in judgement... Here we are in Paisley, FL, and the start of the Ocala National Forest section of the Florida Trail, which runs from Pensacola to the Everglades, about 1,500 miles.

This photo of my one man tent is a reminder to do more research before selecting a campsite. We had hiked 14 miles that day with 35 pound packs (and did so again the next day), and were pretty tired when we found a nice level site. (Suzanne says 28 miles in two days with a full pack is not bad for an old guy ...) There were no roads nearby, and it was a serene location. What we didn't know until about 10 PM was that a dog kennel had been built about 200 yards away after our trail handbook had been published. From 10 PM until 4 AM, 20-30 dogs were barking almost continuously. Finally, at 4 AM, a respite in the noise... until about 4:15, when a couple of roosters started their crowing... oh, noooooooo!!!!!!!!! It was an almost sleepless night.

After a short first day, and those 28 miles the next two days, we stopped to set up camp and I found this on my left foot - the worst blister I have ever had... even with two year old, well broken in boots. The crazy part is that I had no idea that a minor hot spot that I had tended to at noon would reach this state by 4:00 PM.

People often ask what we eat while backpacking. For breakfast, I prefer granola and powdered milk. Lunch is mostly trail mix bars and GORP (good old raisins and peanuts, mixed with M&Ms). This is My Lovely Bride's favorite dinner - freeze dried Chili Mac. It was good, but pretty spicy, and the beans made for a rough night's sleep. (Phew!) I will stick with chicken and dumplings and beef stew next time. By the way, the green box behind me is a "Bear Box" - for storing food in campgrounds. 

I also carried a three pound (when empty) Bear Vault while we were in the woods - it will hold about three days supply of food for one person, and is guaranteed to keep your food safe from marauding black and grizzly bears. (They may eat you, but they won't get to your food.... that's very comforting). We each carried cans of bear repellent spray, which is supposed to deter a charging 1,500 lb grizzly. (Or, it will make him/her extremely angry...) In any case, we only saw bear scat (poop), no bears themselves. On a previous trip, I had to use bear spray when a black bear was walking towards me - at 15 feet, I gave him a 1 second shot of spray, and it worked... he turned and ran away.

At one point this past month, My Lovely Bride committed an egregious offense.  We had taken the dogs out for their morning constitutional. Suzanne became distracted while standing with Nellie and stepped away to clear some debris from around a bush.  When I went to pick up Nellie's deposit, I stepped right in it.  (Can you say, "Oh ****"?!)  I admit that I got a bit grumpy... then for a few minutes after we got back inside, I didn't hear from her, so I went looking, and found her "in the doghouse"..... they say that the sense of humor is the last thing to go... I guess we're okay for now.

Finally, last night we went to a black tie/gown affair, the first such event since we both retired from the Navy so many years ago. Then, we would wear "mess dress", which is the Navy's formal uniform, complete with cumberbund. Both of our mess dress uniforms got lost over the years, so Suzanne got a gown and I bought my first tuxedo. A smart aleck friend (named Lynette Setzkorn) thought I needed a better pair of shoes than shown here... the ones she recommended are shown below in the window of the store where I actually bought my tux. Thank you, Lynette!

The gala affair was a blast, and even had a rock and roll band playing 60s and 70s music after dinner - the average age of the band members was 73, but they were great! We danced every dance, and I am still exhausted a day later...