U.S. A1A

The Atlantic Pacific Coast Highway. The Atlantic off northern Florida and Georgia is prettier and bluer than I remembered. There are so many houses of enormous size and others that are simply joyous celebrations near the sea that I wonder if this country isn't in better financial shape than is often advertised.

We must have passed by 5,000 houses worth many millions of dollars (some far, far more) in 100 miles ... and tens of thousands worth half a million or more. Anyway, it boggles my shriveled brain.

We got very lucky to see a school of dolphins, porpoises, or orca. Again I have video and will try to post in on YouTube later.

WWII coastal watch tower from where we saw the dolphins/porpoises/orca.

I expected surfers on this beach not far north of Daytona.

Entering St. Augustine from the south. I believe this is the historic Flagler hotel. Google Flagler sometime if you want some interesting reading. He built a railway to Key West, among other things. A UVM graduate has a one man show about him in St. Augustine ... or did two years ago.

All of the houses are different along A1A. Many have clever variations of "widow's walks." That said, this one doesn't, but it is a fairly representative house of the thousands we went by.

Most are hard to photograph because of vegetation, gates, sand dunes, and walls.

Kennedy Space Center

Went for a couple of hours. Stayed all day.

Here's just a few of the reasons:

This is where they build shuttles and rockets. Inside there's about 500' of clearance. Outside on the top, you could fit Yankee Stadium and have an acre left over for parking. 

Saturn 5 rocket, stage 1. The end of the most complex device ever created by human beings, we were told. I took a stroll along it with the camcorder. I hope to post it and other videos on YouTube.

Saturn 5 again. Perhaps this gives some sense of the size of the rocket that got our guys to the moon.

Apollo 14 capsule.

Memorial to astronauts who lost their lives while progressing the space program.

This and the actual mission control room for our first moon landing were very emotional for me. I have some video of mission control, but no flash photography was allowed. In a multimedia presentation, television coverage of the countdown as well as highlighted displays as would have been seen in mission control were all mixed together. Walter Cronkite was of course featured. You could go aboard a shuttle, climb up a viewing tower, touch a moon rock, see the stages of development of space suits, lunar transport vehicles, actual handwritten logs of various events, capsule designs from the early 50's, the chance to have lunch with a mission tested astronaut, and lots of stuff I can't remember right now. Be aware that if you go -- and you should if you can -- the nearest motels are about ten miles away. And if you're in better shape than me (which I think means all of you), two days might be better than one.

Disney

Three days and two nights at Disney. Mostly Epcot and Hollywood. Some fun stuff. Some interesting stuff. Some not so much.

Highlights?

There's a chip at the bottom of all the soft drink cups at the resorts that keeps track of how many times you've refilled the cup within a certain time frame. You're limited to three refills in one hour and after that you're cut off.

Surface temperature at Disney 100+ rising up from the walkways. The macadam parking lots were much worse.

At Epcot the intro ride which created a glimpse into your future based on questions you answered while taking the ride incorporated pictures taken of Mike and me while on the ride, superimposed on stick figures of us. Unexpected fun. Pretty much like Jib Jab.

We saw the Indiana Jones live show (which I participated in around 1988) and had a neat movie ride through some famous films (Wizard of Oz and Alien to name two). Also went on an unexpectedly neat ride in the Norway pavilion. I've got some videos of the first two, but still having trouble posting them here.

Kennedy Space Center tomorrow. Meanwhile a few pictures from the last couple of days. (I refused to pay for an internet connection at Disney. This time it was the principle, not the money ... so I'm catching up here.)

In real life, I'm not sure it's possible for anyone to be prettier than the young lady on the right who works in the Norwegian pavilion.

These warriors, the real ones being six feet tall in the tombs of Chinese emperors, are thought by some to each be representative of a real man since each are unique. One tomb even had a "cafeteria" to feed the warriors. A relatively recent discovery in 1974 made by some Chinese farmers working on their field is beyond staggering. Exploration of it has hardly begun -- but it has been mapped out. The underground "tomb" for this emperor (Qin, I think) extends for 22 square miles. That is NOT a typo on my part. Imagine trying to do that even today.

From what I read, this is a thrill ride. Sure seems elaborate for that ... even for Disney. I took their word for it as a merry-go-round is pretty much my limit for such devices. I believe there is a 12 story near freefall contained within.

St. Pete's Beach II

Sunset deux.

St. Pete's Beach

We've settled in at the Beachcomber on St. Pete's Beach in St. Petersburg, of course. The big sandy, seashell filled beach here faces west into the Gulf of Mexico.

Here's our first sunset:

Secret Tallahassee Museum

Muscle cars, drag racers, movie stunt cars, antique cars, really antique cars, ancient sets of golf clubs, million dollar pianos, toys, train sets and memorabilia, baseball cards, stuffed animals, and more in this relatively unknown museum east of Tallahassee.

Did I mention the Batmobile collection? Five or so movie Batmobiles plus a Batcycle.

National Naval Aviation Museum

In the huge Naval Air Station Pensacola, the Museum is much more than one could reasonably guess. Spectacular, educational, touching, and overwhelming -- it was a real surprise to us.

Oh ... did I mention it is the home of the Blue Angels? There are some very watchable IMAX movies on them and other flight related topics.

We took about 300 photos and videos. This is a seaplane that crossed the Atlantic in 1917. It's huge, but the cockpit area is both open to the elements and startlingly small.

This raft, just about big enough to hold me, was the home for three Navy men for 34 days.

These are the men.

This is their story.

The controls of a Blue Angel jet. Seriously ... how do these guys do it???

The still active lighthouse across the street from the museum. There's been a beacon here for over 150 years. So if you like planes, the Navy, and/or lighthouses -- this be the place.

Dauphin Island/Fort Morgan

We left Biloxi and made our way down to Dauphin Island and then took the ferry to Fort Morgan.

I should have said earlier that we were very worried about the lasting effects of the oil rig disaster on the area. It turns out that this part of the Gulf shore never was touched by it for currents and prevailing winds and other helpful factors.

On the ferry we talked for quite a while with two women, Noreen and Rita (maybe I'll remember), for quite a while. They'd been walking around the eastern point of Dauphin Island and were returning to their car in Fort Morgan. Noreen was in a wheelchair, but not restricted to it. She is tiny and fragile looking. At 92 she usually plays seven holes of golf everyday ... but sometimes less. There's a little inspiration for me, eh? Her friend was a generation younger, but probably older than me.

Mike and I had been thinking about renting a house on Dauphin Island sometime in the future. It's nice, but too quiet, even for us.

We both had po boys there (basically a hero sandwich). Mike had the catch of the day and I had shrimp. As always down here, it was just too much to eat. Mine must have had 30 good sized shrimp on it. The wide, thick, toasted roll it came on was too much, also. I ate one small bite on one slice, half the other, and the shrimp, along with some of the cold slaw. Most of the meals we've sat down to could have been half as big and still be plenty.

Here's some pictures from that leg of our journey (Tuesday, Sept. 20).

There were a couple dozen oil and natural gas rigs within sight in this little section of the Gulf. We passed pretty close to this one on our small ferry (capacity about 18 cars -- roughly a third of the Lake Champlain ferries and a twentieth of the Seattle ferries we saw and traveled on).

Part of the six mile long causeway leading to Dauphin Island.

This is now how you have to build homes in hurricane alley. Some much, much larger homes are built with the same base. A vast majority of the houses are pastel shades. This one was one of the brighter ones. Some of the houses are seemingly a long way from the coast, but still high on stilts.

With yet another change in plans, this time due to drifting sand across a road we hoped to travel, we ended up in Pensacola. The sand was about a foot deep in places ... potentially trapping us in all directions. We'd had enough of that around Lancaster PA. Still, how often is someone cut off by water and sand on the same trip?

Biloxi beach bumming

Shell collecting 101: First make sure shell is empty.

I put a nice little spiral shell in my pocket. Ten minutes later -- oops! There was a hermit crab in that shell. He's back in the water ... although there were lots of crab eating birds about.

I took a video of the little guy, but was unable to upload it to Blogger after several long attempts.

Then there was what I think was a Great Blue Heron ... a real shaggy old guy -- three feet, maybe more, high. The video wouldn't work with him either.

Lastly there were some birds on the beach that reminded me a little of puffins. I'll try to I.D. them later, but this has been too long in the making already. Anyone know what these birds are?

A bit iffy weather for tomorrow. We plan to go to Dauphin Island and then take the ferry to Fort Morgan. We'll see.

I said the heron was maybe three feet tall. After googling them, I'm guessing he would be about four feet tall with his neck extended. And possibly more.

Sunrise -- Gulf of Mexico

This morning, Monday, September 19, 2011. Taken from the beach, looking ENE.

That's US 90 in the foreground -- the Gulf's equivalent of the Pacific Coast Highway ... but minus the cliffs and the curves.

Biloxi MS and Gulf of Mexico

This area appealed to us two years ago, but it was hard to explore then with thousands of street rods everywhere for Cruzin' the Coast, an annual and growing event here. (There's already almost a thousand more cars registered for it so far this year. Luckily it starts the first week in October, so we've got the endless white sand beaches to ourselves ... well, sort of.)

Roll Tide!

For my son and his students ...

Chattanooga TBK

The Chattanooga Choo Choo, a visitor's center with lots of neat things to explore and several great restaurants.

Chattanooga from the top of the Incline Railway.

The enormously sad and unfair Trail of Tears began not far from here.

The longest pedestrian bridge over fresh water in the world (there may be one other qualifier) seen from Coolidge Park (not named after Cal), one of the better public parks we've seen on our journeys.

The above taken at City Cafe in Chattanooga -- a tiny, hard-to-find restaurant connected to a Day's Inn on MLK Blvd downtown. The Salmon Monte Carlo I had could have made four big meals. (Doing my best, but not going crazy, I ate less than half. That part, the waste, isn't good.) And the deserts ... well, just look at the pictures.

We're in Chattanooga. Went on two hour riverboat tour. Fun and informative ... more so than most. One quick item before I forget.

We all know the southern expression y'all or yawl. It came up in an interesting combination while Mike and I were out to dinner.

Our server was attending the table next to us. She had two helpers bringing out their food. She asked about taking away some of their plates to "make room for all yawl's dinner." Maybe yawl had to be there, but it got my attention.

A most unusual house along the Tennessee River near Chattanooga. Other houses reminded me of those nice ones around Lake George.