Another change in direction

Hi Y'all,
If there is still anyone out there since it has been two months since the last time I posted.

Since the last post we've spent six weeks in LA (Lower Alabama) helping a guy renovate a house. It has been a huge learning experience and also enjoyable. During the middle of our time there we took almost two weeks off to go to Atlanta so Susan could join some of her girlfriends for a girls weekend. I was kept busy and out of trouble for the weekend by helping friends with Christmas decorations. The finally tally was eleven Christmas trees at Mark and Tammy's house.

From Atlanta we went on up to the boat in North Carolina. Our plan was to work on the bottom paint but, as most every plan we have made, we changed it on the fly. In my last post we talked about getting back on the boat in January or February. That plan slid out to March or April. When we were at the boat we both admitted we weren't actually looking forward to getting on the boat and going back to the Bahamas. When it's good, it's great. But when it's not so good, it can be pretty stressful. The water, the beaches and the people we met along the way were fantastic. But it just wasn't enough to sway the "want to" factor. So we decided to sell the boat. It's on the market now. We really wish we wanted to go back again but I guess it's time for our next adventure. Getting off the boat for good feels like we're letting down all the people that have been following us. As you read this I hope you don't feel that way.

When we left the boat we went to the other end of North Carolina to have Thanksgiving with more of Susan's friends at their mountain house. What a beautiful place! We hiked, played games and ate. And ate. It was a great time with Francis, Vinnie and their son Kevin.

After Thanksgiving we headed back to LA for the last three weeks of our six weeks of work. We got real close to finishing one house. There were still a few things to do to put it on the market but it was looking pretty good. Here and there we'd take a day off from working to see some of the sites around LA. We spent one day in Mobile, touring the city. On Veteran's Day we drove over to Pensacola and watched the Blue Angels homecoming to their Pensacola Naval Air Station home. Wow! I've always wanted to see the Blue Angels and it was pretty amazing. On Pearl Harbor Day we went back over to Mobile and toured the battleship USS Alabama. There is also an aviation museum as well as a submarine (the USS Drum) to see. We were there until they closed for the day and there was more we could have seen.

Now we're back in Texas, getting here in time to see my grandson Tyson in his Christmas program. At three and a half years old, though he didn't actually sing, he did better than last year when he cried through all the songs. But he looked great as far as we were concerned. And according to his mom he really belted out the songs on the way home in the car.

The day after Christmas we'll be leaving here for a new part time job at an RV Park in Junction, Texas. The plan is to be there for three months. After that we'll go back to North Carolina, put the boat back in the water and take it to Florida. There is a much bigger market in Florida than Beaufort, North Carolina. Once the boat is safely in a marina we'll probably be heading for Alaska with the travel trailer. If I were you, I'd believe the part about were doing the day after tomorrow but anything after that is probably suspect based on our history.

That's all for now.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Brian

A new granddaughter has arrived!

Hi All,
It's been three weeks since I posted and it seems time to let you know what we've been doing. We made it back to Dallas and then played the waiting game. It seems Brianna faked us out a bit with a start and then a stop. On Friday, October 7, she made her grand entrance at 4:14 in the morning. Mother and daughter are doing great. So are Dad and Brothers. That being the highlight of the last three weeks there are a few other events of note.

While hanging around the Dallas area we did a small construction project at the lake. We also made a trip to Austin to see my grandson Alec who has started at the University of Texas this year. We had a nice evening with him and his girlfriend. The next day we drove over to Kemah and saw some friends we use to share a pier at the marina with. Bryan and Cindy even treated us to an afternoon sail around Galveston Bay. That was Saturday. Sunday we drove to Mason to spend a couple of days eating Cooper's BBQ, making prickly pear apple jelly (after picking the fruit) and vaccinating calves- all while spending time with our good friends at the Grote Angus Ranch. There were also some small side jobs of herding horses and longhorns back into the pasture where they belonged and butchering a feral hog.

From Mason we went back to Dallas to go to the State Fair of Texas and then spend an afternoon with Brianna, her brothers, mother and father.

Now we're in Robertsdale, Alabama. Susan said she was 14 before she found out it wasn't pronounced Ala-dam-bama. Susan found us a "job" here helping a guy fix up an old house to be a bed and breakfast. Our pay, for a couple of days of work a week, is a place to park the camper with water, electricity and sewer. We just arrived this afternoon and so far it looks like it'll be an interesting way to spend a couple of months.

What are our plans to get back on the boat you ask? If you've been following our odyssey you'll know we change directions frequently but here's the current plan. While here in Alabama we'll go up to the boat at some point to do the work on the bottom that needs to be done (paint). Then somewhere in January or February we'll put the boat back in the water and make our way towards the Bahamas. Our thinking at this point is to stay in the Bahamas until sometime in June before we come back to the US. Who knows if that's what we actually end up doing. Stay tuned to find out.

That's it for now.
Take care.
Brian

Carlsbad Caverns and Big Bend

Hi All,
Since last Sunday we've moved back into the world where city limit signs tell you the population rather than the elevation.  Monday we took the Kings Palace ranger guided tour at Carlsbad Caverns and also took a stroll through "The Big Room". Here are a few pictures from inside the cave...

Monday evening we stayed around for the bats exiting the cave. No pictures are allowed so I have none to post. It was pretty cool but surprisingly there aren't as many bats there as there are in the cave in Mason, Texas.

Tuesday morning we drove down to Marathon, Texas which is about 80 miles north of Big Bend National Park. We looked forward to a night without listening to trucks making deliveries to Walmart. The previous two nights hadn't been great for sleep, even with earplugs- but the price was right. Sure wish I had noticed the train tracks that run by the campground. Being right by an intersection each of the four freight trains that went by during the night had to blow their whistles, repeatedly, as they went by.

Wednesday morning I got a text from my daughter Amy letting me know she had been having some contractions and was going to go to her doctor appointment early. They weren't consistent or very strong so we decided to go ahead and drive through Big Bend National Park while keeping updated with how Amy was doing. Here are a couple pictures of our drive through Big Bend. Not many but it really is beautiful.

As we came out of the park an update from Amy came that made us decided we wanted to head back to Dallas. It made for a long day as we had to get back to Marathon and hook up the trailer before the eight hour drive to Dallas. As we got back close to Ft Worth and Amy hadn't progressed any further we decided to head to Gun Barrel City where we could drop off the trailer and get some sleep.  After 15 hours in the truck on Wednesday we got to Gun Barrel City at 1:30 on Thursday morning.

Now we're at my brother's house in Sachse, Texas  waiting for Brianna Leigh Bennett to make her grand entrance to the world. I can't wait to see her.

That's it for now.
Take care.

Brian

White Sands National Park

Once again I forgot to post a few pictures. These are from White Sands National Park.

 You would almost think we were back in the Bahamas were it not for the mountains in the background.

Here it looks more like snow.

In reality it is gypsum. Deposited here when the sea that once covered this area dried up.

That's really all!

Brian

Tucson and Las Cruces

Hi All,
my intention isn't to post once a week but it's working out that way. So first, some pictures that really belong in last weeks post. These two Susan took with her iPhone and are from Lower Antelope Canyon.

OK, Susan didn't take this picture but it was taken with her iPhone.

Last Sunday we took a day off (mostly so I could get caught up with the posts) but we did go back to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon to get a few more pictures.

As the sun starts to set you can see some of the haze over the north rim where there are doing a prescribed burn.

Nice view

Monday we drove to our campsite a bit south of Sedona and then took a drive up Oak Creek Canyon before spending a bit of time walking around Sedona. It was a gorgeous evening and we were able to sit outside.

Tuesday we drove to Tucson. It was a pretty full day of driving. Wednesday morning we toured the Titan Missile Museum where the only silo not destroyed as part of the SALT-II treaty with Russia is open for tours. Wednesday afternoon we toured Biosphere 2 which is now owned and operated by the University of Arizona. People no longer live there but do large scale scientific experiments there.

The only remaining Titan 2 Missile (deactivated) stands in the silo.

These signs were pretty much everywhere we went around Tucson. They made Susan very happy.
NOT!

Our guide at Biosphere 2 explaining how the "lung" works. We are standing in one of the lungs at this point.
When the Biospherians (as they were called) lived in the Biosphere it was a completely sealed structure.
When the sun shone through the glass the temperature rose and the air expanded, it had to go somewhere or it
would have blown the windows out. The air was forced into one of two lungs like this.
The center of the ceiling is actually a 16 ton piece of aluminum with a 4 ton hypalon diaphragm attached to it.
When the air in the Biosphere expanded during the day, the ceiling expanded upward. At night when the air cooled and contracted, the diaphragm forced the air back into the main part of the building. Pretty amazing, really.  

Thursday we spent the entire day at the Pima Air and Space Museum. We didn't see it all but we saw the vast majority of it. We were beat at the end of the day, but it was a great museum. There was way more stuff there than I could photograph, or that you'd want to see here. You should go there to see it all.

SR 71

"The Guppy" was used for very large cargo, like a Titan Missile.

Boeing 787 (prototype)

This plane carried Presidents Kennedy and Johnson to airports that couldn't handle jets.

This jet was in the "Presidential Fleet" but carried support personnel, not the President.
The way you can tell is on planes fitted for carrying the President, the light blue paint
goes over the cockpit.

This picture and those following are taken from the bus tour of the "boneyard". 

F117 Stealth Fighter. You must have special glasses to see it.

Planes partially wrapped in white are being kept as backups.
If needed they can be put back into service.

The Boneyard isn't part of the air and space museum.  It is on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
It is the world's largest military aircraft storage facility.
From the museum you can take a bus tour of the Boneyard.

B1 Bomber

Now we're back inside the museum. I wondered what a nuclear
bomb of today looked like.

Not sure what I expected, but this wasn't it.

The museum is across the street from the Air Force Base that is home to many A10s.
They were doing touch and goes all day, flying outside the museum.

Friday we drove from Tucson to Las Cruces. Saturday we visited the White Sands Missile Range and White Sands National Park.

Part of the "Missile Park" at White Sands Missile Range Museum

Susan standing next to a V2, the rocket we "captured" from Germany at
the end of WWII.

Today (Sunday) we drove from Las Cruces to Carlsbad so we can visit Carlsbad Caverns tomorrow. Our plan was to spend the night at Guadalupe Mountains National Park but the weather forecast was for wind gusts up to 70 mph tonight. We decided to move on. Tonight we're camping in the Carlsbad Walmart parking lot. How's that for elegant?

That's all for now. Take care.
Brian

Wildlife

Oops, I forgot to post the pictures of our furry friends. These are the deer that would visit every evening at our campsite in Utah.

About 40 feet away while I sat in my camp chair

While we eat on top of tables...

They were curious, until the camera clicked

Then they thought they'd move on

A picture of a pronghorn from Bryce Canyon thrown in for good measure.

This one was eating under our slideout just a few seconds before this shot.

This was the fist buck that didn't wait until after dark to move through our campsite.

Looked to be an atypical 6 point.

Now I'm really through for the day!

Brian