US tour - southern states, 2013

My wife just made another blog post, but here is my 2 cents.  We spent about 11 hours on the road yesterday driving from Tybee to the Walmart just north of the Pensacola Naval Air Station.  They wanted us to park to the rear (a normal request) but I wished I had parked on the northern side instead of on the southern side.  After getting plugged in with the generator running I realized there was project housing not far away with a path that dumped out right at that corner of the lot.  I was a bit worried but said a prayer and went to bed, in the end we had an uneventful night.  We were up at 7:15 when the genset ran out of gas, 8 hours after I filled it.

The National Naval Air Museum was top notch, and we really could have spent 2 full days absorbing everything in there.  Unfortunately even though we were there on a Wednesday, the Blue Angels are currently grounded due to the budget cuts.  They practice right there on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  They said 11,000 people showed up for their final practice before they stopped.  We were there right as the museum opened so we got space on one of their flight-line bus (trolley) tours.  There are several dozen aircraft in unrestored condition over there, plus you can see several in a hangar actively being restored.  Some notable items there are the only C-130 ever to take off and land on a carrier, and the only non-fighter aircraft that was in the air when everything else was grounded after 9/11.  In the museum itself there are interesting pieces like the first plane ever to cross the Atlantic (hint, it wasn't Lindbergh's), a full set of Blue Angels in formation hanging from the ceiling, and one more on the ground.  The cafe has most of the pieces from the officer's club on the Naval base we had in the Philippines until 1992.  One thing that amazed me about this museum is unlike so many others there are few barriers around the exhibits.  You walk around and under the planes the whole time and except for the ones hanging from the ceiling you are able to touch them.  The only barrier I saw was around a Lunar Excursion Module mock-up, necessary due to the lightweight foil that covers it which would be easily destroyed.  After 6+ hours my wife and the kids were done so we headed across the street to the light house since my wife loves them (I like them too).  Unfortunately a heavy storm front was rolling in so we only got a few minutes there before we were back in the car.

Several hours later we made it to New Orleans, and we'll spend the next 2 days exploring the area.