First stop, as usual, was the vet to have the Beast boarded for the week (the cat had a neighbor kid looking after him).
Then onto the road. Aside from some minor visits to cities by airplane (let's see, Orlando, Atlanta, and Charlotte, NC) that don't really count, I had never really explored the South, so this was going to be new to me. Our first day wasn't overly memorable...the route was through St Louis and then south through Illinois, crossing Western Kentucky into Tennessee, staying just south of Nashville.
There were a fair amount of these that we saw along the way, but not as many as I thought might be the case. Plenty of Union flags flying proudly though...I guess Sherman got his point across.
Somewhere, possibly in Illinois, we heard a loud "pop" and at the time assumed our roof-mounted cargo carrier had stuff shifting around or something. Now, we have this nifty little 12v powered fridge/cooler that we bought for long road trips, but the Beast as a puppy had gnawed the 12v plug clean off of the unit. So I rewired a new plug onto that which seemed to fix it. However, it appears I may have wired it backwards from the original, because we discovered when you have the switch on "cool" instead of "warm" now, it blows hot air! So for hours the cooler had been heating up, until the sparkling water can on top (originally quite cold) heated up enough to blow. Was a bit of a mess, but it kept some of the other items in the fridge from overheating, at least.
There was a spot in Kentucky of really tall, beautiful trees by the side of the road, with a dark forest floor underneath shielded by the canopy. What made it slightly surreal was that 20-30 feet up each tree someone had nailed a Trump sign at varying heights and angles. I imagined, deep within this Magical Trump Forest, was an open glade unseen by mortal men, in which, delicately perched on an ancient mossy stump, the former president softly played upon his pan-flute the melancholy strains of "YMCA".
The roads were pretty packed and road construction was everywhere. Our 8 hour estimated drive turned into 12. But we got to Nashville eventually. While this photo may not be the best evidence, we found Tennessee to be quite beautiful.
We stayed at a motel in an effort to have more isolated air-handling instead of the shared air systems of most standard hotels. This has its pros and cons of course. Smoking seems a lot more common in the South; I suppose, they grow the stuff, so that's fair. It was Gretchen's birthday, rather poorly celebrated by being on the road all day, but we let her pick what she wanted for dinner (among the local options, anyway...we got Steak and Shake).
Next day we headed south into Alabama. Greeted at the border by large multi-stage rockets at a rest stop:
My goal that day, and the source of much stress, was to reach the United States Army Aviation Museum at Fort Rucker before it closed (early on Saturday, at 3pm). We left quite early from the motel, and in theory, had plenty of time. However, the road construction on 24 highway the previous day was not to be outdone by ubiquitous traffic accidents and ensuing congestion on highway 65. We were led by Google Maps on some interesting off-highway excursions in an effort to circumvent some of these accidents and the massive pileup of vehicular matter queuing up behind them. So, we saw rather more of Alabama than we wished, and at a much slower speed than we were hoping for. But the Army Aviation Museum was an almost-non-negotiable for me...it was my major consolation prize for agreeing to drive east instead of west on a roadtrip (I admit to a little pro-West bigotry). Basically a museum focused on helicopters and the steward of the two extant RAH-66 Comanche prototypes...a stealth attack/recon helicopter that was cancelled in the early 2000s due to cost overruns, but a beautiful machine. I was in love with it from childhood thanks to a NovaLogic game (Comanche: Maximum Overkill) that made me interested in programming and game design (voxels were a fantastic innovation) and in possibly flying attack helicopters (a dream which was not long-lived once I understood my eyesight was having none of that). So I was excited to see the real thing at the only place in the world you can.
We were somewhat exhausted by the stress of the driving (and had skipped stopping for lunch to avoid further delay) as we pulled up to the gate at Fort Rucker, with less than an hour til closing time. The local military constabulary explained that the visitor center at that point was closed for the day. Only chance to get in was to drive around the base and try from the southern entrance. With 45 minutes or so left, we attempted it, and got on base eventually with just a half hour left.
Debra pushed me out the door and off I went (they would follow behind after a visit to the facilities that we had delayed due to time pressure). One wing of the museum is dedicated to the early history of Army Aviation...fixed wing aircraft of the WWI era (prior to the formation of the Air Force or the Army Air Corps).
Aerial Maxim gun...
I imagine most of these are replicas or are significantly restored with replacement parts...but I couldn't take the time to read hardly anything with the museum's closure looming...
Sikorsky R-4, the same type as the first helicopter used for combat rescue in 1944.
Sikorsky H-5, rather cute little thing for a helicopter.
Bell AH-1, the first true attack helicopter. This one is outfitted with the common later loadout of FFAR rockets and TOW AT missiles, with a 20mm cannon.
And what I'd come for...the Comanche.
The nose of the other prototype, apparently. I assume the rest of the assembly is in storage or under restoration.
Our quest...was at an end. As the NovaLogic game would say when you completed mission objectives, "We did it! Let's head home."
Outside we saw one of these...an extended CH-47 type helicopter with stunted wings. Apparently a technology demonstrator aircraft designed to increase lift in flight.
The pressure was off our schedule at this point and we continued south towards Florida, through mostly country roads since the jaunt to Fort Rucker had moved us away from the main highway artery. Which itself was apparently massively clogged.
Once we got to Destin, we basically spent the next couple hours driving around trying to get onto the peninsula. Eventually we sorted out how to get there after doubling back, finding onramps closed by police due to the traffic, but it took a long time...was nice when we finally arrived (just a bit ahead of the rest of the family).
Gretchen, who is in the throes of a maniacal herpetology obsession, quickly identified and befriended various local anoles and other lizards.
Next day, while we had initially intended to hit up the Air Force Armament Museum 30 minutes away at Elgin AFB (we passed it on the way in) we opted to delay that and enjoy the beach instead. We were maybe 3 blocks from the beach, an easy walk.
That's this place's claim to fame...white, soft sand, clear water, very gentle surf, and warm water temperatures.
Base camp established.
Pete and cousin Elliot encasing themselves in sand.
Gretchen did some limited swimming close to shore but the beaches were at "yellow" so we limited the kids a bit, that day. Things calmed down even more a few days hence.
The Boy feeling proud of his self-burial progress, and Grandpa taking a siesta after taking a minor spill in from a larger wave...
After braving the local supermarket for supplies (where some snowflake yokel found himself triggered and in need a safe space at the sight of my mask), we cooked carne asada...marinated skirt steak over charcoal.
The rest of the week is a bit of a blur because I worked during the day, remotely, from a folding table in my room. It was a nice test run of what I'd like to do someday...work remotely, part time or full time, from some place beautiful, originally populated by Polynesians... But anyway, I'd do that and in the evening we'd usually head out to the beach. Gretchen and I got a lot of swimming in. Although...note the horizon.
Apparently Florida got pissed off enough at Alabama that they dropped the bomb.
Family shot...
Debra would take the kids over to the pool in the morning most days...
Sometimes after work, a bit of kika kila out on the lanai.
Gretchen "distractedly wandering in the surf" model poses:
Pete back to burying his feet.
Gretchen rescuing a sand crab...
The whole family watching sand crabs move in and out of the sand with the waves...
Meanwhile, more music and practicing "Rosealani Blossoms" out on the lanai.
We mostly ate at the house but decided we needed to have some proper seafood at some point. So off to the Crab Trap about a mile down the road. Open air seating...
Got a variety of seafood specialties...Gretchen and Debra got shrimp and I ordered red snapper. This was before they brought out the drinks and Debra had yet to knock my glass of water over onto brother-in-law Kyle's lap.
So I figured, why not gross out the kids a bit, so I ordered 3 raw oysters to try for the first time. I was neither over nor under whelmed. You might say they were unsurprising, and I was evenly whelmed. Kids were not as shocked as I had hoped, perhaps having seen me do and prepare a lot of weird food things over the past year.
Caught a rare[r] green anole up in the tree...
Back at the ocean.
Debra with the inadvertent hair swoosh shot.
We were waiting for the kids to get back (having taken a walk with aunt and uncle to see a turtle nest).
Friday I had off for Juneteenth (a new national holiday this year!) but the forecast was rain so we used that time to do some unfinished business. On our way to the air museum we saw this rather strange mini-golf establishment. Can't decide if this T-Rex is more reminiscent of melting-clock Dali or something you'd see in The Yellow Submarine.
At the USAF Armamnent Museum at Elgin AFB. We found an airman guarding the entrance...the museum is open every day but federal holidays. Despite Juneteenth being on Saturday, the executive order establishing it the day before meant that they had shut down the indoor part of the museum that Friday in observance. Didn't make a huge amount of sense to me, but fine, I wasn't going to argue with the young man. So we toured the outdoor portion. Here's a big one, the Fifty-two:
Its predecessor, the B-47.
Grandpa came along...
Mace surface-to-surface missile from the 50s/60s.
F-15 Eagle...not pictured is the F-16 Falcon next to it, and it is striking how much smaller the Falcon is.
A-10 Thunderbolt / Warthog, the flying tank of close air support.
Business end...30mm Avenger cannon.
A 21 ton earthquake bomb from the 1940s. I knew it wasn't nuclear because there's no need to make a nuke that big!
AC-130 gunship, open for tours.
This particular version looked like it was set up with two 20mm Vulcans, two miniguns, and two 40mm Bofors guns. No 105mm cannon.
We're avoiding most indoor places with the boy til he can get a Covid vaccine, but we took a brief look inside.
By the Bofors guns. Racks of ammo all along the opposite wall. Well, probably just casings in this case...
Four man control room in the starboard side of the fuselage.
Optical instrumentation.
A Flying Fortress, my grandpa's ride over Europe during the war...
SR-71 Blackbird, and we would shortly head out.
We indulged our firstborn with a stop at an exotic pet/reptile shop. She had 15 minutes (timed) as a part of the ground rules.
I'm not going to pretend I know what these are. Gretchen surely does.
An exorbitantly priced ($500?) chameleon.
Another very expensive triceratops sort of guy.
All I know, it's a reptile of some kind, and he is not cheap.
But Gretchen loved it.
Some kind of Pacman Frog with a facial expression indicating that he is having NONE OF IT
Distracted on our way out by axolotls...
Some kind of fish-phibian thingy, I think is the scientific way to describe them.
Finally at Debra's request we tried Whataburger, Patrick Mahomes' favorite fast food, which is coming to KC. Aside from the very slow service, we found the food OK. Neither bad, nor really good...the patty itself was just kind of gray and boring, compared to thin and crispy burgers like you might get at Culvers, Steak and Shake, or Freddies. Again, not bad...but Whataburger coming to KC is not bringing anything into the KC metro area that you couldn't already get a better version of.
Sitting on the lanai during an evening deluge. Tropical storm Claudette was on her way. Debra's parents left midday on Friday to avoid traffic and the storms. Ended up being a wise choice. We had to increasingly change our return plans...first we realized that our planned visit to the Naval Aviation Museum at NAS Pensacola was a non-starter because due to CoVid they had restricted access to those holding a DoD card and their guests. So bang went that one...and then as regards my hope to visit the USS Alabama in Mobile, AL, well we took those hopes out into deep water, opened the seacocks, and as she took on water and listed to port, those hopes were finally scuttled, because the eye of the storm was headed to Louisiana and Mobile and we wanted to drive away from, not into the storm. Ah well, another time.
Morning of departure...the preceding night I had chopped up a very spicy red chili with a salad and as almost always seems to be the case...get a tiny bit of capsaicin on your contact, the next day after sitting all night it intensifies somehow and turns into eyeball-applied bear spray. After battling it out for 10 minutes with non-stop tears and instantly bloodshot eyes, I cried uncle, threw away the eyeball-torching instruments of agony, and put in my backup pair.
After packing up and ready to hit the road...a shot of our place:
I wonder if when Guns n Roses drives through, they offer them an additional 4 bucks, for the "ADD'L AXLE". I mean, that's what I'd do, just to kind of annoy the tollbooth operators.
So when we got across the border into Alabama, things got interesting. Lots of rain all morning of course, but we were in a tornado watch due to the tropical storm. Then we got the tornado warnings...local to our location. Debra was, well, quite nervous and we monitored the radio extensively trying to triangulate our position as compared to the tornado and see if we needed to just keep driving or seek shelter (the warnings said, basically, in Frodo fashion: "GET OFF THE ROAD!"). We determined that the tornado was just a bit behind us so we kept going. I found out later that in a bit of a panic Debra had installed some sort of weather related malware on my phone...it acted almost like a rootkit in not allowing me to uninstall, but I eventually found a way to fix it. Later that morning there were tornadoes further to the west but we avoided them. Mostly, it was just constant downpours and limited visibility.
We did stop south of Birmingham for some Krystal, this strange White Castle like place that seems to be everywhere in the South. The chicken sandwiches were good, the sliders...were strange. Edible to be sure, but likely an acquired taste (much like White Castle I'm sure, which I've also never tried).
Crossing into Mississippi, a rather cute rest stop / welcome center.
The inside had a bit of a museum in one section.
We drove over by Enid Lake in northern Mississippi to meet my friend Eric, with whom I had a sadly-short-lived Hawaiian band in KC before Covid (and him moving back to MS). We chatted, saw their new place with a good amount of acreage, and headed back out. We didn't get any really good pics, but the infestation of kudzu down there is wild...tons of it, completely covering trees in some spots, making them look a bit eery, almost like the green landforms in Na Pali in Kauai.
Spotted in MS...KC Steakhouse and Seafood. Look guys, Mississippi has actual coastline. If anything, invoking Kansas City gives you less cred as a seafood restaurant, not more...
We stayed at a Days Inn in a very quaint town that was otherwise beautiful (Hernando MS). I mean really, Debra gushed over how beautiful everything was in the town. But the motel...well, let's just say she isn't sure but it may have been the dirtiest place we've ever stayed at (honestly, it looked great online!). Spotted outside...paging Steely Dan... "...that it's over, now...drink your big Black Kow...and get out of here..."
Last day wasn't bad, we were out of bad weather (I having successfully "crossed the T" of Claudette, who was steaming north and turning to starboard, making to the east...by adopting a course to the north west we were able to catch Claudette with a full broadside and steam out of range into Mississippi). Arkansas had its pretty parts, none of which we were able to capture very well.
And that was it...got back yesterday afternoon. Another successful roadtrip (and my first into the deep south). As usual, we're glad to be back home.