THEY’RE BACK!!!!!

November 28, 2011  Dateline: Mobile, AL USA

I guess they had enough turkey so they came back to me.  I have been out of the water since they left without much work being done until today, when there were six-seven people working on me.  My hull is being waxed, my cutless bearings are being replaced, my props were checked and are ok after coming all the way down from Chicago and my shafts are straight.  I think I will go back into the water tomorrow and if the wind dies down I will be on my way again on Wednesday. I will also have a new hard bottom dinghy riding on my swim platform.

There was a show on television called Gilligan’s Island several years ago.  The story was based on a boat that went out for a three hour cruise and was hit by a storm.  The show started each episode with a picture of the boat with a hole in its side.  Rich showed me this picture and I thought it might be the boat that was shown each week on the show.

Since I was still being worked on, Rich and Carol decided to go to the Pensacola Naval Air Station, home of the Blue Angels.  The Air Station has an incredible museum.  For those here in the U.S., Rich would put this museum ahead of the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in Washington.  The entrance to the museum is guided by this F 4 Tom Cat like the one used in the movie Top Gun.

There is a trolley tour around an apron of the runway where many old planes are stored outside.   The tour guide pointed out one very large helicopter.  He said that this one was bigger than Marine 1 and an unnamed President wanted the biggest helicopter.  Since the President is also the Commander in Chief he gets what he wants.  The helicopter landed in the Rose Garden.  The helicopter took off and left carrying the unnamed President away with it.  The downdraft from the rotor blades was so strong that it took away the Rose Garden.  The President went back to using the smaller helicopter.

On the apron was also this Super Constellation that had been used by TWA and later by the Navy for surveillance.  Rich thinks that this is one of the most elegant airplanes ever built.  For that reason I am including this picture for him.

Rich and Carol had the opportunity to see two Blue Angels land.  The driver commented that he thought one was a “trainee”.  The landing was so smooth that he didn’t look like a trainee.

This P-40, which is outfitted with Flying Tiger color scheme, is located inside one of the buildings.  There is a video showing near the plane about General Chennault and his American Volunteer Group (AVG) which flew the Flying Tigers in China to help defend China from the Japanese. The buildings are just full of planes like this, dating from World War I to today. A number of the World War II planes have been recovered from lakes where they crashed. The planes are restored by volunteers and one project took 13 years to complete.

This Ford Tri Motor sparkled in the lights of the museum.

Tomorrow I will still be in Mobile, AL getting prepped for my next adventure.