T-Day weekend

 Going to wrap up the next two days in one post here.

Saturday was almost a rinse and repeat of Friday.   Lazy morning, although I went for a spin on the bike before the girls got up.  We made breakfast burritos for breakfast.

Nothing like cooking bacon with a view and cup of coffee!   Beautiful sunny morning and the temps were close to 70 at the start of the day.  Still a North wind, but it had clocked around a bit from the NW the day before and had the good grace to back off alot so only about 8-10 now.

I had to dump the bacon grease somewhere, so I poured it on some deutritus we had thrown in the fire ring.  I didn't know ibis liked bacon, but who doesn't?   They were jumping in there and pulling out greasy paper towels, etc.   I ran them off and flipped the grill over which took care of that isssue.

We made breakfast burritos with eggs, cheese, onions, bacon and salsa.  They were yummy.

The welcome sign was out as my sister was coming with 2 of her kids for the day.

The campsite all set up.  This dent in Naya's car was not her fault as someone merged into her.  

My sister arrived around 11 AM and we swung into action fairly quickly.  With the 3 of them and the 4 of us and 3 seats on the craft, it was going to be shifts.   The three girls (Lucy abstained) went second and my sister and nephew went with me.

My sister and nephew are not very experienced paddlers so my sis was on her own in the kayak and Michael and I went on the SUP (configured as a sit on top).  Today we launched from our campsite and beat into the wind up around the little island and then a similar route to the day before.   For me it went quickly as it was shorter than the day before, although I did most of the paddling and my nephew basically went for a ride (which was fine).

At spot number 1 as we were leaving the sand bar, I saw a big splash over by the big island.   It was a dolphin (saw one at first).   As a motorboat was traversing between us, I used him as a blocker and headed straight toward the dolphins (I now saw there were 3).   We got within about 40 ft or so and at one point 2 of them turned and headed in our direction, but they got about 25 feet away and turned off, keeping their distance.

My nephew was excited as was my sister (it was cool, not going to lie).   We paralleled them for a bit but they kept diverging from us as we needed to head toward our site and use the wind to help get us there with minimal effort.

We beached with no issues and got ready for lunch.  We had a nice picinic lunch of sammies and snacks and then the girls were off for a lap.   I had briefed Naya on the route and they did the same loop and saw the pod of dolphins as well.

Departure was a small production.

Parental supervision of the young adults lol.

And off they go!

Rounding the corner.   That is Scout Island as a backdrop.

While they were gone, we put my nephew on a bike as well as my sister.  Probably over a decade since either had ridden a bike.   We did a few laps around the campground and when we got back, the girls had already returned.   They powered through it in probably half the time.

It was past 3 by now and my sis and family packed up and headed home.  The girls went to play frisbee and I tried out the hammock.  It was nice with the shade and breeze.  Lucy rode her bike up to the bait and tackle shop to buy a bottle of wine for our steak dinner (I bought 2 bottles and forgot them....a theme on this trip).

View from the hammock.   The sites were a nice size with plenty of room. 

I was super impressed with this photo from my Google phone.   Such a clear pic (zoom in on it).   This was after we cooked a London Broil and baked potatos on the fire.  It was delicious.   No stars as a high cloud deck came back up from the SE just before sunset.   We burned alot of wood and had a good time hanging out by the fire.

SUNDAY:

I woke up a little later but still well before everyone else.  I went outside and it was warm and humid and completely still.  The river was oil glass like a summer morning.  I woke Lucy up and prepared the SUP.  We were on the water by 8AM.

  

As there was no wind, it was time to paddle the other way!   Keeping in mind we had to be off the site by 11AM and that the girls might want to paddle, we kept to circumnavigating Scout Island (and the little one).  We were gone about 40 min or so as we piddled around looking at various birds and jumping fish.   Not a breath of wind the whole time.

Got back to the site and the girls were less than interested, so I got right to cooking breakfast.

As mentioned we didn't have a good to go list and forgot alot of stuff.  Like cooking spray for the waffle iron.  The waffles cooked,  but it took Coral 20 min to get them off the griddle.   We made the rest as pancakes on the grill above and used the all of our butter (about half a tablespoon left).  I also forgot pancake syrup.  We were a mess lol.We also lamented not saving bacon grease to lube the pans with....oh well.

We finished and started cleaning up.  I had already packed the bikes the night before, broke down the SUP and started converting to travel mode.   

We were off the site a couple min after 11 and when we pulled up to the dump station, it was a 4 deep wait.   I said nope, and headed home.   

The Pineapple drove like a dream and we were home in under 3 hours.  Traffic was thick on Thanksgiving Sunday and glad we didn't leave later as I'm sure it got worse.

Sure is nice having a sewer clean out next to the docking station.  Pulled her up and dumped the tank.  The macerator was probably the single best purchase I made on this rig (other than the purchase) to date.   I can dump and be gone in about 5 minutes.  No stinky slinky for this guy!

When I got a new roof last year I wasn't paying attention to the rain gutter guy and he went about 3 inches past the end of the house.   I was sketched about it for months and months and finally figured I would pass just under it.

Wrong!   I had a little too much air in the bags and was backing up and heard CRUNCH!  I thought I jacked up the rain gutter and my roof, but luckily only the LED marker light took the hit (rain gutter also fine).    

Now that I have a new gate and the neighbor put up a new fence I have a little more room, so it shouldn't be an issue moving forward.

You can see how tight I park it to the wall (5-6 inches).

We blast off again for a quick 2 nighters in mid December!
 

Black Friday

 Ahead of time I had spoken with my friend Ian who lives in the middle of the state (Winter Haven) to see if he was interested in kayaking around over the holiday weekend.  He was ALL in for Black Friday.  

I woke up and as it was the night before a fairly brisk NW wind was honking.  It was aimed directly toward our launch point from the other side of the river (over a mile away) and there are waves breaking on the beach lol.   I hopped on my bike and scouted out a more protected launch point and talked to the lady who is habitating that campsite.  She was nice and said sure you can launch here.  Phew!   I figure it'll save at least 15 min of upwind paddling.

I head back and have breakfast and blow up the SUP/Kayak (dual purpose).

Wide view showing Long Point Park in relation to Sebastian Inlet (about a mile away) to give you a lay of the land so to speak.  Ian was right on time and showed up at 10AM.  It had warmed from the low to high 60s so the temp wasn't a big factor, just the wind.  Ian agreed on the launch idea so off we went.

Our campsite was just off the bottom of the picture above,  but imagine 15+ mph wind coming from the 10 O'clock direction and you have a real good idea how us moving helped alot.  Where we put in was blocked by the big island we would later cut through the middle of.

The little fish hook at the bottom was my boo-boo when we put in.  I went about 50ft and realized it dead ended on the road you drive in to the island on (pretty sure its fill in the mangrove as it's surrounded on both sides by wet thick Red Mangroves.

We stayed tucked in behind the first little island and then headed up to the first point.  We then traversed toward the big island to hide in its lee (not this paddler's first rodeo in strong wind (looking at JT here!).   As we crossed you will see point 1.  Our first dolphin sighting. The number spots show all our dolphin sightings for the paddle.  There were TONS of birds, pelicans, ospreys, sea gulls, herons, etc. The dolphin was feeding and didn't look full grown (teen).  I tried to edge toward it slowly, but they kept their distance but didn't run off.

Lucy and I didn't have a dry bag so no phones, but Ian brought his.  We consulted the map once or twice, but he only took one pic the whole trip......

To my best guess this is looking NE, but hard to tell.  I think is close the first dolphin sighting.  He told me he was sorry he didn't take more but was caught up in nature's splendor and didn't think about it.   I give him a pass on this as he used to live in Pittsburgh. 

We then traversed north to a dead end (another quick map consult and saw another (or same) dolphin at spot 3. and we found the little creek to a pond opening.  We circled around in there and headed out.   

Probably saw the same dolphin at spot 4 and headed west hugging the north close to shore to avoid wind.  When we got to the entrance on the creek we paddled past it into some waves (close to a foot high), turned and let the wind blow us into the creek.   The wind was funneling through the trees here so all I had to do was steer and we zipped through past a couple of guys fishing.

We popped and headed a short bit to a sandbar and little beach on the circular island on the left.   We pulled up and took a break and got out and splashed around in the shallow water for a few minutes.  We took this time to look across and calculate our vector for the wind  across to the campground.   I aimed for a spot 3-4 sites north of ours (in case the wind carried us further as it was still blowing very briskly).   As we go closer I let off and let the wind blow us right to our spot.  Easy paddle with a 15+ tailwind!  Total paddling time was around an hour 45.

We beached 50ft from our RV and dragged them out, hosed everything off and discussed our successful adventures.  Ian loaded up in short order and was off as he had other engagements.

Naya and Coral had gone shopping and arrived back a short time later.  The clouds rolled in and by sunset it was drizzling just enough that no one wanted to be outside.  No fire, indoor cooking and discussions at the table.   Was an early evening but I was tired from the paddle so it was all good...

  

Turkey Day!

 I was smart enough to turn off my work alarm on my phone as it was a holiday.  I still woke up at my normal time and was greeted by the sunrise when I rolled out the door 15 min later. 

It was interesting as when I left the coach for a stroll, it was 64 degrees, but an hour and half later it was 61.  Ususally not how it works around here.   Once the sun cleared the cloud deck it warmed though.

With a full moon just 2 days away, the tides were up a bit and each morning we were there. This dock was submerged each  morning.  You can see the pilings for the walk over to Scout Island.

High tide next to our site.  Our site had mangroves directly behind it, so we had to use the edge of the neighbor's site to launch our craft.    I was concerned when we arrived that this was the high tide line, but a week ago we had a storm up and down the coast that pushed a couple feet of surge in and this was the remnants (per campers that had been there for a week).

While the girls slept, Lucy and I ate our breakfast and pedaled over to the beach (10 min) to check the surf.  I have surfed this spot many times over the years.  It was semi-clean and quasi rideable.  No one was out, although in the 20 min we hung out I did see a couple of rideable waves with decent shoulders come through.

As we got a slow start (lazy day), we headed back and started to prepare the mashed potatos we were bringing for dinner.  Coral baked a yummy Pineapple Upside Down cake to compliment it (at home).   We finished the taters, cleaned up and headed 30 min up A1A to my sister's place.

If you have ever watched a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, you get the joke here.  I asked her why there wasn't buttered toast.......   I skipped on the jelly beans but the pretzels (even the proper type) and popcorn were good.

Next up was the Angry Birds veggie platter.   It was actually a Turkey, but it was the Angry Bird lol.   It was good and I over ate on the appetizers as I skipped lunch.

This cheese ball looked more like a proper turkey with pretzel feathers and it also was quite good.

Dinner and dessert were great (sorry no pics).   We hung out and then drove back to the campground.  It was a nice clear night and fairly dark despite all the lights on the campground and the near full moon.   I was able to see the Orion Nebula easily in my Binoculars although Jupiter was too close to the moon so no moons of Jupiter were visible.  I looked for the Andromeda galaxy as well, but the moon washed it out.   It was late so didn't bother with a campfire.

We did notice on the way in that the Thanksgiving decorations on several sites now had inflatable Christmas Trees up!

Turkey Time 23

We are still feeling out the holidays, this being the second year with no parents.  Last Thanksgiving my sister and her family went up to NC to see their youngest daughter and my son was able to join them.   As you may recall, the girls and I headed just up the road to Jonathan Dickenson at the last minute when we scored a cancellation.

My sis sold her South FL home and has moved full time to the Melborune area about 120 miles north of us.  She mentioned her oldest would be in town from Dallas.   In early October I went online to check out Long Point Park which is about 20 miles from her place.  Low and behold, someone had cancelled and we got THE LAST SPOT available for 4 days over the holiday.  I couldn't hit reserve fast enough.  Bonus was that the site was waterfront, so we could launch the kayaks right off the site!  My son said he would be able to come, however, at the last minute his job called and he had to work the day after Thanksgiving as he didn't have enough time off accrued....we missed him tremendously.

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Well the next month and half flew by and we have been busy with our non-camping life....We were leaving Wed (wanted to be on the road by noon),   Aside from moving the coarch to get a new door installed, I hadn't driven it since April when we went to the rally.   So last Saturday, I pulled her out, checked her over, and took for about a 10 mile spin and topped off the gas tanks.

I used a previous check list from an earlier trip and while we brought everything on the list, boy we forgot a ton of stuff!  Naya's BFF was coming with and we needed a car to get to my sister's (no motorhomes allowed at the condo!)   She left about 2 hours after we did.  This was good as we called her and got things we didn't pack, but we still missed things.

The drive up was uneventful and the FHP was out in force writing tickets (I got one years before on Turkey week).  We arrived and got set up pretty quickly. You can see us crossing the Sebastian Inlet Bridge above. (a mile away from the campground).

Initial set-up complete, we arrived around 4:30 PM so not much light left, just the essentials for tonight..

This was around dusk and the cocktail lamp is lit! You can see the 10' kayak strapped to the ladder to keep it out of the way.

I had some firewood onboard, but the lion's share went into the trunk of the Mercury.  5 pallets worth cut up.  Pic doesn't do it justice (brought about 40% home which will be plenty for the next trip in 2 weeks)

Wed night viddles, shrimp and veggies grilled to delicous perfection on the campfire.

Shot of the cabbage palms we hung the hammock from  Indian river behind them and mangroves 

Shot of the college coeds enjoying the evening.

Reno Air Races

 Back when I was a kid, I remember watching the Reno Air Races on TV.   It looked really cool, and I thought that I'd like to go one day.   Earlier this year a friend who lives in Reno, posted that this would be the last year of them being held in Reno.  In others words, don't miss it if you are thinking about coming.

I know JT is really into airplanes so I figured it would be an easy sell.  It also coincided with his 30th birthday being within a week of it.   I made the call and he was in.    I booked the hotel even before the tickets went on sale.

This was the reason for the whole rest of the trip up to now.  It turned out that he got the extra time off and the whole Vegas portion got thrown on top of this.  It was almost like two seperate trips as we flew from Vegas to Reno (90 min).  

We bought the 3 day pass for the show and I spent the extra $$$ and got a reserved grandstand tickets as well as the pit passes.  It was money well spent.    We didn't use the seats that much, but it was nice to have a spot to plunk down when we wanted to.  I'm putting all 3 days in one post as it was a bit repetitive each day, although we saw different things.

Our first day was Thursday and of course the lightest attended day.  It was easy as we used a shuttle sevrvice from the hotel which did 2 things.   Made it relaxing and less expensive as we didn't need a rental, or have to worry about parking at the air races ($$ and a PITA).   Luxury Prevost bus and it dropped us right by the gate.

This is a Curtis P40 Warhawk painted in the Flying Tigers colors.  Used pre WW2 in China against the Japanese, they became quite famous.   Also is a 1972 Chevy Impala Kingswood station wagon. Both were in beautiful condition.

North American P51 Mustang.  the majority of unlimited racers were flying these.

Bell P-63 Air Cobra.  The engine is behind the pilot!

A Russian Yak, forget which model

T6 Trainers on the flight line getting ready to go up for a race.

T6s racing by.  They have to fly between 50 and 200 feet to stay on course.  

I found this video from back in the hey day of the 1980s.   Much more vareity of planes in the unlimited class (F4U, P38, etc) than what we saw and alot more up close and personal.  As there have been many crashes and fatalities over the years.  I believe you can't get anywhere on the course any more to stand underneath them.      I guess this is what we both hoped we would see.   It was still fun though.

Of course the military was there for demos and recruitment.  They had prbably a dozen different planes from small to the biggest we have (Galaxy).  Didn't get a pic of the big ones as they wouldn't fit in the camera lol.

Heritage flight with and A10 and P51

P51 and I think a Northrop F89 (not sure though).

F6F Hellcat 

View of downtown Reno from the hotel.  It's not a big city at all and I liked that about it.

Had to fly through Vegas on the way home, and got a nice view of Hoover Dam from the air.  You can plainly see how much the water has dropped.

As a sad epilogue, after my returpsn to Florida I found out that there had been a crash of two T6s on the last day of racing.  In fact they just came in first and second for the event.   There were a few more races after them and they got called off as both pilots died in the crash.  They hit mid air somehow and that's all she wrote.  Due to the investigation, all the video has been taken offline and no details until the investigation wraps up.  

What happens in Vegas.........

We left the Hoover Dam around 3PM and headed to Vegas.   We had an agenda.  Return the cooler to Victoria, check into the hotel, and meet my cousin John at 6PM.    It went off without a hitch, although our visit with Victoria was brief at 30 min.   First time JT and her met and they had lots to talk about.  Hopefully, he will meet up with her and the family on his next visit.

Our visit with my cousin went really well, I hadn't seen him in years, so it was good to catch up with him!  Honestly, since we got up pre-dawn and did alot during the day, our night was a bit early by Vegas standards, but we had some fun.

The next day, JT wanted binoculars (they came in really handy at the air races!) and when we came out of the store we saw this ''little' cloud dumping on the mountain.   It was a HUGE thurnderhead taking up what seemed like half the sky.  It was impressive. zoom in and you can see the rain dumping.

We putzed around the next morning, kind of a relax day.  JT was starting a new job the day after we returned to our respective homes, so he had some online paperwork to sort through.   I watched Gilligan's Island re-runs on  TV :) 

We went to the Atomic History museum and that was pretty cool to learn about all the testing out in the desert..  The new sphere watched us to make sure we got our of town ok.  Parting shot out the plane window ha ha.

Boulder CIty!

 We were back on the road around 9:30 AM and on our schedule that we made the night before.   Our intenerary was set, but informal as we just had to be in certain places on specific days for hotels.  Everything in between was at our whim, but we had to consider driving times as we were going over a thousand miles in 4 days.

The ride up to the Dam was pretty uneventful, but I kept wanting to drive faster, but knew better.  Once we got on US 93 I set the cruise control as the road was empty.   Soon one, two, three, more cars pass me going quite a bit faster.  Ok, blockers!  I pick up the pace to about 84 aand and the group is still getting away......

We come over a crest and lots of flashy lights.  I take my foot off and coast by the highway patrol at about 5 over the limit....Not this cowboys's first  rodeo.   Set the cruise back and wait for the next set of blockers.   Aside from that one instance, the rest of the trip was mostly free of police.

These pictures loaded in reverse order, but it's not that big of deal.   When I last went to the dam it was 1998 so no 9/11 stuff.  You still had to drive across the top of the dam as part of US 93. You actually still can and I did by accident as I missed the turn for the parking garage.  I made a 3 point turn in the middle of the road just on the other side of the dam.    The bypass road was actually started a couple of months prior to 9/11 as the hairpin turns snaking down on both sides made for slow travel and congestion.

These awesome Art Deco statues are on the Nevada side of the dam next to the old museum.   The new museum is further off to the side and much larger.  The statues are being restored currently.  Google had this to say about them:   "Winged Figures of the Republic – Boulder City, Nevada - Atlas ...

The figures are sentries at the entrance to Hoover Dam, part angel, part symbol of the strength of man, they are the work of a sculptor named Oskar J.W. Hansen, a Norwegian immigrant who came to the United States after some time in the merchant marines."    They were bad ass and big.  the low part of that wood is 6ft. high.

We couldn't see anything staring into the sun for this picture.  Just out of frame on the bottom is the Nevada (my side) and Arizona (JT's side) border,  We were in two time zones and different states at the same time!  The tour ends with you popping out in the middle of the top of the dam.

When I was here in 1998, the water was at the top of the these intake columns!  They had a good winter and the lake rose 30 feet!

20 years of drought have not been kind.  I can't even imagine how many cubic miles of water are missing...

The Pat Tillman memorial bridge.  Opened in 2010.   Killer view of the dam as you drive across.  On the way in, they stop you and interview, etc.  They were searching a cargo van, but let us right through.  Guess JT's pseudo military look was still working for us.

The circular walkway up to the air vent inside the dam.  We were about halfway up from the bottom.  The forms were wood, so you can see the wood  imprint in the cement.

Selfie at the vent.   I had no Harrison Ford visions in my head, lol.

He looks to be alot lower than I was ha ha.  Oh and the water wasn't spilling out.

View of the bridge from the vent.

This is the first time this stator has been removed for maintenance since it was installed in 1935 per our tour guide!!!  If you zoom in the photo below you will see the one with the top missing.  It's this one.

Back in 1998, Lucy and I took the tour and they took us down on this floor and we walked it from end to end and got to go ourside at the bottom.   These turbines are HUGE, like the size of a 3 story building.   

The terazzo work in this dam is AMAZING..  It is an Art Deco masterpiece.  Why?  The builders knew it was so far ahead of its time it would last for many generations and they had pride in workmanship.

Front side of the dam.    If you get the chance, the tour is totally worth the money and time.  The sheer scale of this is amazing and the fact it was built 90 years ago is amazing.  We actually never stopped in Boulder City either.  Vegas is only an hour away.