Before we left Florida, we had to celebrate my son's 15th birthday. Most of the reason we headed south to Florida instead of traveling straight to Colorado was so that my son could get his Learners Permit while we were on this side of the country. We aren't sure when we will be back here and seeing as he is such a car guy this was very important to him.
We celebrated with a Cinnamon Roll breakfast Birthday cake and an improvised candle.
Blowing out the lighter...Uh, er I mean candle. ;)
He received some pilots headphones and a pilots knee-board from his old scoutmaster while in Jacksonville and is now using them whenever he is practicing flying with his Flight Simulator.
With the National Museum of Naval Aviation within walking distance of the campground we were staying at, and a Blue Angels practice airshow twice a day, my aviation loving son was in heaven.
T-34 Mentor. One of my son's favorite trainer planes.
We spent Wednesday touring the museum while Mom took the day off to catch up on a sewing project at the RV. Daughter was done after a couple of hours, but son and I closed the place down.
Having fun with the Mirror Landing System
Son's favorite aircraft the F-14 Tomcat. They had a cockpit to test out right in front of the real thing.
The next day we toured the Pensacola Lighthouse and Museum. We even got to see a Blue Angel show from up at the top of the light. There was also an old fort to tour and we even spent some time at a beach on base.
From top of the lighthouse. The dot above my son's head is a Blue Angel performing a maneuver.
Well it wasn't the way we wanted to start off but I'm Glad we got it fixed.
Son polishing freeze plug ports
Our Bronco has been a project and last winter I had added water to test the engine. After testing I drained the water back out, but apparently there was still enough in the lower cylinder jacket that when it froze it loosened or pushed out some freeze plugs. I didn't want to pull the engine to replace them properly at the time, so just pried the two that had come out, back in. Unfortunately when I warmed up the engine another popped out, so I pried that back in. It was looking like it was going to be fine and I even had 1500 miles on it now when the day we were leaving Virginia I blew another one out. We still left Virginia but pulling the Bronco that still had engine problems. The freeze plug that blew this time I couldn't just pry back in as it was located behind the engine mount and had no room for any tools. Once in Jacksonville we rearranged some plans and canceled a few others so that Son and I could pull the engine and get all six of the freeze plugs removed and replaced properly. We were able to use the Auto Hobby Shop on the Navy Base we were staying at so we could use their tools and still be able to do it ourselves. Once we were finished I wondered how many other 14 year old's could say they had removed and installed an engine before. See he's getting real world education and we are just getting started.
We Got to see some friends from when daughter was involved in American Heritage Girls (AHG) and Son got to give his Eagle Scout Mentor Pins to the leaders in his old troop who had helped him so much when we lived here.
We also took care of several business items while in the area also before we left for Pensacola.
We hit the road today. Our first day of travel after getting out of the Navy. I guess this is the beginning of our travels, yet we don't have our full freedom yet. We are moving the last of our stuff to a storage unit in Colorado.
The Navy gives us one last move to wherever we want to go that we have to use within a year. We are starting this adventure with no definite end, but if it does end and we decided to settle down again, it will probably be in or at least closer to Colorado than out here on the East Coast. Most of my family is in Colorado so it will probably be a default hub anyhow so even for the time being it is a better place for our extra stuff to be.
We got it whittled down to less than a 5x5 storage locker can hold, and a sizable chunk is actually for the kids keepsakes and a large tool box for in case I go back to work wrenching on airplanes. I think we did pretty good. It's all in a 5x8 U-haul trailer right now.
Even though we are in the process of moving, we are trying to get a little adventure in. We aren't going straight to Colorado. We are going back to Jacksonville to see some friends and take care of some DMV items for my son who will be 15 on the 28th and he wants his learners permit. Since we don't have plans to be back in Florida again anytime soon, I guess we should take care of it now. We should be in Jacksonville for this weekend to see friends, and then we will head down I-10 to Pensacola to wait for next Friday when it's my son's birthday. He loves aircraft so he and I will probably make a couple of days at the Naval Air Museum while we wait. Not sure what the girls will find to do yet. Then it will probably be more I-10 till we angle up to Colorado Springs. At least we are moving forward.
My wife and kids are heavily involved in the Civil Air Patrol (Air force Auxiliary or CAP for short). They have been for only about a year, but have really advanced and performed very well, and have taken advantage of lots it has to offer. Both kids advanced again this month and are pretty set to be able to advance in another two months which is the time required to wait between advancements, but their other requirements are almost finished for the next rank. My Daughter is currently a Cadet Staff Sergeant, and my son a Cadet Senior Master Sergeant.
Daughter receiving Rocketry Badge
They have both been able to take Orientation rides in the CAP planes and have been trained in several aspects of search and rescue operations. They also both participated in the Honor Guard, marching and performing in parades and learning rifle drills that include spinning and flipping the rifles in coordination with other cadets.
My kids are the ones in back up on the stage.
Daughter performing post ride inspection of the airplane.
Older picture of them in their Honor Guard uniform. (Rank insignias are not right anymore).
My son made a big enough impression that he was awarded Non-Commissioned Officer of the year for 2016.
Son receiving NCO of Year award.
This group is probably the biggest thing we are going to miss about Virginia Beach as they have been a big part of our lives for the past year and many friends have been made.
Small CAP going away party for us.
Today, part of the CAP squadron is down in North Carolina. They have spent the weekend helping in shelters and at distribution centers for those affected by hurricane Mathew. My son and daughter were able to go with them. The timing is bad as we are finishing up the last things to leave, and they even got out of some of putting things away from after the empty weight fiasco, but I couldn't be more proud of them. This was their first big opportunity to give back to the community. They've done several flag ceremonies and demonstrations and helped with crowd control and parking lot directions at several events and airshows but I'm thankful for their opportunity to be able to help those affected by this disaster near us.
We rode out the storm in our campground by pulling in the slides to ease up on the wind resistance, but the RV was rocking most of the time. The campground lost power for 3 days and had some minor flooding, but nothing like what the news is showing for some of those south of us.
Well on Wednesday we tackled the whole empty the RV to get it weighed. While son and I ran errands and got our car weighed, mom and daughter put most everything in the RV in bins that we had been keeping in our storage unit. Many of these bins had been used to help us move the last time and as we have still been pairing down and purging our stuff we have accumulated empty bins. By mid afternoon the inside was almost done and we were emptying out the outside storage bays and just setting the content of those right on the ground next to where it came out of, so that when I returned it could go right back in. It was almost the beginning of rush hour before I was able to leave to go get the RV weighed, which was a 30 mile distance away to the closest functioning weigh station. The only other one in town was still underwater from hurricane Mathew, so it was an ordeal to get to the next one and back during rush hour. I didn't get back till almost dark after dealing with stop and go traffic for three and a half hours.
I wish I would have remembered to take a picture of our campsite with all of our stuff strewn about the patio and in the grass, but I did get one on Thursday morning of the aftermath that was still left to be put away.
Once I got back with the RV the race was on to get everything back inside before the dew got to it too badly. We didn't get dinner till 9:30 and didn't get to bed till 11 due to having to at least organize enough to get to our beds. For the next three days it was a project of putting everything back, but also trying to organize it better, and really determine if some of the stuff we were putting back was being used often enough to consider getting rid of it.
