Colorado Springs

We finally got a couple of days to relax. The Explorer is in the shop and we are set up in a great campground. We got some shopping and laundry done on Friday and while out walking around saw a jet black Albert's squirrel with tall tufted ears. Had to Google to figure out what it was.

Albert's Squirrel. In this area they are completely black.

When I was walking the dog at dusk I heard and got to see two great horned owls. I saw one fly away and as I was looking up into the tree where he had just come from, there was another sitting about twenty inches tall, just looking at the dog. A few seconds later and it swooped down towards us and flew about 10 feet over my head.

Great Horned Owl. Hard to see but he's right in the center sitting on a branch.

We spent Saturday at my parents place and celebrated my son's birthday a little more properly with my grandmother and my sister and brother in law also there.

 We spent most of the time just catching up and playing games. It was a great day. We even got to see deer feeding by the road on our way back to camp. All of these animals that we see but they are so quick I can't get my phone out fast enough to get pictures.

The Storage Fiasco

I'm very thankful for U-haul, as they make it fairly easy for us in the military to move ourselves and generally have reasonable rates (I'm not plugging them, just saying). As you know if you have been following lately we wanted to put the last of our stuff in a 5x5ish storage unit here in Colorado Springs, as most of my family is here so this is kinda a default home base for us. When I set up the trailer rental I did it through the corporate offices instead of the local stores cause I didn't have a typical move as I was going to have their trailer for an extended period. While on the phone with the company they talked me into a storage unit here in Colorado Springs that was 5x6, and they were giving me a good deal by reserving it with the trailer rental, and it was close to my parents place and right where we wanted to deliver the trailer now that we would be done using it. We showed up to the U-haul storage lot and were informed that our unit was actually a locker that was 5x6 and 8 feet tall but sitting on another locker that was 5 feet tall. To get into it required rolling a set of stairs in front of it. Two of the items I have required to be rolled into the unit and there wasn't even a ramp available, so this wasn't going to work, and none of the other available units were near the size we wanted.

I called the next U-haul storage place but they didn't have anything small available, so I called the next U-haul storage place to see if they could help, but they must have been busy and the phone call ended up being transferred to the corporate offices. They said that there were 5x6 units available there but they were on the second level, but there was an elevator available, so off we went.

We showed up at the place that was now fairly far away from my parents place, and as they were busy and after waiting for a while, got the paperwork done, just to find out there wasn’t an elevator. 😠

Like I said, I like U-haul, but I've come to the realization that their company offices don't seem to know much about, or talk to their dealer sites. Remember I set up the trailer rental through corporate and told them I would be keeping the trailer for an extended time, but the lot we were returning it to never got that message either and were not happy with me. I think they already had another renter who was supposed to pick it up the day after what would have been the regular time period.

After lots of time on the phone we finally found a unit with another company that was 5x5 and had a really high ceiling. I'm good at playing storage unit jenga and got it all to fit, but now we had just enough time to get the trailer returned before U-haul closed.

The day was very stressful, especially as all of the driving around we were doing was using the RV to pull that trailer all over town and sometimes into places we weren’t sure we could get out of without having to backup. A hard thing to do with a 38 foot motorhome and a very short trailer that jack-knifes if you look at it wrong.

Leaving Florida, on to Texas

We left Florida on Friday afternoon after my son got his learners permit, and we made it to Louisiana and stayed at a Wal-mart for the night. The next day we made it to Dallas for lunch and had to eat at an In-N-Out Burger. It was a pretty expensive stop after having to add three T-shirts to the receipt. 

We headed West for the rest of the afternoon until we had engine problems with our Explorer. We got off of the road and arranged for a tow to the next town, Ranger TX. We juggled the trailer around to the back of the RV and started driving the Bronco to an RV park in town but had to wait until Monday as everything was closed for the rest of the weekend. We got the news that the engine needed repairs that were out of the range of the small towns in the area so we called in the cavalry and my parents came down the next day with a car trailer to help us get to Colorado Springs where we could get it fixed right, and be more comfortable and visit with friends and family while the car was fixed. Long term plans for the car were to let my mother use it while we are road tripping and maybe give it to my son later, so we weren't planning on selling it yet.

Our trip from Ranger TX to Colorado Springs went well. We were now a motor home pulling a U-haul trailer, a large truck pulling Our Explorer on a trailer, and driving our Bronco, which only had 1700 miles on it since getting it rebuilt and now it was getting the ultimate test. Thankfully it did OK. We took it slowly the first day only averaging 55mph as we were learning it's highway characteristics. The next we averaged 65 and could go higher in a pinch but the wind was really blowing the lightweight Bronco, and the RV around most of the day but we made it to Colorado Springs in the late afternoon and were able to setup camp with daylight at the Airforce Academy.

Whew, what a trip.

Mom driving the RV as Dad was now driving the Bronco.

Son's Birthday

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.

Signing his Learners Permit for the computer.

Smiling for the DMV camera.

Pensacola

My son says he found his new favorite campground.

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.

Jacksonville again

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.

And We're Off.

At the first rest stop in North Carolina



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.