Manatees

I know I shouldn't be whining about the weather, all across the continent folks are dealing with weather afflictions far worse than us here in Florida. In my old stomping grounds, the mid Atlantic states are dealing with a couple feet of snow. In southwest Virginia Betty and Paul's 4wheel drive car was not able to climb the snow and ice covered driveway to their mountain home, this is the first time ever that has happened. In California houses are falling in the ocean, Alaska had an earthquake, our home in Myrtle Beach South Carolina saw temperatures below freezing. Kind of makes my complaint of overcast and rainy with highs barely in the 70's pretty trivial.

California houses falling into the ocean

The good news is we're leaving our January campsite in Titusvillle and heading to the Keys on Monday. We will be on Tavernier Key for the month of February, I'm hoping for warm sunny days.

Manattee

One of the items we had on our to-do list for January was to see Manatees in their winter refuge near here. This past Monday the weather looked OK so we drove to Blue Spring State Park in Orange City. A lot of other people had the same idea and we had to wait in line to enter the park.

Waiting in line to enter Blue Spring State Park

After about ½ hour of inching to the entrance gate we paid $6 and found a parking spot not too far from the viewing area. The water flowing from Blue Spring is 70 degrees and is sufficient to keep the creek clear all the way to the St Johns river. This makes a perfect winter home for the manatees and the park services suspends all water activity during the winter months the manatees are here. There is a board walk along the creek and about ½ dozen viewing platforms over the water for park visitors.

Several manattees

Spring that feeds the river

Larry in Blue Spring SP

Blue Spring SP

In danger of becoming extinct just 45 years ago the portly but affable creatures have made a come back and now number about 6000. It may take 45 more years before the manatee huggers, powerboaters and land developers stop arguing about the best way to save the sea cows, but that's a another story.

I should have been a rocket scientist!

January 22 2016

Yes it's true, this epiphany came to me while at the Kennedy Space Center the other day. The next big objective in space is a manned journey to Mars, the initial missions will be a three year round trip. What does this have to do with me and rocket science? Everything on the Mars space craft has to operate reliably or be repairable by the flight crew. That's exactly the way I felt this past week while working on our bicycles!

Millie and I have 7 speed bikes, both are equipped with the same shift mechanisms sold under the name, Microshift. Gear changing on the bikes has been very hard to operate since they were new. Last week I decided enough was enough and I was going to fix them. After my initial inspection of the derail-er, it appeared to me to be a very poor design and I thought, it's no wonder they never operated correctly.

I tinkered with them for two days, making adjustments, tested, studied results, tried an engineering change, tested, studied results and finally came to the conclusion that my initial observation was correct, it was a flawed design and they were never going to work properly.

Several of my neighbors stopped by to offer advice or to recommend the local bike shop in Titusville. It was too late for me to relinquish control to someone else, it had become personal and “I” was going to fix them, one way or another!

The project was suspended for two days while I waited for parts to arrive. I replaced the poorly engineered Microshift derail-ers and shifters with Shimano components and bikes are now a joy to operate.

Obviously, with my mechanical abilities and dogmatic determination I would be a valuable asset to the Mars mission. The only cravat to my methodology would be my reliance on Amazon.com to provide me with parts. That and I'm not going, it gets down to minus 225 degrees at night on Mars and you know my feeling on that, “Mr. Smitty, I just can't be cold!”

Seriously now, we learned all kinds of interesting facts during our visit to the Space center. In the beginning of the space program, the Mercury project basically cobbled together rockets from military intercontinental ballistic missiles to put man in earth orbit. As we endeavored to put the larger spacecraft in orbit we still didn't have a big enough rocket to propel it out of earths grasp. The solution was to strap eight of the Redstone/Atlas military missiles together to get the needed thrust.

Saturn rocket

After Gemini came the Apollo moon mission and it's launcher, the Saturn rocket. To see a Saturn rocket in person is the only way to really appreciate it and IMHO should be on everyone's bucket list. The space center has one mounted horizontally in a building were you can walk around and under it. You cannot experience it and not be impressed, it's pretty awesome!

Space Shuttle Atlantis

The presentation of the shuttle Atlantis is one of those goose bump moments. You progress through two (crowd control) theaters seeing a short film about the shuttle program in each. After the second film the large screen lifts and you are looking at the space shuttle Atlantis mounted as if in flight. You walk on elevated decking around, above and under the shuttle, and it is here that you realize, this is real, Atlantis and it's sister ships really flew over 150 missions and millions of miles.

Larry and Dave, one of the space center volunteers

We spent some time with one of the Docents at the Atlantis exhibit. David answered all of our questions and had samples we could handle of many of the components we asked about. The really big surprise for us was how light in weight the heat resistant tiles are. They are commonly known as ceramic tiles and we expected them to be like firebrick. They are 90% air and very light. Also interesting was how they glued them in place and filled the gaps between each tile. You'll have to visit yourself to learn about that, I can't give all the secrets away!

The Orion rocket/Mars mission is still very much a work in progress. One thing they expressed many times was that young visitors can be a part of the Mars mission. There are many essential things yet to be invented before man can successfully go to Mars and they encouraged today's youth to become scientists and engineers.

There is a space shuttle launch simulator at the space center, but it was not very exciting. I suggest the “Mission:Space” ride at Florida's Disneyland for a really realistic rocket launch experience.

Well, that was embarrassing!

Well that was embarrassing!

That's the message Mozilla prints on my computer screen whenever their Firefox internet browser makes a mistake loading a web page. Likewise, I have to own up to a gross error I made in the last blog posting. I said that Millie and I happened upon a work crew who just mounted the space shuttle “Inspiration” onto an elevated mount at the ATX center here at the Space center. That was not right in several ways. They were actually preparing to remove it from it's perch at ATX.

On Sunday morning there were a lot of people gathered on the pier here at the campground so we wandered over to see what was happening. On the causeway about a mile up the Indian River sat the shuttle, workers were in the process of loading it onto a barge.

There was much speculation about where the shuttle was being moved to. I heard it was going across the river to the Visitors center and later was told it was being barged to New Orleans. Deciding I wanted to get my facts straight before posting this correction I researched online.

Low and behold I discovered it was never an operational shuttle, the full size mock up once held a 72 seat movie theater. On Saturday it was moved across the river to Merritt Island were it will be refurbished and eventually tour the coastal USA on a barge, bringing the space shuttle experience to people who may never have the opportunity to come to the space center.

Loading the "shuttle" onto a barge

Interesting but useless shuttle mock up facts: During my research I discovered there are at least four full size shuttle mock ups.

There is another “Inspiration” in California, it was built in1972 by North American Rockwell to promote the company's bid to build the space shuttle fleet. As of March 2014 this “Inspiration” was sitting in a storage yard in Downey, California.

The “America” was a space flight simulator at the Six Flags amusement park in Illinois. The ride closed in 2007 and was removed in 2009, current whereabouts unknown to this writer.

The “Independence” was formally known as the “Explorer” and was located at the Kennedy Space center from 1993 until 2012 when it was relocated to the Houston Texas Space Center.

"To just be"

January 15 2016

Outdoor dining in Cocoa Beach

We've been snowbirding in Florida for 15 days now, this year staying in one spot for January and moving to another campground for the month of February. We would be moving by now, if we were using our Thousand Trails timeshare membership. I kind of miss the bimonthly uprooting. Traveling is a big part of the RVing adventure and we enjoy the kaleidoscopic scenery that scrolls past our windshield as we explore new areas. On the other hand, snowbirding by definition is moving south to avoid cold weather and not necessarily a traveling adventure.

There is a concept I first heard about back in my boating days, “to just be”. It is from the cruising community and means, to be content with your surroundings. When you are “Living the dream” of cruising you can't be in vacation mode all the time. Sometimes you have to just be a student of the world around you, an observer of the passing parade without actually participating in it. This is the art of just being. It's the same for the traveling RV'er and when I first get to Florida each winter I struggle with finding that serenity. And so it is that the last two weeks I felt like I should have been doing something or going somewhere. I know the feeling of restlessness will pass, but in the interim we jump at any excuse to go someplace. In two weeks we've been to Walmart three times and two flea markets.

Tyler and Nancy Furbish in 2015, sadly Tyler lost his battle with cancer in August of 2016

 

 

My friend Tyler Furbish lives nearby and we went to dinner with he and his wife Nancy last week. They're both interesting and a pleasure to be with, Tyler and I are alumni of the 195^th Assault Helicopter Company, it was he who found the new home for the rocket that traveled around Florida with us last winter. Millie and I have gone to the Merritt Island Veterans Center and seen the rocket which is now on display.

Me and my rocket

There are flea markets all over Florida, they come in all shapes and sizes. About forty miles south of us is Berringers, a flea market that hosts over 800 vendors, all under one roof. Millie loves browsing garage sales and thrift stores so she had a great time and purchased a few things. The thought that I left with was; there is almost nothing that the Chinese have not copied, reproduced cheaply and sent back here to sell us. BTW, on our return we drove up the coast road and passed the Publix store which two days later would be on the news because one of the winning 1.5 billion dollar Powerball tickets was sold there. We had purchased our losing tickets at a different Publix store, so close and yet so far! Its all good, we had been worrying about having all that money anyway.

Millie loves flea markets!

Before closing this posting I have two interesting sights we happened upon in our meandering around. On the waterfront in Titusville sits what is obviously a fiberglass boat manufacturer, but there was no brand name on any of the buildings. In one corner of the lot Millie spotted this digitally camouflaged boat, which only adds to the mystery of the no name boat builder.

camo boat in Titusville

The other photo worthy sight was at the ATX Center (Astronaut Training Experience) which is part of the Kennedy Space Center on Cape Canaveral. We happened to drive by shortly after a heavy equipment mover delivered and set on pylons the space shuttle “Inspiration.”

 The trailer they used to transport the space shuttle

May the Trojans be with you!

January 7 2015

We are parked for the month of January in a county park near Titusville Florida. That means I don't have traveling to write about and will have to be creative to make the blog interesting. So far I'm stuck behind a mental block! Hmmmmm?

On Tuesday we drove to the mall on nearby Merritt Island to see the latest Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens. I must admit I haven't seen any of the Star wars movies since the first couple in the 70's but we were intrigued enough by the media hype to see the latest. I mean millions of people have paid a cumulative billion plus dollars to see it so it must be something really spectacular, right?

 I hate to be the harbinger of bad news but, save your money it was awful! Millie and I rate every movie we see with a one to ten score. About halfway through this version I was thinking I don't know how I can give it more than a five. As it went on I kept lowering my number, the movie ended with a generous grade one. I was actually thinking of lowering it to one half. 

I think they were relying on special effects and nostalgia to carry the film because the story line was totally unrealistic. I know its a SiFi story but even so some things should make sense. Every obstacle in the plot is so conveniently solvable it would be laughable if it didn't insult the viewers intelligence. At times it was almost a parity of what a SiFi should be.

The new politically correct Hollywood, A white chick and a black guy

For example, Rey the movies young heroine is a scrap collector but intuitively knows how to fix and fly the Millennium Falcon. (Hans Solo's spacecraft that presumably hasn't flown in thirty years.) Finn, the second lead in the film has deserted from his job as a sanitation worker for the First Order. (the bad guys) Somehow after joining the resistance he knew precisely how to blow up the First Order's gigantic space gun. The story line is one ridiculously unrealistic scene after another.

Old guys rule!

The new droid (if it had a name it was forgettable) had zero personality, even the brief appearances of CP30 and R2D2 couldn't save the believably of artificial intelligence. Speaking of nostalgia, Harrison Ford as an aged Hans Solo along with his sidekick Chewbaca are the only characters that seemed believable, but even they couldn't save this movie. Carrie Fisher's portrayal of Princess Liea was very stiff and Mark Hamill just had a wordless cameo at the end, neither helped the movie.

Finally a kind word, the special effects were pretty good!

PS: Millie gave it a three.

While strolling the mall we happened upon one of those dollar discount stores. I don't remember the franchise name but I'll use dollar store as a generic term. Two products caught our attention among the many cheap items. This has to be the first time I've ever seen wine sold in a dollar store, it was on sale at three bottles for ten dollars. I don't know about you but cheap wine just scares me, who knows whats in that stuff, I still remember some years ago when a reputable French wine producer was caught using anti freeze as an additive. 

The other eye opener was a 12 pack of personal protection for $2.99. For a job as important as a condoms, I seriously doubt I'd trust the job to one with questionable heritage, I mean, I can visualize the shipping line at the Chinese condom factory, “Hey boss, this production run has a lot of quality test failures, what do you want me to do with them”. The boss replies “Ship them to the dollar store in America!” 

Seriously, $3.33 wine and $.24 condoms? It's a disaster story of epic proportions! But hey, the movie would probably be better than the Star Wars flic we just saw!

Other than that I guess life's been pretty normal. It's so quiet here in the campground we've been sleeping until eight in the morning. We take walks, ride bikes, go to Walmart, all the things snowbirds are required to do here in paradise.

Stay warm!

And so it begins again!

Past editions of the Dispatch

Welcome to the 2016 Dispatch from the Road. This is the fourth year of the Dispatch in it's present form. Before Blogspot.com it was posted for one year on GetJealious.com. It had become a blog after its inception as an email newsletter, who's purpose was to let my family know I was alive as I'm not much for talking on the phone. Slowly the distribution list of the email Dispatch grew to include friends and people I met while out on the road.

After the second or third time Millie and I crossed paths on the beach I got up the nerve to ask for her email address and she became a recipient of the Dispatch. For a year or so we got to know each other thru emails, yes we started out as an internet friendship. I still had a house in Maryland to tend to when I wasn't wandering the roads. Millie lived in Myrtle Beach but always seemed to be at her daughters in New Mexico when I passed through town. By the time we got to spend some time together we were well acquainted and it didn't take long for our friendship to evolve into the love we share today.

Nowadays Millie and I write mostly for ourselves; that's not to say we don't like sharing our travels with you all, we hope you enjoy traveling along with us. Since going to blog format we've had each year printed into a hardback book. We enjoy looking back on our adventures and frequently use them as a reference when trying to recall a particular location or RV Park.

So here we are, it's January 2016 and we're starting what will be the fifth book in the Dispatch series. The coming year promises some exciting adventure for us and hopefully some interesting reading.

Our two day Journey from Myrtle Beach to Titusville Florida

December 31 2015

The past couple years we haven't left Myrtle Beach until the middle of January and both years I regretted the late departure when the weather got cold. This year we had a site reserved for the month of January so we left at the end of December with temperatures at home in the 80's. I guess that's nothing to complain about, especially with my dislike of the cold.

We drove state road 17 south out of Myrtle Beach and didn't get on the interstate highway until near the Georgia border. Highway 17 is a relaxed mostly four lane route through the South Carolina Low Country. The only congested area is Charleston but there is a beltway that goes around the north side of the city. Like beltways everywhere it is a few miles longer than the route through the city, in this case 18 vs 12.5 miles. I've traveled both routes many times, but never taken a stance on a preferred route. I was thinking about this as I neared the city and decided to stay on 17 so I could count traffic signals. There are twenty five signals between the entrances of the 526 beltway. The signals plus reduced speeds of mostly 35-45mph with some areas as low as 25mph are a compelling reason to take bypass. The only reason to take the city road is there are many stores and eating places but nowhere to park an RV so none of that does me any good. Plus taking the beltway eliminates 25 chances of having to brake hard for a fast changing light and/or getting hit in one of those intersections.

Going south in eastern Georgia means driving on I-95, there simply is no good local route. The good news is Georgia did it right; three lanes in each direction, pretty near perfectly flat and it does not pass through any city's. I don't ever remember being in a traffic tie up when traversing Georgia on I-95.

We got a call from Wayne and Mary Ann Wingard today, they are Chrysler retirees and RV'ers. They are in Florida on their way to the Keys for three weeks. They have to go home to Delaware at the end of the month so we will not cross paths this year. Hope to see them when we pass through Delaware this summer.

The Florida Welcome Center on I-95

The Florida Georgia line is about 300 miles from Myrtle Beach and about as far as we planned on going on our first day. All the reasonably priced campgrounds were full with snowbirds traveling south for winter so we decided to stay at the Florida Welcome Center. It is posted with signs prohibiting overnight parking but I had been told they don't enforce it. Just to be sure I asked at the information desk and was told it was OK to stay over. I slept pretty well, Millie was awoken by trucks and RV's coming and going all through the night.

Our home for the month of January

January 1 2016 Happy New Year!

On New Years day we drove the remaining 170+/- miles to our destination, Manatee Hammock county park and campground near Titusville. We first visited this campground last year when we delivered an aerial rocket to a friend who lives near here. For the uninitiated, I had in my possession a military rocket for about forty years. I must omit some details but the rocket had been deactivated and converted into a floor lamp. It stood next to the drafting table in my shop all those years, a few of you have seen it there. 

"C"  model gunship like the one I flew on in Southeast Asia

I gave it to a local VFW when I left Maryland, but when the club unexpectedly closed my son got the rocket back and delivered it to me in South Carolina. My friend and 195^th Assault Helicopter Company alumni who lives in Cocoa found a suitable home for it in the Merritt Island Veterans Center Museum. It was on that delivery mission that we stayed at Manatee Hammock. We liked the park and it's location on the Banana River across from the Cape Canaveral Space Center and reserved a site for January 2016 and here we are.

Our site in Manatee Hammock CG

We've been here for two days and are settling in. Most of the campground is under a canopy of Oak and Palm trees, but our site is in a partial clearing. This gives us some sunlight, which is desirable in the winter months. It's also on a corner which provides a little more room between RV's. We really only have one neighbor, to our left which is our blind side. 

The waterfront at the campground

Maggie is still a little insecure about our new location and is staying close to Millie and I. She'll settle down and soon will think she's the mayor of Manatee Hammock. We miss Dixie, she would have run off all the squirrels by now and from her dashboard post would be barking at every dog that walked by but that would be ok. We've found the Camper World store, the Big Lots store and Little Caesars Pizza, life is good!

campground map

Just the facts.

Mileage at beginning of 2016's adventure=70549

Fuel=70879, Kingsland Georgia, 12/31/2015, 46.575 gal, $1.93, total $90.31

Manatee Hammock site cost for month of January=$604.89

Total miles Myrtle Beach to Manatee Hammock=500 miles