Big Lagoon State Park
12301 Gulf Beach Hwy
Pensacola, FL 32507
GPS: 30.31380o, -087.41318o
Elevation: 223 feet
The The National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, FL is world renown. I've known about it for years and today I got to see it for the first time. It is class throughout. It lives up to its reputation.
As you enter the lobby this imposing picture hits you in the face.
"Four-and-a-half acres of sovereign U.S. Territory, anytime, anywhere"
From me, it got the desired response: "Wow!" Every hair on the back of my neck stood up. I have always believed, and still do, that the flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the most exciting place in the world.
Naval aviation has been around since the beginning of aviation itself. This year the museum is paying special tribute to naval aviation in WWI. The sculpture of five aviators over the eras of aviation history commemorate the length of that history.
The Spirit of Naval Aviation
In early 1993, work began to create a fitting tribute to Naval Aviators. Captain Robert L. Rasmussen, USN (Ret.), Director of the Museum and a noted aviation artist in his own right, conceived a dramatic design for five heroic-sized bronze sculptures that salute Naval Aviation at five significant stages in its history: World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and Desert Storm. Accurately sculpted in flight equipment of the period, the airmen appear to be watching intently as the World War II pilot describes a dogfight; five figures frozen in time, yet united by a common theme.
WWI Navy airplanes and aviators get special notice.
The Blue Angels are Pensacola's darlings. Their name gets used for everything from a parkway to a laundromat, and of course a car dealership. In other words, the community sucks the very life out of the name until all respect is lost and you get sick of hearing it. So the museum pays tribute in moderation with respect.
Blue Angels ??
Every military family knows this scene
Stopped for lunch in the Quarter Deck Snack Bar
Click here for more pictures from around the museum
President Nixon leaves in disgrace
History is history – the good, the bad, the ugly. Everyone knows of Air Force One and most know of Marine One, the helicopter that flies the President on short trips, mostly between The White House and Andrews AFB, but also for other trips too short to engage the jumbo jet.
I was surprised to see this Marine One here at the museum. But I should not have been. These helicopters are part of naval aviation history. This piece of history I witnessed personally. On 09 Aug 1974, I was still in my Air Force career and I was standing in Base Operations at Andrews AFB looking out the window, as President Nixon got out of Marine One and boarded Air Force One to vacate the Presidency. Airborne enroute to California, at exactly noon, Air Force One changed it's call sign from Air Force One to SAM 28000, as Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the 38th President of the United States.
Here the man who could have been president on the nation's 200th birthday shamefully left public life. I felt bad and good that day. Bad, recalling that Nixon let me down, but good that our institutions were strong enough to fix the problem and protect us. I think about that in 2017.
Let's change the subject.
I didn't know about these cars. What a neat idea!
Our day at the museum complete, we returned to the campground to eat, take off our shoes, and kick back for the evening. No big dinner plans for tonight.
It's all about food
Thanks to Jim Spain for many of these photos
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Big Lagoon State Park
12301 Gulf Beach Hwy
Pensacola, FL 32507
GPS: 30.31380o, -087.41318o
Elevation: 223 feet
Breakfast with Jim and Bonnie Spain
Today started as a lovely spring morning in southern Georgia. A great morning for breakfast outside with friends before hitting the road.
Travel Day 3: Lake Seminole, GA to Pensacola, FL
I-10 was our path for this leg. Our 176 miles across the Florida panhandle took just 3:43. The trip was easy, uneventful, and we didn't get lost even once.Big Lagoon State Park, Pensacola, FL
Our campsite at Big Lagoon State Park, Pensacola, FL
Big Lagoon State Park does not go into the books anywhere near the top of the list. Very small sites and very narrow, poorly paved roads made parking an adventure. We got it done but by then the day had become typical Florida – blistering hot and boiling humid.
Sunset Grille
Exploring the nearby area, with the help of Yelp, turned up our dinner location. The Sunset Grille
is a waterfront seafood restaurant. I had a cup of Gumbo and a Grouper Reuben – both delicious. While eating Jim took several pictures of the sunset visible from our table. Later as we left, we noticed the hallway decorated with framed portrait photos of sunsets taken from the restaurant and I realized the name was the theme. Good seafood was eaten on an open deck with sounds of boats and birds and the smell of the salt marsh. Life was good today. I'll forgive the heat.
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Eastbank Campground (USACE)
Lake Seminole, GA
153 Eastbank Rd
Bainbridge, GA 39819
GPS: 30.718965, -84.852639
Elevation: 302 feet
Big day today. Our friends Bonnie and Jim Spain joined up with us. We will travel the Great River Road together for the next several weeks. We are all looking forward to this adventure.
The Spains are exercising their new Class C rig and getting used to smaller quarters.
Spain's Winnebago View
Michelle and Bonnie catch up on news and plans
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Eastbank Campground (USACE)
Lake Seminole,GA
153 Eastbank Rd
Bainbridge, GA 39819
GPS: 30.718965, -84.852639
Elevation: 302 feet
Today our compass took us west. I-10 was our route of convenience and our desire for Corps of Engineer Campgrounds led us to Lake Seminole just a tad outside Florida into Georgia.
I-10 all the way (almost)
We traveled state routes 116/113/115 from Mayport to Jacksonville and got onto I-10 at it's very beginning in downtown Jacksonville. Downtown Jacksonville with the Cougar in tow was not a fun time – possibly a little easier because it was Saturday.
We traveled the 227 miles in six hours and forty-five minutes.
Lake Seminole
Lake Seminole has some interesting geopolitical trivia associated with it which could be very confusing if you are a fisherman.
Lake Seminole is a reservoir located in the southwest corner of Georgia along its border with Florida, maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The lake is fed from the north by two rivers. From the northeast, the Flint River flows southwest through Bainbridge, GA. From the northwest, the Chattahoochee River provides the second source and forms the border between Georgia and Alabama. Lake Seminole extends upstream along the Chattahoochee River for 30 miles and up the Flint River for 35 miles. The Apalachicola River runs south from the dam to the Gulf of Mexico, cutting the Florida panhandle in two as it is the boundary between the eastern and central time zones. So a person within a very small circle around the dam could be in either of two states and either of two time zones. Commuting to work could be confusing.
The lake, impounded by the Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam, contains 37,500 acres of water and has 376 miles of shoreline. Flowing out of the lake and heading south, the water becomes the Apalachicola River. The dam crosses the state line between Georgia and Florida, with the eastern end of the dam being located in Georgia. The dam is effectively the FL/GA border.
Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam, Lake Seminole, GA
The Jim Woodruff Dam, located about 1,000 feet south of the original confluence of the Chattahoochee River, Flint River and Spring Creek to form the Apalachicola River and with a spillway 2,224 feet wide, is a hydroelectric and navigational dam named in honor of James W. Woodruff, Sr., a Georgia businessman who spearheaded the development of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Project.
The dam has a single lock, 450 feet in length and 82 feet wide, that provides navigational access to the lake and the upstream rivers from the Apalachicola River and the Gulf of Mexico.
Aptly named, Eastbank Campground is located on the eastern shore of the lake with 65 campsites, most of which have both electric and water hookups. Flush toilets, showers, drinking water, laundry facilities and a dump station are provided.
A few shots of Lake Seminole and Eastbank Campground
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