Patriot's Point, Charleston, North Carolina

March 22 – 28, 2006

We arrived in Charleston, South Carolina on Joni’s Birthday. The first thing we had to do was celebrate “the big one” which we did by having diner at Joni’s favorite restaurant, “The Red Lobster”. Joni did not want to say how big it was, but it was the big one a few years after the big "50". As you can see, Joni ordered the best diner on the menu. We feasted! It was wonderful to get many phone calls from across the country – from friends and family wishing Joni a happy birthday. Our good friend, Kandy Franklin, has a birthday which is 2 days after Joni's. We usually go out together with Val and Kandy to celebrate both birthdays. We miss both of them this year, but we will celebrate belated birthdays when we are together again in Fun Valley, Colorado in July.

We stayed at James Island County Park in Charleston. It was a very nice park with lots of amenities: lots of hiking/biking trails, a lake for kayaks and canoes, a water park, climbing wall, a dog park, conference center and much more. We enjoyed our stay there and met some new friends, Judy and Mike Brody. We enjoyed coffee and cake with Judy and Mike.

Charleston is a very old, historic city. Again we decided to ride our bikes through the city as it is an easy way to get around and see the sites. We saw many old homes and churches. Pictured is the oldest Baptist Church in the South – First Baptist, established in 1682.

Patriot’s Point is a naval and museum where we toured the Destroyer Laffey, Coast Guard Cutter Ingham, Submarine Clamagore, and Air Craft Carrier U.S.S. Yorktown. The centerpiece of Patriots Point is the world famous aircraft carrier USS YORKTOWN, a heavily decorated warship that was at the "tip of the spear" in America's victory in the Pacific during World War II. Berthed alongside Yorktown is the Destroyer LAFFEY. It is an American legend that participated in the D-Day landing in Europe as well as breath-taking maneuvers in the Pacific where LAFFEY’s service was purely heroic. In the space of one hour, LAFFEY was hit by five Japanese Kamikazes and three enemy bombs. Her crew not only kept LAFFEY afloat but incredibly managed to shoot down eleven planes. LAFFEY would come to be known as the ship that wouldn’t die! A must see at Patriots Point is the cold-war submarine CLAMAGORE, commissioned in the Summer of 1945.
The Coast Guard Cutter INGHAM is a proud member of the Patriots Point fleet having served fifty years on the oceans of the world, becoming one of the most decorated vessels in United States history.

We spent most of our time in the Yorktown which was most interesting.


Delton had a pilot’s license a long time ago, so he enjoyed sitting in the cockpit again!!!!



Being an IBM Manager, he was right at home in the briefing room.

It’s hard to see how anyone could live in a submarine. The quarters are so close and knowing you are deep underwater could give anyone claustrophobia.


Here’s Joni steering the destroyer. Do you think she knows where she’s going?

A small version of a Vietnam Base Camp looked just like the Mash TV show.

Fort Sumter

March 25, 2006; Charleston, South Carolina


To get to Fort Sumter we took a ferry ride from Charleston. The Fort was built on an island to protect the Charleston harbor. It was a little cold that day, so we made the ride both coming and going, inside.

America's most tragic conflict ignited at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, when a chain reaction of social, economic and political events exploded into civil war. At the heart of these events was the issue of states rights versus federal authority flowing over the underlying issue of slavery.


Fueled by decades of disagreement and confrontation, South Carolina seceded in protest of Lincoln's election and the social and economic changes sure to follow. With Fort Sumter as an unyielding bastion of Federal authority, the war became inevitable.
A powerful symbol to both the South and the North, Fort Sumter remains a memorial to all who fought to hold it.

All of the coastal forts were built to protect the United States from foreign invasion by sea. When South Carolina seceded from the Union, the South demanded that Fort Sumter be vacated. The North refused. Finally, on April 12, 1861, from nearby Fort Johnson, South Carolina troops of the Confederacy fired on the Fort – the start of a two-day bombardment that resulted in the surrender of Fort Sumter by Union troops.

With the North’s withdrawal, the South held the Fort until it was finally evacuated on February 17, 1865. During that time, the Fort experienced one of the longest sieges in modern warfare – for almost two years 46,000 shells, estimated at over 7 million pounds of metal were fired at the Fort. Only the lower level of the Fort has been restored.

Fort Pulaski and Savannah Flowers

March 20, 2006; Savannah, Georgia


Fort Pulaski is only fifteen minutes east of Savannah, a city with historical landmarks, and squares. It was raining and cold that morning. We toured the bookstore and then took in an excellent movie about the fort and its history. It was good to get out of the rain. During the tour around the fort we got to visit with one of the workers. He was doing some maintenance on one of the cannons they would be using for a reenactment of the battle that took place curing the Civil War. He was semi-retired like us and enjoyed what he was going.


The defining events of Fort Pulaski occurred during the American Civil War. In April of 1862, Union troops directed rifled cannon fire at the fort breaching the southeast angle. The quick success of this experimental cannon surprised military strategists. The accuracy and range of the rifled cannon rendered brick fortifications obsolete.
Pictured is Delton in the bunker with the powder sitting in it was exposed after the wall was breach, which resulted in the quick surrender of the fort by the Union forces. Immediately after capturing the fort, Union Major General David Hunter, an ardent abolitionist, ordered the release of area slaves. Many were recruited into the Union army comprising the First South Carolina Colored Regiment. The National Park Service has done a great job of restoring this fort. It was well worth the time.


We were in Savannah at a wonderful time of the year. There were beautiful flowers everywhere. The historic part of Savannah is built with 15 to 20 garden parks placed symetrically throughout the city. We rode our bikes through all the parks and enjoyed the beautiful flowers and old historic houses.
Doesn't Delton look handsome among all the blooms?!?!?!?!?!?(Ha Ha)

Hanna Park - Jacksonville, Florida

Kathryn Abby Hanna Park
March 4-19, 2006

Our next stop on our way up north was Jacksonville, Florida. We stayed at a very pretty city park called Hanna Park. It had everything a park should have: an ocean beach, a 60 acre lake for kayaking, lots of hiking and biking trails and beautiful tall trees. Pictured is the gorgious entrance to the park – lots of colorful flowers everywhere.

As you can see, our camp site was surrounded by beautiful pine trees and Florida foliage. Being heavily wooded, it gave us more privacy but it also gave us a lot more shade. Since it was still March (winter) and since we were in north Florida (not south Florida), the temperatures were alittle cooler than we were used to this winter. Joni felt we should have stayed in south Florida a few weeks longer. We’ll do that next time.


Delton continued his morning routine of walking along the beach every day. Then he would use his exercise bands for his upper body.
Then we would take leisure walks on the beach in the afternoon. Weekdays weren’t very crowded but weekends were pretty busy.

Delton has continued to enjoy playing tennis. We played singles a few times. While playing one afternoon, we noticed another couple playing on the court next to us who seemed to have a game very compatible to ours. We asked them if they would like to play doubles with us and they said they would. After one very long set, Don and Maryanne won 10 to 8. We talked about getting together again the following week, but Joni lost their phone number. What a bummer!!!!

The lake allowed Joni to continue her daily kayak rides. Pictured is Joni – ready to go again.
Most days she saw 2 or 3 alligators sunning on an island in the middle of the lake.

There are about 15 miles of hiking and biking trails in this park. We went on a 3 mile hike one day which took us about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Everytime Delton stopped to look at the view, Joni pushed him on. Part of the trail was along the lake and Joni wasn’t about to get surprised by an alligator or snake. The trails were heavily wooded and almost as good as the mountain trails, without the big elevation changes.

We took a drive along Route A1A to St. Augustine with our bikes in tow and enjoyed the scenery on the way. As luck would have it, our camera broke down that day, so we have no pictures of that beautiful old city. We saw the oldest wooden school house, historic Old St. Augustine, and many other historic spots, although a lot of the area was just a touist trap. We visited the Mission of Nombre DeDios (Name of God), the first permanent Christian settlement in the United States. Father Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, a Spanish Diocesan Priest, said the first Mass in the nation’s first parish here in St. Augustine.

St. Patrick’s Day was celebrated while we were in Hanna Park. The park hosts and snow birds put together a St. Patrick’s Day pot luck diner which we signed up for. The main course was Corned Beef and Cabbage – so many people chose the chicken alternative. As usual, we over ate! Pot lucks are always so good!

After 2 weeks in Jacksonville we were on to our next stop – Savannah, Georgia!

Sea World, the Kennedy Space Center and the McGibbons

March 1 – 4, 2006

We’ve started our slow journey north, having left south Florida. We decided to visit Joni’s friends from college again, Dean and Gayle McGibbon. They live in Lakeland – close to Orlando. Traveling around in our motor home has given us the opportunity to be able to renew old friendships.

Our first visit to Gayle and Dean’s was on our way to south Florida before Christmas and now we’re on our way back having spent the winter in south Florida.

Since we have been to Orlando before, we didn’t feel the need to see a lot of the attractions, although we decided to see Sea World and the Kennedy Space Center.



We enjoyed Sea World, but seeing Shamu, manatee, dolphins and alligators wasn’t as exciting as we thought it would be. Having seen these beautiful animals in their own environment this winter was much better than seeing them caged up and on display. Oh no! I guess I sound like an environmentalist………


But, spending the day with our friends, Gayle and Dean, made it special.


The next day we visited the Kennedy Space Center. We were hoping to see a launch or the preparation for a launch, but the next one isn’t scheduled until May. The bus tour around the center gave us a good general knowledge of how everything is put together. Pictured is Delton standing next to the Saturn V Rocket.

We saw the assembly bay and the crawler which transports the rockets to the launch pad. The crawler travels about 2-3 miles per hour, so it takes about 8 hours to get to the launch pad from the assembly bay.
Pictured is the assembly bay next to the crawler.


This picture shows the launch pad in the distance.
Gayle and Dean checked things out with the telescope – actually Gayle was looking for alligators!!!


Mission Control for the Apollo program was very interesting.
Wonder if any of those IBM shirts belong to Delton!!!!!!


We signed up to be astronauts for the next space program. Here we are in our space suits ready to go!!!!!!

We had a great time with Gayle and Dean, especially our conversations about religion and politics. Gayle will never get it right, but Dean has some hope…..

And now - On to our next stop – Jacksonville, Florida.