Summer of 23 - Introduction

Monday, April 24th, 2023

We stayed in a cabin at NAS Jacksonville at the end of a long week!!!

We have been preparing for our summer trip to the UK, packing for a transatlantic cruise and 5 month stay in UK and Ireland before returning on the same ship on their return transatlantic.

The planning has been going on since March 1st, 2022 when we booked the cruises.  There was a great sale and the cruises cost less than return flights. So, on an impulse we booked!!! We have since realized there is a lot more expense involved, the worst being a car rental for the 5 months. Yes, we could have got trains, coaches etc. but the convenience of the car and going at our own pace, not having to lug all our luggage around was worth every penny or pound of the cost. 

It is my 70th birthday this year, so what better than to splash out and celebrate in the UK. 

We have slowly devised a route and booked accommodation for most of the trip, mostly Air BNB's with weekly or monthly stays to reduce costs.

The positives of doing this before we settle down in one place is that we will have no monthly rental or mortgage payments while we are gone.  Just the storage fee for Lily. So that goes a long way to pay for our accomodation over there.

The last few weeks we have been compiling lists of what we need to take, six months of prescriptions was top of the list!!! The joys of getting older!!!  Clothes for the cruise and clothes for all climates. 

Unfortunately I believe I have everything except the kitchen sink in our luggage. The perks of driving and cruising is no weight limits to worry about!! We just have to carry/drag the bags around. 

The packing started a few weeks ago slowly and ramped up this last week, together with cleaning out the motorhome of everything food related and giving it a good clean.  We finally got it in storage today and we are exhausted. 

Tuesday April 25th, 2023

Click Route from Jacksonville to Cape Liberty to see our route in USA to get to the cruise port.

We checked out of the cabin, said our goodbyes to friends at the RV park and office and will see them all again in November when we return.

The drive to Latta was uneventful, thankfully no traffic jams and hours of moving at a snails pace like Christmas 2021, when we visited Ryan and family. We checked into our hotel for the night and tried to relax. Bryan needed a new battery. No problems we bought some and packed them before we left. One of the processes for my packing, as it has been done over a few weeks, was to make lists of what was in each case and approximately where. So, I checked the list and batteries were not on it, but we knew we had packed them so I must have forgotten to write them down.  We went through the cases as best we could as we didn't want to completely unpack and couldn't find them. Hmmm, might be easier to buy a new pack!!!

Tomorrow we will start the drive to Ryan & Christina's where we will stay a few days before leaving our car there.  We had booked a train to go from their house to the cruise port but when we saw how much luggage we have we decided to do a one way car rental. So we will pick that up on Friday, 28th and drive to Newark, New Jersey. 

Wednesday April 26th, 2023

We drove to Ryan & Christina's arriving mid afternoon.  It was great to see them again and Trystan & Colton.  How the boys have grown, most noticeably Colton who is now walking and interacting with everyone and everything.

Thursday April 27th, 2023

We had some last minute stuff to buy so went to Walmart and hopefully got everything we will need. We enjoyed catching up with Ryan and Christina. 

Friday April 28th, 2023

Christina took us to pick up our rental car for our trip to Newark tomorrow. The weather forecast for the weekend isn't good and looks as though it could be wet, windy and cold. Bryan only had one sweater so we decided to buy him another and went to the Nex at Little Creek. 

Unfortunately while everyone was out Lilo decided she was bored and tore up some of the vinyl tile flooring. I think with all the excitement of the last few days she suddenly found herself alone, and didn't quite know what to do with herself. So, Ryan & Bryan went to see if they could find a match for the flooring. Unfortunately they weren't successful but hopefully will find something that will work. Tinnie in the meantime put together a play kitchen for the boys. I tell you, these "toy" kitchens are very posh these days.

 

Saturday April 29th, 2023

Well the day has come for us to drive to Cape Liberty.  We are staying in a hotel near to the port for the next two nights.  They have a shuttle that will take us to the port on Monday and also one that goes to the nearby train station that we will use after we drop the car off there tomorrow.

It was a long drive taking about 7 hours but we got here. We checked into the hotel and then walked to I Hop for dinner.  The last couple of the hours of the journey weren't really pleasant and it rained quite heavily. The traffic was bad although we didn't get stuck for hours anywhere. It cost $33.30 in tolls but it was worth it as it shortened the drive. One of the tolls we had to pay maximum because we didn't have a ticket showing where we got on.  Not sure how that happened, oh well!!

We rented a hybrid car and have only used about half a tank of gas since we picked it up. We will see how many gallons we used when we fill it up tomorrow. It really fascinated me how it worked, watching the diagram showing on the dashboard as we were moving, showing when it was using battery power and when using fuel.

Sunday April 30th, 2023

We had an easy day. It rained most of the day and was cold and miserable so we decided not to go to the 9-11 Memorial and Museum.  There will be another time for that. 

Unfortunately Bryan slipped in the shower and actually fell over the side of the bath onto the floor. There was no shower mat or bevelled bottom to the bath, and it was very slick. No grip at all. I called the front desk and they sent someone up to see us. The hotel is being modernized but I don't think they've thought it all out very well, as the bathroom was a death trap!! They brought us towels to put in the bottom of the bath to stand on!!! Fortunately although shaken and bruised Bryan appears to be ok.

We went back to I-Hop for breakfast and then took the car back to the rental agency at the airport here. It was a bit of a maze getting there as we had to get gas to fill the car up before returning it. We did approximately 370 miles and our gas bill was $36.16. I think it was $4.58/gallon which is expensive but what you pay near an airport with car rental returns!!! Which means we got approx. 46mpg. We really liked the car and can't complain about the miles per gallon.

Tomorrow we set sail on Royal Carribean Anthem of the Seas, for a 12 day transatlantic cruise to the UK.  We will stop at Ponta Delgada (Azores), Cherbourg (France) and Le Havre(France) before arriving at Southampton on May 12th.

We have purchased an internet package for on the ship but there are many reports that it does not work that well, so we expect to be out of touch whilst in the middle of the Atlantic.

Map showing cruise from Cape Liberty, New Jersey to Southampton, UK

We will then begin a tour of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland & Wales before returning on the same ship when it completes it's European season and returns to the USA for winter season.

I took a screenshot of our 2023 UK Travel map. I know it's not great but best I can do. You can always click the link below and it will take you to the actual map with names of places we are staying. Most of these places are booked, although I've added a few spots that we want to see and may do a couple of days side trips to those from our booked accommodation.

Click the following link to see a more detailed map. 

 2023 Travel Map of UK & Ireland

I'm lying on the bed finishing off this blog. Bryan is deciding what he is going to have for dinner tomorrow by looking on the ship's app at the menu.

I think he's decided on Roasted Tomato Soup, Southern Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Corn-on-Cob, and Boston Creme Pie. Oh boy, now he's looking at day 2!!!

Anyway, it will be nice having someone else doing the cooking.

We found out today that the ship will sail toward the Statue of Liberty instead of away from her. Then do a 360 degree turn so that wherever you are on the ship you will hopefully get a good view. The weather is supposed to be better, so fingers crossed for that. 

Not sure when the next blog will be, it'll depend on what the internet on the ship is like and also if I have time amongst all the entertainment and things to do.

Fort Pickens - Gulf Islands National Seashore

 January 5th, 2023

After a lot of rain, we had a nice sunny day and decided to visit Fort Pickens, on Santa Rosa Island, part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. 

We have been to Pensacola many times but never got around to visiting this old fort.

Our Lifetime Golden Age Pass got us in for free, but there was a toll road bridge that we couldn't escape. We have to wait for an invoice from that to pay, as there are no longer manned toll booths here.

The old coastal forts that we have seen are very similar.  We love the different colors on the walls and the many corridors to explore, some narrower and darker than others.

There were some children running the tunnels, screaming at the top of their voices. The echo made this a lot louder than it probably was but they were having fun. Their mothers just let them go which I wasn't that sure about as the tunnels were long, sometimes dark and had many twists and turns. As well as the floors being very uneven. For us two old folk it became deafening and we decided to let them go on ahead of us. We climbed some steps to the top of this wall and walked around. 

Back to the tunnels and no-one in sight. Ha!!Ha!!

Gun Mounts

Tree growing out of the wall.

Bryan disappeared into a very dark tunnel and I watched and listened to make sure he didn't fall and scream!! This is where you need a flashlight. Thank goodness for the light on the cellphone.

He took this picture of me watching him. Not that I could see him!!

"In 1886 the US Army exiled over 400 Apaches from the Southwest to Florida and sent most of them to Fort Marion in St. Augustine.  Several Pensacola citizens, however, petitioned the government to imprison Geronimo, a medicine man and warrior, and 15 other Apache men at Fort Pickens instead, separating them from their families. Prisoners worked seven-hour days clearing overgrown weeds, planting grass, and stacking cannonballs. The families were reunited at Fort Pickens in 1887.  One year later all of the imprisoned Apaches were moved to Mobile because of a yellow fever scare and later to Fort Sill in Oklahoma Territory.

After being captured, Geronimo never saw his homeland again.  He died and was buried in 1909 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He remains a fascinating--and controversial--figure in American history."

Massive Smoothbore

You can see a gun mount in this window.

Iron mounting structure?

This shows the semi circular grooves where the cannons would have been  moved to aim in different directions.

They are restoring this Double Arch

"Notice that this arch is really a double-arch--above and below the floor of this gun chamber.  Since ancient times humans have used arches to support and distribute weight to vertical piers.  Here the weight absorbed by the piers is transferred to the reverse arch in the foundation to minimize sinking into the sand.  Notice also the notch cut into the right side of the upper arch so a cannon could be swung in that direction. These notches were cut out in 1841, when the U.S. Army adopted new gun carriage designs."

Across the bay is Pensacola Lighthouse, which we have visited and climbed on a prior visit.

Close Up of "Massive Smoothbore"

"If you had been here on November 22 and 23, 1861, you would have been in the midst of a fierce Civil War battle.  Union troops at Fort Pickens bombarded Confederate soldiers at Fort McRee straight ahead across the pass and Fort Barrancas and the navy yard on the mainland to your right.  The Confederates fired back, but the Federals, aided by cannon fire from two warships, heavily damaged the navy yard and nearly demolished Fort McRee.  Needing troops elsewhere, the Confederates left the posts in the spring of 1862, and the Union moved most of its troops on Santa Rosa Island to the mainland. Confederate General Braxton Bragg commented "For the number and caliber of guns and weight of metal brought into action it will rank with the heaviest bombardment in the world.""

We made our way back to the entrance and Bryan did some final exploring when he found an entrance gate into some old buildings unlocked.

I stayed outside but walked along to another gate that was shut but you could open. These children came to get out and I asked them for the password. They looked at me as if I was mad, maybe I am. Bryan was behind them and I let them out. He later told me they were the same children that we had encountered at the beginning of our tour!!  

Bryan continued to explore and I met him at another gate further along.

They are working hard on maintaining and restoring this old fort, which was good to see.

"Converting a Cannon" - Feel the grooves inside this rare cannon barrel.  This Rodman cannon was cast in 1861 as a 10-inch smoothbore, which fired round cannonballs.  To keep up with current technology, the US Army in 1884 inserted an 8-inch rifled sleeve into the old cast-iron barrel, because rifled guns had longer ranges than smoothbores. Steel later replaced cast iron, and the old guns were sold for scrap.  The piece on the right is part of a rifled bore."

That was the end of our tour of the main fort but we went to look at a couple of the Battery's.

"Walk to the beach to see two shield guns installed by the National Park Service"

We continued to the next Battery. 

"This battery is camouflaged by an earthen bunker making it invisible looking at it from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico."

Tilly Car in the distance. She misses all the fun stuff!!

Chimney and vents for the bunker below.

With the ocean to the left, you can see how well camouflaged this was from the ocean.

We finished our exploring for the day and headed back home.  

The sand on the beaches here is white.  It's beautiful.

The road had flooded and we had to drive slowly through.  The waves we created came quite high on the car but thankfully not high enough to come in!!! I wished I had taken some pictures on the way in when vehicles were coming in the opposite direction and you could see the waves it created.

Tilly's turn for some fun!!

Back through Pensacola Beach

Well that's it for today. Hope you enjoyed the outing with us.