Ream Wilson Trail - Revisted

Hi Blog! Today is Monday, March 2, 2015. It is our first full day in Clearwater. We are eagerly awaiting visits from various family members later this month. To get ready for company, we arranged to have our truck and RV power washed and waxed. The mobile wash truck came bright and early, so we let Eddie and George sleep in today. Three hours later, Baxter finally came out from under the bed covers. As soon as Baxter hears anyone walking on the roof, he goes into hiding. He is certain there are monsters up there!

The day started out really foggy. The air was so dense with moisture that our rain sensor kept closing our ceiling fan vent lid. By mid-morning, the fog had burned off and the truck and rig were bright and shiny in the noon day sun. We didn't have anything else planned for today because we were not sure how long it would take to clean the rig. We had stayed in Clearwater two years ago and remembered there were lots of bike trails near the campground. After a quick check of our blog from March 2013, we decided to take another spin on the Ream Wilson Trail. We left our campground on Gulf to Bay Boulevard and rode down Bayview Road and picked up the trail in the Eddie C. Moore Recreation Complex. Here is a map of the Eastern Section of the trail.

Here Kathy takes a break on the bridge of McMullen Booth Road.

The trail followed Bayshore Boulevard. Here are the types of houses looking out over the bay.

Before long, we enter the quiet little town of Safety Harbor. The name Safety Harbor originated from the early 18th century, when pirates were a substantial influence in the area. Once ships reached this area of the bay, all threats from pirates were gone, and it was commonly referred to as a "Safe Harbor".

The greenway along Bayshore Boulevard is beautifully landscaped with all kinds of interesting art along the bike path. We couldn't resist sharing this little guy with you. Is it an alien, a duck or mystic sitting cross-legged contemplating the fate of the universe? Only you can tell.

The ibis certainly like the greenway, except when the bike riders get a little too close.

Safety Harbor is the home of the historic Espiritu Santo Springs, or "Springs of the Holy Spirit", a natural mineral spring. Its waters were given this name in 1539 by the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto, who was supposedly searching for the mythical "Fountain of Youth". Espiritu Santo water was bottled and sold commercially, and later a health spa and hotel were built over the springs. To commemorate the old spring, a new fountain was built across the street from the hotel.

Next stop, Veterans Memorial Marina Park. Some of the locals gather to give their birds some fresh air.

We took a walk out on the marina pier. The water was so shallow these guys were just standing around.

The folks in Safety Harbor love their mailboxes. They range from the sublime to the comical.

Just on the other side of Safety Harbor, we came upon Philippe Park. This bayview park was acquired in 1948, making it the oldest park in the county. The park bears the name of Count Odet Philippe who introduced grapefruit and other citrus to Florida. The existing park property was part of the original Philippe plantation from which several citrus trees still remain.

The park has numerous picnic and beach areas.  These little puppies seem to be enjoying a small stretch of white sand beach.

Once we explored the park, we turned our bikes around and headed for home.  All this pedaling builds up a powerful thirst. We didn't remember the name of the dive bar we stopped at two years ago, so we did a quick Around Me search and came up with a list of possibilities.  Once we started down Main Street, it didn't take long to recognize it. We stopped, had a refreshment - "Cheers!" - and then biked the final miles home.

Who Needs Wildlife Refuges?...

...We have our RV park.

Rainy Day Bibbles

Today is pre-move day here in Ft. Pierce Port St. Lucie KOA.  It's blustery and raining all day, with threat of severe thunderstorms, so we decided to spend the day on indoor projects.  We had a long list of things to do, and all were creative!

First, Kathy had had it with the chaos of her spice drawers.  She has two - one with individual spices, and one with mixed spices we've collected over the years.  Here is the mixed spice drawer before it got the "clean" treatment by Kathy:

The single-spice drawer had other problems.  There was no way to keep the spices in order.  They would slide around and get mixed up.  While Kathy had labeled the lids so she could identify them, they kept getting mixed around, which frustrated finding the one you want.

So Kathy came up with an idea to build a drawer organizer with wooden yardsticks, some little "L" brackets and wood glue.  Application of a handsaw and careful spacing was all it took - oh, yes, and supervision by Baxter:

David wasn't twiddling his thumbs while Kathy was getting spicy.  He wanted to bake some more of his honey oatmeal bread, and he wanted to try out two more veggie sausage recipes.  Here he is working the bread batter:

We had tried three different veggie sausage recipes and decided we liked the base material of Recipe #1 but the taste of Recipe #2.  So we modified Recipe #1 to substitute the spices from Recipe #2. David calls this - surprisingly - "Modified Recipe #1."  It has a base of black rice, oatmeal and sauteed onions.  Recipe #4 has a completely different base:  lentils, quinoa and sauteed onion.  Both were spiced similarly.

All of our projects took all day - measured by the 5 hours it took to make and bake the bread.  But as Happy Hour dawned, we had successfully completed our missions.

Here is Baxter examining and grading Kathy's wood shop project, all completed with the spice jars all lined up in orderly rows:

In this photo, Kathy's newly cleaned and organized mixed-spice drawer shows itself off beneath David's loaves of honey oatmeal bread (hot out of the oven) and a package of veggie sausages to be frozen for future breakfast delight:



Not every day can be beautiful weather for outdoor activities, but we can get lots of productive stuff done if we put our mind to it.

Seeya in Clearwater!

National Navy Seal Museum

Hi Blog! Today is Thursday, February 26, 2015. Our truck, Great White, wasn't feeling well on the drive up from Miami Everglades Resort. We found a Freightliner Service Center and dropped him off on Tuesday.  We have a little red sports car that we are tooling around in. The Service Center called. GW has a malfunctioning exhaust brake valve. They ordered a new one and we should be able to pick him back up on Friday.

In the meantime, we are trying to make the best of it. We are expecting rain the next few days, so we have a whole list of rainy day activities lined up. First up, the National Navy Seal Museum located in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Fort Pierce was the birthplace of the "Underwater Warrior." Here Kathy learns the humble beginnings of the Scouts and Raiders and Naval Combat Demolition Units that would lead to the Frogmen and later the SEALs.

The different galleries show the evolution of Naval Special Warfare equipment. There were lots of specialized guns, knives and dive equipment. Lieutenant Commander Draper L. Kauffman is considered "The Father of Naval Combat Demolition." He was present at the Japanese surrender in the Philippines. Here is an original, signed copy of the surrender declaration which his family donated to the museum.

The SEALs have been subjects of many movies even before they were officially known as SEALs. Here is the movie poster from The Frogmen.

Hollywood did a good job with costuming. Here is a a real "Frogman" uniform. 

The first two SEAL teams were formed in January 1962 and stationed on both US coasts: Team One at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, in San Diego, California and Team Two at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. To this day, odd numbered teams are stationed in California and even number teams in Virginia. Here is a photo of Kathy's favorite SEAL - A. J. Chegwidden from the CBS Television show JAG.

In August 1993 a four man SEAL sniper team was deployed to Mogadishu to work alongside the Delta Force as part of Task Force Ranger in the search for Somali warlord Mohammed Farrah Aidid. They took part in several operations in support of the CIA and Army culminating in the October 3, 1993, 'Battle of Mogadishu' where they were part of the ground convoy raiding the Olympic Hotel. During the operation, two U.S. Blackhawk helicopters were shot down by RPGs and three others were damaged. Some of the wounded survivors were able to evacuate to the compound, but others remained near the crash sites and were isolated. An urban battle ensued throughout the night. Here is one of the Blackhawk Helicopters.

Next we toured Captain Phillips' life boat. On April 12, 2009, in response to a hostage taking incident off of the coast of Somalia by Somalian pirates, three Navy SEALs simultaneously engaged and killed the three pirates who were closely holding the hostage, Captain Richard Phillips, of the freighter ship, the Maersk Alabama. The pirates and their hostage were being towed in a lifeboat approximately 100 yards behind the USS Bainbridge when each of the pirates were killed by a respective sniper with a single shot to the head. 

In the early morning of May 1, 2011 local time, a team of 40 Navy SEALs along with a Belgian Malinois Military Working Dog (Cairo), support by Special Activities Division officers on the ground, killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan about 35 miles from Islamabad in a CIA operation. The Navy SEALs were part of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, previously called "SEAL Team 6". President Barack Obama later confirmed the death of bin Laden, but did not directly mention the involvement of DEVGRU, saying only that a "small team" of Americans undertook the operation to bring down bin Laden. The unprecedented media coverage raised the public profile of the SEAL community, particularly the counter-terrorism specialists commonly known as SEAL Team 6. The Walt Disney Company tried unsuccessfully to trademark the name "SEAL Team 6" the day after the raid. The official name of the military operation was Operation NEPTUNE SPEAR. The model of the compound used in the 60 Minutes documentary was donated by CBS to the Navy SEAL Museum.

Not all missions end well. On September 11, 2012, the U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazie, Libya was attacked by a heavily armed group of 125-150 gunmen, whose trucks bore the logo of Ansar al-Sharia, a group of Islamist militants, also known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, working with the local government to manage security in Benghazi. U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service Information Officer Sean Smith, and CIA contractors and former Navy SEALS Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed during a series of raids, commencing at nightfall and continuing into the next morning. The two former SEALS had voluntarily raced to the compound to help defend the embassy staff, and they paid the ultimate price.  Here the memory of those fallen SEALs is honored.

After finishing our tour inside the museum, it was time to go outside and see the big stuff. While NASA was tasked with putting men on the moon, the Navy was responsible for plucking the astronauts out of the ocean when they fell back to Earth. This link is a directory of U.S. Navy ships used to recover NASA astronauts and spacecraft from human spaceflight missions. This list includes only vessels designated as part of the official naval recovery force. Here are a couple of the practice capsules used by the Navy during the Apollo years.

With the next rain cloud approaching fast, we didn't have a lot of time to climb aboard this boat, shown here with the museum sign in the background:

Don't you think Great White would look good with a set of choppers like this?

Often called the “quiet professionals,” Navy SEALS take on the most dangerous missions, often anonymously, and ask for nothing in return. The National Navy SEAL Museum and Memorial provides a unique view into the world and history of Naval Special Warfare and the heroes who have served.

Paddling the Fort Pierce Inlet

Today is our last day of warm sunshine until we move to Clearwater this coming Sunday, so we decided we'd better take advantage of the kayaking around Ft. Pierce and Port St. Lucie, where we are staying this week.

We found a convenient kayak rental place and put our rental kayaks in on the beach at Ft. Pierce Inlet.  We had to paddle across the inlet to get to the mangrove islands.  Here is a satellite view of the area with our path marked in yellow (our total paddle was 5 miles, which we finished in 3 hours, with lunch):

Kathy leads the way once we get over to the mangrove islands:

This is a typical view we had as we maneuvered from channel to channel among the mangroves:

The boat traffic - both motorboats and fishing - was pretty heavy to the east on Shortys Slough.   Beach condo buildings could be seen in the distance.  With this traffic and the easterly winds, we decided staying in the boat channel wasn't our best option.  Instead, we stayed tight to the banks of the mangrove islands.

At the north end of Shortys Slough, at Jim Island, is a large marina.  We found one backwater where we could just fit our kayaks, and spied some pretty crusted-over boats and an old, wobbly, warpy dock:

Out in the main marina at Jim Islands, the Pelicans put on a display of their formation marching talents:

The mangroves hid some shy Ibis --

-- and a Great White Heron, who, due to crepuscular coincidence, looked like an angelic spirit come to lead us to heaven:

We pulled up in a quiet cove in the mangroves to eat our lunch.  Here's David enjoying his turkey and cheese sandwich and bottle of water:

After lunch, paddling out into the open waters, we enjoyed watching the pelicans fishing.  This fellow is just about to dive in to catch his lunch:

Look closely and you'll see these two pelicans in synchronized diving, going for that school of fish that appeared in front of us:

The heron were out fishing as well.  This one ignored the traffic on the causeway as he skimmed above the water looking for his next meal:

Even the mammals got in on the act!  We spotted several dolphins feeding in the bay.  This fellow was very active, swimming and jumping and diving in circles to corral the fish, who in turn could be seen leaping as much as five feet in the air to avoid being dinner:

We spotted a couple of lazy manatees, poking their noses up above the surface of the water, but we weren't in a position to get photos.  We were just happy to share the sun, wind and water with them as we started our paddle back to our beginning point.  Heading back toward the inlet, we saw this evidence of the strong winds that blow in the Ft. Pierce Inlet.  The winds blow in from the left in the photo below, and cause the trees on this island to be shaped almost as mountains are shaped by glaciers in geologic time:

Our final act was to paddle in a mad dash back across the inlet, fighting the southeasterly winds and waves, to make our beach before being picked up by the kayak rental people.  Here Kathy salutes a successful day on the water!

We expect three or four days of rain beginning tomorrow, so we're glad that we got this paddle in while it was still warm and dry.  When we hit Clearwater, it'll be serial family visits for the entire month of March!