We spent the last couple of days around Pensacola. Saturday we explored Gulf State Park in eastern AL. A very nice 400+ site campground, a Nature Center with great exhibits and 20 miles of hiking trails. We also spotted our first alligator of the season. Later we visited Bob Secours National Wildlife Refuge and hiked along the beach.
Today, with rain forecast, we visited the Naval Aviation Museum at NAS Pensacola. A huge, bewildering aircraft collection.
We joined a guided tour that highlighted the history of particular aircraft.
This was a nostalgia trip for Carl. When he worked at Grumman from 1968-1974, they built this F-14 Tomcat fighter
the lunar module (many astronauts were naval officers so this counts as naval aviation)
and the E-2C Hawkeye (they only had four blade propellers back then).
During WW2, the Navy did lots of pilot training over Lake Michigan. Many planes were lost in the Lake and several have been recovered and restored. There is a fascinating exhibit and video about the recovery of aircraft.
Welcome to the Florida panhandle. We had tornado warnings all afternoon then flash flood warnings and lots of rain.
Tomorrow we move to Manatee Springs State Park.
Love,
Sandy & Carl
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