Looking about Tampa

Leaving the hotel, we walked down a charming walkway along the channel.  

The museum of memories for Al.

We came to the exhibit ship of a representative of the liberty ships built rapidly during World War II.  Germany sent submarines out into the Atlantic ocean to sink all ships they could to starve England.   As discussed on Wikipedia, some 2,710 Liberty ships were built to replace cargo ships for the Atlantic run and also other areas.  This ship represents the Victory series that were a slight improvement over the Liberty ship.  Some 534 of this type were constructed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_ship

Plan and elevation of the Victory ship.

These ships were operated by the Merchant Marine instead of the US Navy.

Mockup of the helm of a ship.   

This area was called the wheelhouse. 

A helmsman stood behind the wheel and looked out into the ocean ahead.  Ahead of him was the gimbal which housed a compass that the helmsman followed.  The course would be ordered by the officer of the deck who also gave orders to the engine room by the annunciator with the white face in the center.  On the ship that Al was on in the Gulf of Mexico from 1957 to 1958 the officer was above on the bridge.  

The chartroom.

The ship's chronometer.

Al was an Electronics Technician and his main piece of gear was the radar.  It was stuck into the chartroom for many ships did not plan for radar.  Each day the navigator would "shoot" the stars with a sextant.  Three separate readings were made and when the star was lined up with the horizon for its angle, he would say "mark" and the time was noted.  Then he went to the chartroom and using navigational charts would draw a line on a chart for each star.  Hopefully these lines would intersect at a point where the ship actually was.  One of Al's duties was to tune in a United States Naval Observatory radio signal and then compare and log the amount of time the chronometer departed from true time.   I is interesting to note that all this is unnecessary with Global Positioning System.

USS Pascagoula, PCE 874, Al served aboard from 1957-1958.

The ship Al was on was the USS Pascagoula, PCE 874, named in honor of that shipyard.

Sue evaluating the type of bunk Al used for 34 months at sea.

To honor the women who did a lot of work building Liberty and Victory ships.

A German submariner.

Al's ship put into Port Everglades near Fort Lauterdale.  While there, he and some shipmates were invited onto a German freighter.  In the wardroom, we met a man who told us that he was on a German submarine and they looked at the Miami skyline all lighted up.  This propeller or "screw" was recovered from a sunken German U-Boat.

Two folks on a memory trip.

Two examples of how the 1% lives.

Manatees at Crystal River, Florida

We planned to see the manatees that collect in Three Sisters Spring where the water temperature is 72F/20C all year around.  This is a great haven when Gulf of Mexico waters are colder.

A neat little refuge and museum.

A manatee

We learned that the manatee, related biologically to elephants (who knew?) has little fat layers to protect from colder waters thus they seek the warm waters.

Sue enjoying the museum.

This was a great view from a Crystal River restaurant's dock that looks good to us fugitives from the land of frozen lakes.   

This is the introduction of a very interesting state park in Florida.  The mounds have mostly been preserved and now are as part of this park.

The main or religious mound.

We climbed the steps to the top of this mound.  The view from here is spectacular.

Looking south-easterly.

Looking westerly.

A couple of explorers needing a rest.

A stele is an ancient marker stone.

According to the plaque, a face is carved on the opposite side.

Do you see the face?

This is a close-up of the "face".

Another stele.

Your intrepid explorers with a burial mound in the background.

Visiting Gainsville, FL

We visited our friends June and Norm who have lived in Gainsville for 30 years.  We met as undergraduates at the University of Illinois.  For years we exchanged Christmas cards and it was good to see them again.

By the First Lutheran Church

Norm is chair of the Board of Trustees and general contractor for the complete refurbishing of the church sanctuary and offices.  He will be done late this summer.

First Lutheran Church, Gainsville, FL

We went with them to the home of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, the author of "The Yearling" which won prizes in the 1930's and then was made into a movie.  She had purchased a 70 acre orange grove at Cross Creek at a time when the neighbors were country folk.  

A view of the home and barn.

This place reminded us of the Sandberg National Historic Site in Flat Rock, NC, but in a much more modest form.  

The house with the porches to get "air" when temperatures are hot.

A necessary accessory.

Old cooker.

When the author was a boy, he helped his grandfather and others butcher hogs for family food.  The boy's job was to keep the fire underneath the pot going so as to cook internal organs for sausage making.  What fun for a seven year old!

A final salute to friends June and Norm.

Our destination for the day was this wildlife refuge.  It has an area of about 684 square miles.  It has an interesting history that when focused on the east entrance to the refuge has a man-made canal. Fire also plays a large role in the natural life of the refuge.

A boardwalk leading to a observation tower.

Fires swept wide parts of the refuge in 2007 and again in 2011-2012.  This second fire destroyed the boardwalk that survived the 2007 fire. 

Remnants of the original boardwalk.

Part of the refuge that escaped the 2011 fire.

Fire suppression sprinkler heads and main.

The Suwanee Canal was dug across the swamp in the late 19th century in a failed attempt to drain the Okefenokee. After the Suwanee Canal Company's bankruptcy extensive cypress logging operations from 1909 to 1927 removed an irreplaceable stand of cypress trees for railroad ties due to the wood's durability.

The ecology of the canal.

This canal is now used as an entry point into the swamp.  

The Suwanee canal.

Another tour boat.

Overnight campers returning to launch site.

The "Water Prairie".

I expected something quite different that what was before me.  But Okefenokee is so large that the ecology varies quite drastically.  So instead of towering trees and little light, this shallow water over peat up to 15 feet thick is here.

Up close and personal.

There has been no hunting in the refuge since the mid 1930's when it was declared a wildlife refuge.  The animals showed little fear and did not shy away.  We were next to the above alligator for several minutes.

Our guide searching for a worm in a waterlily leaf.

Charlie the guide explained that the waterlily root provides starch, a flower that he called "never wet" provides carbohydrates and this little worm is the best fish bait available or it can be eaten.  He says he does eat them, Yum Yum!

Going home with channel markers in the background.

Going on a kayak trip.

Sue feeling good!

There is an alligator across the canal.