After we left Eden Gardens, we drove all another 70 miles or so to the eastern side of Pensacola and stopped at an official road side pull off along side of the Pensacola Bay. It was very windy and unusually so, being parked, this was to our advantage (not so great while we are not driving this big tin box down the road) as it had brought out the wind surfers to the bay. We watched them for a 1/2 an hour or so and made plans to try that strenuous but fun looking activity in the near future.
While stopped, I did my usual scan of the towing situation to make sure all was well and to my surprise or dismay, it wasn't. The tow dolly had broken where the long arm that attaches to the hitch joins to the bar that acts as the axle. This is not good. It is the connection that holds the whole thing together. The integral ramps were basically dragging on the ground (also not good). I decided to try and make it the last 20 miles as it was and had my dear brother (always ready to help out) look for welders in the yellow pages on line (in Pensacola). We made it about another mile but every time I step of the gas a little the weight shifted rearward and forced the ramps back down to dragging on the ground. We stopped as soon as we could and unloaded the car from the dolly and Megan followed me in the car the rest of the way to the camp, Big Lagoon State Park. This park is beautiful and very limited in camping (75 sites), well maintained and very friendly.
With the help from the list of welders my brother sent and asking the rangers who they would call, we found and made contact we a guy who had a mobile unit and could come to us. One of the rangers, Chris, happened to be working on the water connection at our site and not only recommended this guy but also made the call for me to his wife, Jennifer, who runs the office and put us together. She was just as accommodating as anyone could be and I knew in the first few seconds of talking to her that we had found, serendipitously, the right people. I made arrangements to send her some pictures via email that I had taken to allow them to see what was required prior to coming out to our site. (And she didn’t even laugh that I had taken pictures of my broken tow dolly) She called back within an hour of getting them and discussing the job and told me that her husband Gerry could stop out that afternoon after he left the site he was working on at a local college. That time didn't work for us but we made arrangements for the next evening for him to stop out and fix it on site.
I knew taking the pictures and bringing them on my lap top to a local podunk welder was gonna seem like, "geek boy has a weldin problem" but I didn't want to drag the damn tow dolly all over town trying to find someone to fix it. SO, this on site gig really worked out swell and saved me a little hometown embarrassment as well.
The next morning we got up sort of early and made our way back to the Naval Air Museum. This is the home base of the famous Blue Angles flying team. We spent most of the day here after having gotten there early enough to get a spot on the one hour bus tour of the air strip aircraft restored museum section. This air museum is an amazing place particularly from a historic perspective. Even if you are not military minded the history and expansion of flying machines and the extremely articulate manner and methods used to put back together and maintain these aircraft is something of a wonder. The museum aircraft restoration shop and project is completed by volunteers. And they are damn good at what they do. I was impressed. The inside aspect of the museum is huge and immaculate. There are a variety of displays honoring aircraft, military operations, flight simulators, and the history of the Navy. I was moved by the Vietnam Prisoners of War display and documentary, even though McCain was a featured POW on the film. If you get a chance to see this place, don’t miss it!
On site there is also a full time educational arm of the museum, staffed by two full time teachers, that brings 6th, 7th and 8th graders into the facility for varying length programs through out the school year and teaches them jet engine propulsion, actual jet flight simulation, advance mathematics and physics. This was and amazing opportunity for these students and the teachers were very proud to be able to bring this to students.
The welding repair took place later that day as my new friend Gerry from “On Demand Welding” in Pensacola stop in with his working partner, Trey, and did what they do best. These were two of the nicest guys I have met on this trip. Just a pleasure to be with! Thanks for that guys! Welding repair handled with style we were ready to go and feeling confident.
I don’t wish anybody any welding repair issues but if you have one and you happen to be in northern Florida. Call On Demand. You’ll make a new friend too.The next and final day at Big Lagoon, we spent in the campground. Jasper and I took his metal detector that he got for Christmas and headed down to the beach to find some Spanish Doubloons’ while Megan enjoyed some quite time at the campsite. After three plus fun hours, we had found several hundred pop tops of various vintage an entire coke can, buried 7” under, 3 fishing weights and one dollar and eighty two cents in miscellaneous change. It made me wonder how much money and trash is actually buried everywhere just below the surface in the crust of our planet. It won’t be very difficult for the future archeologist to find our artifacts.
While stopped, I did my usual scan of the towing situation to make sure all was well and to my surprise or dismay, it wasn't. The tow dolly had broken where the long arm that attaches to the hitch joins to the bar that acts as the axle. This is not good. It is the connection that holds the whole thing together. The integral ramps were basically dragging on the ground (also not good). I decided to try and make it the last 20 miles as it was and had my dear brother (always ready to help out) look for welders in the yellow pages on line (in Pensacola). We made it about another mile but every time I step of the gas a little the weight shifted rearward and forced the ramps back down to dragging on the ground. We stopped as soon as we could and unloaded the car from the dolly and Megan followed me in the car the rest of the way to the camp, Big Lagoon State Park. This park is beautiful and very limited in camping (75 sites), well maintained and very friendly.
With the help from the list of welders my brother sent and asking the rangers who they would call, we found and made contact we a guy who had a mobile unit and could come to us. One of the rangers, Chris, happened to be working on the water connection at our site and not only recommended this guy but also made the call for me to his wife, Jennifer, who runs the office and put us together. She was just as accommodating as anyone could be and I knew in the first few seconds of talking to her that we had found, serendipitously, the right people. I made arrangements to send her some pictures via email that I had taken to allow them to see what was required prior to coming out to our site. (And she didn’t even laugh that I had taken pictures of my broken tow dolly) She called back within an hour of getting them and discussing the job and told me that her husband Gerry could stop out that afternoon after he left the site he was working on at a local college. That time didn't work for us but we made arrangements for the next evening for him to stop out and fix it on site.
I knew taking the pictures and bringing them on my lap top to a local podunk welder was gonna seem like, "geek boy has a weldin problem" but I didn't want to drag the damn tow dolly all over town trying to find someone to fix it. SO, this on site gig really worked out swell and saved me a little hometown embarrassment as well.
The next morning we got up sort of early and made our way back to the Naval Air Museum. This is the home base of the famous Blue Angles flying team. We spent most of the day here after having gotten there early enough to get a spot on the one hour bus tour of the air strip aircraft restored museum section. This air museum is an amazing place particularly from a historic perspective. Even if you are not military minded the history and expansion of flying machines and the extremely articulate manner and methods used to put back together and maintain these aircraft is something of a wonder. The museum aircraft restoration shop and project is completed by volunteers. And they are damn good at what they do. I was impressed. The inside aspect of the museum is huge and immaculate. There are a variety of displays honoring aircraft, military operations, flight simulators, and the history of the Navy. I was moved by the Vietnam Prisoners of War display and documentary, even though McCain was a featured POW on the film. If you get a chance to see this place, don’t miss it!
On site there is also a full time educational arm of the museum, staffed by two full time teachers, that brings 6th, 7th and 8th graders into the facility for varying length programs through out the school year and teaches them jet engine propulsion, actual jet flight simulation, advance mathematics and physics. This was and amazing opportunity for these students and the teachers were very proud to be able to bring this to students.
The welding repair took place later that day as my new friend Gerry from “On Demand Welding” in Pensacola stop in with his working partner, Trey, and did what they do best. These were two of the nicest guys I have met on this trip. Just a pleasure to be with! Thanks for that guys! Welding repair handled with style we were ready to go and feeling confident.
I don’t wish anybody any welding repair issues but if you have one and you happen to be in northern Florida. Call On Demand. You’ll make a new friend too.The next and final day at Big Lagoon, we spent in the campground. Jasper and I took his metal detector that he got for Christmas and headed down to the beach to find some Spanish Doubloons’ while Megan enjoyed some quite time at the campsite. After three plus fun hours, we had found several hundred pop tops of various vintage an entire coke can, buried 7” under, 3 fishing weights and one dollar and eighty two cents in miscellaneous change. It made me wonder how much money and trash is actually buried everywhere just below the surface in the crust of our planet. It won’t be very difficult for the future archeologist to find our artifacts.
1 comment:
I like the sea
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