{"id":344,"date":"2016-06-07T09:14:35","date_gmt":"2016-06-07T17:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2016\/whiskeypapa\/here\/?p=344"},"modified":"2016-06-09T14:56:36","modified_gmt":"2016-06-09T22:56:36","slug":"day-22-sarasota-fl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2016\/whiskeypapa\/here\/?p=344","title":{"rendered":"Day 22 – Sarasota, FL"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1stOn my first night in Milton I was welcomed by a pretty violent thunderstorm.\u00a0 At 1:30 in the morning the lightening was so close that the thunder was actually shaking the house.\u00a0 Ned said that they got over 2 inches of rain that night.\u00a0 As it turns out, this was just mother nature clearing her throat, the real storm was yet to come – more on that later.\u00a0 We got up that morning ready for the Red Snapper Slaughter but the conditions were iffy at best.\u00a0 We decided that we weren’t going to give up that easy and went out to see the conditions first hand.\u00a0 Our “look around the corner” should have been enough of a deterrent, but we were determined and decided to venture out and see what the ride was really like.\u00a0 The distance from the corner to the fishing hole is 15 miles – after three miles of getting beat up pretty bad, we agreed that discretion was indeed the better part of valor, and headed for home.\u00a0 It was a good thing too, as conditions only got worse that day.\u00a0 This is Ned searching for some bait to net, we never did find exactly what we were looking for but he threw the net out a few times just for practice…<\/p>\n

The next morning we were toying with the idea of going out, but conditions were far from ideal so we opted for a visit to the National Naval Aviation Museum at Pensacola NAS.\u00a0 Ned made blueberry & banana oatmeal pancakes that were so good that they don’t even need syrup – Yum, and we were off to the museum.\u00a0 Just a couple days ago one of the Blue Angles crashed and died.\u00a0 That hits close to home here, because Pensacola NAS is the home of the Blue Angles.\u00a0 There was a makeshift memorial at the entry gate to the base, flowers piled high, a cross or two, and at least 50 American flags, it was really nice.\u00a0 This community has a big connection with the Blue Angles.\"AirThe first things to fly out of the Pensacola NAS were these flying boats.<\/p>\n

Who doesn’t like a radial engine?\u00a0 They are the coolest looking and the best sounding engines I’ve ever heard.\u00a0 This one on the F4B\/ P-12<\/a> really caught my eye.<\/p>\n

Of course they have one of these F-4U Corsair<\/a> aircraft.\u00a0 In my opinion the most bad ass airplane of that era.\u00a0 It had a 2,000 horse power 18 cylinder Pratt & Whitney Double Wasp radial engine – the most powerful engine available at the time.\u00a0 If you were an enemy pilot you didn’t want to see one of these bad boys in your rear view mirror!!I also really like the looks of this T-6 Texan.\u00a0 My father was lucky enough to get a half hour ride in one – he talks about it to this day.\u00a0 Who wouldn’t – – –<\/p>\n

Lastly, they have a few aircraft and engines here that have been cut away so you can see the works beneath.\u00a0 Interesting to see all the wires in the wings and fuselage some used for tension and stability, others used to control the wing surfaces for flight.<\/p>\n

I’ve just shared a few of my favorite aircraft with you but they have LOTS of airplanes here.\u00a0 They also have several large and extremely detailed models of air craft carriers.\u00a0 The space program is represented as well.\u00a0 I had no idea how small the command modules (the thing that fell back to earth with the astronauts inside) were back when they first got started.\u00a0 People must have been smaller back then.\u00a0 Ha haWell worth the trip and next time I’m in the Pensacola area, I’ll be back.\u00a0 Especially since it’s free; they would like a donation but it’s not required.\u00a0 I figured we donated enough with the money we spent inside.\u00a0 We went to see a Blue Angles movie filmed in I-MaX – not free but very cool.\u00a0 We also had a good and very reasonably priced lunch and a couple beers in the Cubi Bar Cafe.\"Cubi<\/p>\n

For nearly 40 years, the NAS Cubi Point Officers’ Club, in the Republic of the Phillippines, was a marvelous mix of American efficiency and Filipino hospitality. The club was especially\u00a0famous for its Plaque Bar, where transiting squadrons retired old plaques and commissioned new ones to commemorate each WestPac tour. The tradition of placing plaques in the O’ Club bar was started during the Vietnam Conflict and endured until the closing of the base in 1992.<\/p>\n

When the original officers’ club was closed in 1992, the thousands of plaques that adorned the walls of the club as tokens of thanks were packed up and sent to the Museum to be placed as they were when the Cubi Club was closed.\u00a0 But it’s not just the plaques, they have the bar, bar stools, and tables and chairs from the original Cubi Club.<\/p>\n

Much watching of the weather was done starting when we got back home from the museum.\u00a0 A tropical storm was brewing and it was looking like it was going to be worst on the day I planned to ride to Sarasota, and that’s exactly what happened.\u00a0 Those of you that really know me wouldn’t be too surprised that I was still planning on making the trip and just getting wet.\u00a0 THAT would have been a huge mistake.\u00a0 After I decided to stay another day and watched as the storm crossed the state – I was very glad that this was one of the few times I heed the good advise I often get.<\/p>\n

What a difference a day makes!!\u00a0 Today was a great day to ride, but with 500+ miles to go I was up on the slab for most of it.\u00a0 The state of Florida gets an A+ for the condition of it’s Interstate 10 and 75.\u00a0 These drivers though – – I don’t know how fast you have to be going to get a ticket but the speed limit is 70 mph and the car in the median is obviously law enforcement and the folks going 85 mph aren’t even slowing down.\u00a0 I need my Camaro back!!\u00a0 I ran into a brief downpour about 70 miles north of Sarasota and was pretty wet from it, but by the time I got there I was mostly dry.\u00a0 I got the bike in the garage two minutes before it started raining.\u00a0 So, I still haven’t put the rain gear on – knock on wood….<\/p>\n

Lastly, I would like to thank my friends Ned and Joan for welcoming me into their home and taking such good care of me, and maybe even saving my life.\u00a0 THANK YOU!!<\/p>\n

\"Day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On my first night in Milton I was welcomed by a pretty violent thunderstorm.\u00a0 At 1:30 in the morning the lightening was so close that the thunder was actually shaking the house.\u00a0 Ned said that they got over 2 inches … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7qntY-5y","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2016\/whiskeypapa\/here\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2016\/whiskeypapa\/here\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2016\/whiskeypapa\/here\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2016\/whiskeypapa\/here\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2016\/whiskeypapa\/here\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2016\/whiskeypapa\/here\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":375,"href":"https:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2016\/whiskeypapa\/here\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions\/375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2016\/whiskeypapa\/here\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2016\/whiskeypapa\/here\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lennysride.com\/2016\/whiskeypapa\/here\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}