If you are ever passing through Pensacola, Florida then a visit to the National Naval Aviation Museum is an absolute must.

We spent an afternoon there yesterday, having visited for the first-time last year and our experience this time was even better, if that’s possible!

Museum visitors can join guided tours hosted by pilots, many of whom served in World War II. They are willing volunteers and talk with incredible knowledge about the planes, the roles these planes played in aviation history and wars, their technical capabilities and how they became to be displayed at the museum.

As part of the museum’s displays, we took part in an “on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier” experience which was simply fantastic. Over a period of 15 minutes you feel what it’s like to be on the deck of an aircraft carrier while planes take off and land. Wow, it was fantastic and our host, a former aircraft carrier pilot, was simply amazing.

Painted with the number 41, George H.W. Bush (41st President) flew this plane. Bush enlisted in the U.S. Navy on his 18th birthday as a Seaman 2nd Class. He was commissioned an ensign and pilot and served aboard the USS San Jacinto.

 

Soon after the end of World War II, the Chief of Naval Operations created a flight exhibition team to raise the public’s interest in naval aviation and boost Navy morale. Known as the Blue Angels, the display team have been demonstrating their outstanding flying capabilities ever since. We saw the display team practicing on Sunday night as we were touring around the area – fantastic!

One of the joys of traveling in a motor home is that you are able to take with you some of the furry ones who make each day so special.

Traveling with us on our maiden voyage are:

Miss Poppy-dog. She also answers to other endearments such as Poppylicious and Popsicle!

Poppy is a Jack-a-Bee which is a cross between a Jack Russell and a Beagle.  The Beagle element in her means that she needs to sniff every blade of grass every time she sees a blade of grass!

She is adorable and her favourite things in life are to cuddle with her Daddy, chase Squirrels and sleep. She is also a wonderful guard dog – just as long as she is awake!

Miss Poppy in the gardens of the Biltmore Estate, North Carolina.

Mr. Artie, kitty. Artie is usually called Artie-pants!

Artie became part of our family when Mike was working in Papua New Guinea and, bored one night, trawled the Houston Society for the Prevention of Animals site and found him needing a home. We adopted him just after he underwent surgery to amputate one of his back legs after a car hit him.

He now runs as fast as a race horse, is as strong as an Ox and has developed incredibly powerful front shoulders which is how he lifts himself up onto the furniture. He has the softest, thickest fur going and is the cutest little guy imaginable.

Mr. Artie at home.

Miss Holly, kitty. Holly also answers to the names of Hollylicious, Miss Scissor-hands and The New Sheriff in Town.

Holly became part of our family in August 2016 after Mike cat-napped her from outside his hotel in Lubbock, Texas while he was helping my stepson move apartments! Mike checked with the hotel reception and she was a stray that they were feeding from the breakfast buffet…………not any longer!

Holly is just the sweetest kitty going. She loves to chat and to play hide and seek, but her favourite thing in the whole wide world is to chase Poppy-dog! Actually, the two of them are very sweet to watch playing. One chases the other, they stop, and reverse the process. She also loves playing with Mike’s shoes and generally chasing all the other fur babies in the house to encourage them to get more exercise, something which is not really appreciated and only just tolerated!

Miss Holly taking a cat-nap after a busy afternoon chasing Poppy-dog!

It’s another travel day and we’re heading to Pensacola, Florida – some 230 miles to the Pensacola RV Park where we plan on staying two nights.

Mike is driving brilliantly and coping “somewhat” calmly with the crazies who need to merge onto the freeway but who are too distracted with chatting on their cell phones to focus of what they need to do. They just don’t know whether to speed up and get in-front of us, slow down and come in behind us and have no idea that it’s just not that easy on a busy road for us to move into the next lane to accommodate their inability to make a decision!

En route, we travel through Mobile and around Mobile Bay where the USS Alabama battleship is moored. Mike and I love touring these kinds of facilities and we spent a day onboard the USS Alabama when we were in the area last year.

After commissioning and full sea-trails, the battleship began her career in 1943 and served out her days supporting the US Fleet in the Pacific.

The view of Mobile, Alabama as we pass by.

Mike onboard the USS Alabama last year when we were in the area. How strange, he was wearing the same T-shirt yesterday as we drove by it!

 

Greetings from our maiden voyage in Roxanne, the motor home!

We plan on spending three weeks on the road, starting in Magnolia, Texas where we live, and traveling through parts of Louisiana, Florida, South and North Carolina and Tennessee, before returning home.

Day one is a travel day covering some 340 miles from Magnolia, Texas to the Lakeside RV (recreational vehicle) Park in Livingston, Louisiana. It is perhaps a few more miles than the ideal, as we have already learned that it takes much longer to go anywhere in the motor home compared to our truck, but May-time is crawfish season in Louisiana and we were unable to get into our first choice of park due to a crawfish festival taking place.

That said, some six hours after we set off, we arrive at the park which is delightful. It has spaces for some 140 vehicles – motor homes of Roxanne’s size (40 feet) and larger, fifth wheels (which are pulled by a truck) and all kinds of combinations in-between.

The park is very pretty and includes a well-stocked fish lake in the middle with swans, geese and other wildlife and surrounded by beautiful trees.

 

The lake with its two Swans.

Roxanne connected to water, electrical power and the sewer system.

Oh my, today is Dad’s 92^nd Birthday.

Matthew Joseph Dennis Hagerty (known as Paddy) was born on April 23 1925 in Scotland, to Irish parents – Matthew and Annie – on St. George’s Day, the patron Saint of England! It probably explains a lot!

Here’s Dad making his blogging debut (with Mum) while out to dinner tonight in Kent, England with my brother Stewart and his family.

Here’s another one of Dad (and Mum) taken two weeks ago when we were out to lunch at the Crown Pub in Rye, East Sussex.

And, finally, here’s one of the three of us heading off on holiday last September.

 

Stotfold is a very pretty village -cum- small town some 45 miles north ‘ish from Woodford Green and home to Steve & Robert who have been very dear friends for 15+ years.

Our friendship first blossomed in the early 2000s when Steve and I worked together in London. It was just one of those meetings when you know that a life-long friendship is born and it wasn’t long before we met socially and our mutual love of good food, good company, board games and an adult drink or two was born.

As usual, we re-connect in the middle of a sentence, likely the remaining half of when we were together this time last year, and head off for a good walk to burn some calories before lunch at a glorious gastro pub in Henlow called “The Crown” where I gorge on Gammon and Duck Egg with pickled onion rings and gooseberry ketch-up! Oh my, it is simply spectacular and good brain fodder for an introduction to a card game called “Uno” which we play all evening while sipping a glass of Prosecco into which is added a shot of Vermouth. Wow, what an interesting and different drink it is with the Vermouth, certainly something to try again.

Dear boys, Robert, left and Steve.

It’s all green – Stotfold farmland with a single wind turbine on the horizon.

Greetings from the picturesque market town of St Ives in Cambridgeshire where Tom, my very handsome nephew, lives with his super-lovely partner, Christine.

In age order, Tom is #2 nephew and is the second son of my eldest brother Ian. You have yet to meet the rest of the family so stay tuned!

Here is Christine, brother Ian and Tom standing on the bridge in St Ives which spans the River Ouse as it meanders through the town.

The area is surrounded by flood plains to protect the low-lying town from rising water although the surrounding fields were completely submerged following the floods of 2003.

Well-fed Swans are also an adorable feature on the river.

Greetings from Norfolk, a county in East Anglia that you will find on the East coast of England which makes up the “bubble-shaped” corner on the right-hand side of the country, around about 100 miles from London.

Sandringham is the much-loved country retreat of Her Majesty the Queen, and since 1862 has been the private home of four generations of British monarchs.

The house sits in the heart of a 20,000 acre estate made up of woodlands and heath and some 60 acres of stunningly manicured gardens. Part of the park is open to the public, free of charge all year round and is a favourite for dog walking and picnics!

And, it was here at Sandringham that I met life-long friends for lunch:

Back row, left, Claire (whom I have known for some 37 years), my brother Ian, front row, Maria, Claire’s partner, and me grinning like a Cheshire cat!

I know that the real Beatles song is “Ticket to Ride” but I thought I would take advantage of some near-like lingo!

Rye is a lovely coastal town in East Sussex and a beautiful drive through magnificent rolling, green hills from where Mum & Dad live in Kent.

In the centre of Rye you will find cobbled, narrow streets lined with medieval houses. The town also has a castle which was built in 1249 on the orders of Henry III to shore-up defenses against raids by the pesky French who were warring with England.

And, there is an old mill which was first constructed in 1758. Since then it has been rebuilt twice and is now operated as a Bed and Breakfast hotel.

Surrounding Rye are fields and fields of Rapeseed which is grown to produce edible vegetable oil and animal feeds. It is the colour that I love so much as it is so vibrant and so representative of the English countryside at this time of the year.

Woodford Green and its immediate area has been “home” to some interesting people, two of whom may, arguably, have influenced the lives of many millions of people around the globe!

Now, that’s got you guessing, huh? Here we go:

Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the UK from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955.

Churchill was the Member of Parliament for Woodford from 1945 to 1964 when the boundaries were changed. His service to the area, and indeed to the country, is commemorated in a rather beautiful statue of him which stands at the edge of Woodford Green’s green, pictured below.

Sylvia Pankhurst is remembered by a small blue plaque which can be found near Woodford station.

Sylvia was the daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, co-founder of the Suffragette movement which began around 1906 to campaign for women to be given the right to vote. In 1918 through their actions and somewhat militant tactics, women over the age of 30 (with certain property rights) gained the right to vote; in 1928, all women in Britain over the age of 21 were given their voting rights.

In 1924, together with her anarchist Italian boyfriend, Sylvia moved into a cottage at 126 High Road, Woodford Green to continue her work for the East London Federation of Suffragettes to improve working conditions for women.

She remained in Woodford Green for 30 years scandalizing the rural community of well-heeled gentry and politicians with her life outside wedlock!

Sir Jonathan Ive, KBE (Knight of the British Empire), Chief Design Officer, Apple, Inc.

Ive was born in Chingford, London, attended the Chingford Foundation School and went on to study industrial design at Newcastle Polytechnic.

After graduating with a first-class Bachelor of Arts degree in 1989, Ive joined a London start-up agency called Tangerine designing a diverse array of products from microwave ovens, toilets, drills and toothbrushes. One of Tangerine’s clients was Apple and in 1992 Ive became a full-time employee and the rest, they say, is history!

The Kray Brothers!

Twin brothers Ronnie and Reggie Kray were notorious gangsters and the perpetrators of organized crime in the East End of London during the 1950s and 1960s.

Leading their gang known as “The Firm,” the Krays involved themselves in armed robberies, arson, protection rackets, assaults and the murders of Jack “the Hat” McVitie and George Cornell at the Blind Beggar pub on the Mile End road…………….an establishment which is still there today!

In the 1960s, the nightclub owning Krays were widely seen as popular figures on the celebrity circuit socializing with politicians, socialites and stars such as Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra.

Tom Hardy plays the role of the twins in the film titled “The Legend” released in 2015 which tracks their very violent and somewhat unorthodox lives.