Eglin and the Sound of Freedom

One night stands are usually easy to arrange at most RV Parks, but the need to stay for a week or more at a popular location without reservations can be quite problematic. Travelers come and go every day for brief or extended stays. Parks that take reservations choreograph the RV site occupancies like a well-rehearsed ballet. For those that don’t, a traveler may not be able to stay as long as they’d like.

Chris and Jay prefer to stay a minimum of two to four days and like military bases because of the facility quality and security. As one could imagine there is not much vandalism and theft on a base crawling with highly trained militants.

Eglin Air Force Base did not take reservations and they were apprehensive about obtaining a site when they left Mayport. They exhaled a sigh of relief when a short phone call to Eglin assured them there was room and they could fulfill the primary reason to visit the area; pick up the growing stack of mail at nearby Crestview – the location of their mailing service and official resident address.

The campground was in the flight path of the base airstrip and a love/hate relationship with the searing sound of fighter jets screaming over the RV developed. Chris thought it was the coolest sound in the world – The Sound of Freedom! Conversation and or sleep came to a temporary halt, but thankfully the Air Force keeps civil hours and only flies between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., unlike the Marine Corps helicopter maneuvers at Camp Lejeune at 1 a.m!

The abundantly supplied PX and Commissary were perfect venues from which to stock up as they were the last tax-free military store Chris and Jay would encounter for many days. Clothes, groceries and other supplies were purchased and the consistently cold, windy weather kept the couple inside working on the numerous projects that always needed to be completed. Their original four-day stay stretched into more than a week; at least three days of which were spent planning and making reservations for the next seven months itinerary.

The plan completed and with eager anticipation of driving further west than they’d been since the outset of the Odyssey two years before, Chris and Jay once again hitched up Sonny to Big Red, and on Monday, January 31^st headed to New Orleans; the land of Mardi Gras and the City of the Dead.

No May in Mayport

It had been so cold for so long in Maryland that Chris and Jay wasted no time getting to Florida. By the evening of the their second day on the road, January 4^th, they pulled into the Pelican Roost RV Park at the Mayport Naval Base in Jacksonville, Florida where they settled in for what eventually became a two week plus stay.

Part of the harbor at Mayport Naval Station.

The first items on the agenda were to call friends in the area and schedule party time – old people’s party time that is – with dinner, a glass of wine and fun conversation. We entertained Wally Holdstein and his girlfriend, Pam, at home and visited Jay’s High School buddy Marna Crim and her husband Roger at their home in Fernandina Beach, an hour north of the base.

The Pelican Roost RV Park had a variety of fun “Senior” activities. Chris and Jay went to two nights of Card Bingo and won 5 out of 18 rounds. It is played with a deck of cards rather than a bingo card and chips. It was quite simple and fun and they look forward to playing again sometime – especially since they won so often. Another night they enjoyed some bluegrass music performed by the Appalachian String Band; a family consisting of Mary, age 18, Joe, age 16, Beth, age 15 and Dad on bass fiddle. Mom took photos and kept them organized while they traveled in a motorhome.

The cold winds and the ever pressing need to make progress on a dozen or so ongoing projects prompted Chris and Jay to extend their one-week reservation to over two and they gladly pounded away on their keyboards free of guilt that they were not outside soaking up Florida’s normally warm, sunny days.

Toward the end of their stay Chris was feeling that she needed to at least tour the area near the RV Park. So, she bundled up against the elements and trekked along the nearby waterfront discovering a beautiful, deep, sandy beach that stretched to the horizon – all of which was part of the Naval Station.

The channel was even large enough for oil tankers.

Jay regretted not sharing the experience and the next day they set out again, but with the good camera. Chris experimented with a different technique and created a stunning collection of abstract images which she immediately sent to an art buyer for an upcoming client presentation.

An abstract of a small pool of water surrounded by sea walls and copper colored grasses.

Blue sea, sky and white seawall.

You’d never think these were tire tracks in sand.

Tracks in sand.

The West was calling, they had exceeded their two-week limit and it was time to leave before the residents tarred and feathered them for winning too many Card Bingo games. Next stop Eglin Air Force Base and the Florida panhandle.