The Adventures of Me & My Shadow #71 in FL & AL
03/22/02
514 miles this trip, odometer now 116484, total miles this year 2583.

>From Mobile, AL, Hi Everyone!

Well they didn't declare me insane and lock me up. but they did fire me. I used to say "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me" I can't say that any more. The words in my last story were read as a negative report about the Museum, that was not my intent. I believe the Museum is the best. The Restoration Branch does an outstanding job on the planes that they restore. They need funds to do the F3H Demon and there were no funds for the F3H Demon, the Maintenance Branch was putting it together as a favor to the people trying to raise some funds for restoration. It is the only plane in the Museum that I have been inside of; I did not like what I saw. If the restoration Branch had the funds I'm sure it would have looked different. I may be the only person that would like to see the landing gear struts held in the proper position with a sleeve.

As for the leaky roof.. I was told that the building the Museum is in was built with private funds and given to the Navy as it on Navy property. Now it is up to the Navy to do the roof when the Museum Foundation has the funds for it. The same thing for the roof of the hangar where I worked. It is against the law for any one but Navy to repair the roof and they have other places to spend their money and right now it looks like it will get to be worse. I'm sorry I don't have a couple million bucks to give the Museum Foundation and I wish them well in their efforts to raise funds. Except for one person, it has been an interesting and enjoyable adventure and I hate to see it end.

I would like to know how many readers read my #70 adventure story as a negative report on the museum? Please reply to this story with your opinion, also let John and Doug know your opinion and if you can make a donation; of any amount let John know I'm sure he can tell you where to send it; john.billy@smtp.cnet.navy.mil and doug.kirbby@smtp.cnet.navy.mil After I got fired I decided to get my defibrillator checked. I had tried to make an appointment at the Navy Hospital and was told that I had to have a Primary Care Doctor to make an appointment. I told them I felt fine and only needed to get my defibrillator checked. I was told that I would have to go to the emergency room. I went to the emergency room and was told that they did not have the equipment to check my defibrillator and did not know where I could find the equipment.. I hate to be lied to, they could have told me to go to Sacred Heart Hospital where I found a Heart Clinic and the equipment to check my Defibrillator.

The trip to Sacred Heart Hospital to get an appointment turned out to be a GPS adventure that I had never had before. From the NAS I went through downtown Pensacola and headed north on I-110 and I see the green arrow going north about one inch on the computer screen east of I-110. I just thought that the map was wrong but when I came back south on I-110, the green arrow was tracking right on the Interstate. I then realized that it was an overcast day but I have driven on overcast and rainy days and I might loose a satellite or two and get a yellow arrow. Never before did I have a green arrow tracking wrong. On the day of my appointment when I was headed north I see the green arrow tracking an inch west of I-110. This time it was cloudy but there was some blue sky and when I parked in the Mall parking lot across the street from the Hospital the green arrow kept heading northwest at a very rapid rate. I was early so I tried a different receiver and it couldn't find any satellites. After my appointment I turned the GPS on and the green arrow was jumping all around the screen till I was on I-110 headed south when it started tracking OK.

When the time I had paid for was up at the RV Park I headed to Niceville to visit with my sister again. It was a clear day and when I headed north on I-110 The GPS worked fine. After arriving at Bill & Marilyn' s in Niceville I expected for the mail that Jenny sent by 1st class on Monday to arrive later in the week. This did not happen, by Saturday the mail had not yet arrived. I was thinking about the efficiency of the Post Office and the government in general and this is how I see it. Back in the old days the Pony Express was very efficient but it didn't last long. Like always when something is very efficient, I suppose the EPA got wind of it and decided that it would have to stop. They were spreading too much horse manure out on the pristine desert. Just like the really good paint stripper to remove paint from an aircraft destined for a museum, it was outlawed because it worked too good, for some reason they want inefficiency.

As the population and the mail increased, in my younger days I remember the mail cars on the railroads. They had a crew in them that sorted mail in the mail car as it was going from city to city they could pickup and leave mail bags without stopping. I believe the price for a first class stamp was still $.03 and it would take a very few days to go from coast to coast. With the demise of the passenger trains the airlines carried a lot of mail in their cargo bays and this worked pretty good, sometimes air mail would go from coast to coast in one or two days but the price was starting to edge up a little. It was shortly after this time that the population, the mail, the price of labor and the price of postage all started to rise rapidly. I blame a lot of it on the labor unions that were expanding rapidly and convincing the workers that they were being exploited and needed higher wages and fewer hours. Work was now no longer fun, and was something to dread.

The mail didn't get here on Monday! After it got off the Eastern Shore the Pony Express could have gotten it here in a week. I was thinking about those high speed mechanical mail sorters where the mail is just a blur as it is being sorted. I wonder if the union makes them shut the machine off after working two hours so it can rest. Then Bill remembered hearing on TV that the mail coming out of VA & MD would be slow as it has to be X-rayed and I suppose they have to let drug sniffing Dogs check it out. With this being the 6 month anniversary of 9/11 they are taking extra measures. I wonder why they never slow down the pre-sorted, bulk mail and all the other junk mail that always makes it on time all the time. The Terrorists could sure do us all a favor if they could slow that stuff down or stop it.

When the mail didn't show up on Wednesday we decided it might take a month so I headed back to Pensacola and went to work on my Genealogy Files. The weather has improved so I'm Glad to be back in short sleeved shirts. The days are getting longer, spring has arrived and the temps are going up, it even got up to my comfort zone of 80 degrees one day. It didn't last long, when I arrived here at the Rally today the temps are down and I need a jacket. Its been a month since the last adventure story so I will get this on it's way and report on the rally and my genealogy progress in the next story.

Till next time, Dallas or Dad if it fits.

Me & My Shadow & Gus on the road