R&R Over

Thursday, 22 August
Somewhere on I-95 south in florida

Our two weeks at Pelican Roost RV Park at NS Mayport is over.  And with it, so is our last two weeks of R&R.  At the moment, we are on I-95S.  After we arrive at today’s destination, we will have a busy day and a half preparing the coach for storage.

When we made plans for this stay, we knew that the hot Florida weather would likely not allow us to do much more than walks on the beach.  And that’s exactly how it turned out.  Most mornings we were on the beach well before sunrise.  By the time we were back at the coach around 7:30a, the rising sun was increasing not only the temperature, but the humidity as well.

The bonus we were hoping for was that the near-constant breeze would allow us to spend at least a portion of each day on the patio.   We were not disappointed.  Between the breeze and the afternoon shade on the patio side, we managed to spend considerable time outside.  Even the daily thunderstorms cooperated so that we could enjoy happy hour as the sun set across from us  — most days.

When the thunderstorms cooperated, this was our view from the patio …

… When the thunderstorms didn’t cooperate, this was our view from the patio.

This was the worst of the thunderstorms we had, and it caused the gulls and terns to
fly off in a flurry of white feathers.  Yes, those white specs against the black sky are birds.

This afternoon thunderstorm was the exception rather than the norm;
most days, the rain and thunder came through in the overnight hours.

When it was too hot to sit outside, we took care of chores, packed our bags for our upcoming trip, and watched pre-recorded movies on TV.  Ships — navy, passenger, and freight — and small boats plied the boat channel daily, adding to our entertainment.  As did the pods of dolphins that swam around the channel day in and day out.

USS Taylor (FFG 50) leaving the ship basin at sunrise.

Here’s one for our USCG friends Paul and Chuck …
USCGC Confidence [I believe] returning to the ship basin after a day at sea.

While it may seem like we didn’t do much during our stay at NS Mayport, we were actually quite busy and the time passed in the blink of an eye.  On the one hand, we were unhappy with how quickly the days went by.  On the other hand, we were glad as it meant we were that much closer to this year’s off-road adventure.  A mixed blessing either way.

On that note, I’ll wrap up this making-the-blog-whole post with the last two photos I took yesterday morning at NS Mayport. 

Looking west, the moon is still high in the sky over USS Vicksburg
and the other ships in the boat basin …

… looking east towards the Atlantic, the rising sun bathes the sky a beautiful golden hue.

See you all for one more post before the Phaeton goes on hiatus.

It Feels Like Winter … Almost

Sunday, 30 December
Pelican Roost RV Park — NS Mayport, Florida
Temps: Lo 36F / Hi 50F (2C /10C)

The wind-chill won the battle today!  The mercury indicated a high of 50F (10C) this afternoon, but I’m here to tell you that it sure didn’t feel that way.  At least there was no rain … and we’re grateful that we’re not in the path of any of the snow that has been plaguing other parts of the country.

Haven’t been doing much of anything blog-worthy these past few days.  After our early morning “mouse debacle” on Friday, we stayed close to home, going to the beach to enjoy an al fresco snack and the sunshine.  Mui was expecting a phone call, so after checking out the water temp — shiver me cold — he returned home; I stayed on to stroll the length of the beach.

Heavy rain was in the forecast for Saturday.  And that’s what we got.  We had some strong downpours that cleared up mid-day, but by then the wind had picked up, gusting to 30 mph (48 kph).  No problem; we used the day to go to the NS Mayport barbershop to get our first haircuts on the road.  Afterwards, we went grocery shopping at the commissary — stocking up for the move to our next campground in a few days.

Running errands filled up our morning today.  We considered going for an afternoon walk at the nearby marsh, but the thought of doing so bundled up in layers wasn’t attractive.  Instead, we stayed home and started our pre-departure prep; we’ll finish up tomorrow so that we can pull out early on Tuesday.

Just because we didn’t do anything exciting or different doesn’t mean that the camera did not see action.

This gull brought lunch to us at our campsite on Friday.
(2nd winter laughing gull … I think; correct me if I am wrong)

Scenes from the beach on 29 December …

Our osprey friend was perched on the power line as usual; but this time there was
another osprey that it was keeping an eye on … his mate, perhaps?

This ring-billed gull politely watched from a distance as we ate our snack on the beach.

We found this shell on the beach at low tide.  Its occupant  had plowed a path for
itself (top right), but had come to a standstill.  Mui poured some water over it, and
when it started moving again (top left; tongue-like thing peeking out from under the
shell), he carried it off to the water to give it a fighting chance to live another day.

The sanderlings were fluffed up and hunkered down to keep warm.

Have to stop and check out sea shells that catch my eye.

I’m stumped by this bird …
consensus is that this is a young Forster’s Tern.

Forster’s Tern

There’s a story with these black skimmers.  Top to bottom: seemingly preparing to dive
into the oncoming wave, the skimmer let the wave carry it out to another skimmer that
was already bathing in the cold Atlantic waters.

Black skimmers are hard to photograph because their eyes blend in with their dark head
feathers; this time I managed to get enough of a glint to show the eye — barely.

Scenes from our campsite on 30 December …

I mentioned that we canceled our plans to go to the marsh because of the cold temp and wind … well, the marsh came to our site instead.

I didn’t know if the flock of ibis that showed up at our site would tolerate my
presence, so I took a picture through the windshield (left) before I went outside,
crossed the street, and took a group shot.

Obviously these ibis can’t read road signs!

It turns out that the ibis are very tolerant of my presence, but I am not pushing my luck.

Left: that’s not a third leg that the ibis in the foreground has grown!
Right: This ibis was bigger than the other birds in the flock …

… could it have been mom?  When she started to move away, the other birds quickly followed.

And to wrap up today — an osprey in flight provides our …

… the end moment!

A Big Kitty Thrill While Exploring the Hood

Monday, 24 December
Pelican Roost RV Park — NS Mayport, Florida
Temps: Lo 48F / Hi 69F (9C / 21C)

Our plan tonight was to go see the holiday cheer at the Jacksonville Zoo, but with rain in the forecast for the early evening, we decided to save the admission fee and go another night.  Those plans may have been rained out, but our “let the day unfold” plans for the daylight hours made for a stellar day that started out with a pod of dolphins, continued with some unexpected and exciting wildlife sightings, and concluded with more dolphins.

The dolphins looked like they were playing, but they were probably feeding.

Since we have some exciting Christmas Day plans that will require a bit of driving, we decided to stay close to home today and explore the hood, so to speak.  But first, Mui wanted to wash the toad, so the fun portion of our day didn’t start until 10:30a.

With Christmas Eve declared a holiday by President Obama, NS Mayport was fairly dead today.  We took advantage of the fact that there would be little traffic on the roads to trike around and see what we could see, starting with a ride to the far side of the turning basin.

We first triked around the perimeter of the turning basin (blue line), then went for
a meandering ride around roads near the salt marsh (red line), and concluded
with a walk on the beach (green line).

The ride from the campground over to the far side of the turning basin was a little over 2.5 miles (4 km).  With the roads empty of vehicular traffic it was a fun ride that gave us a close look at some of the ships that homeport here.

The Phaeton is right across from where we’re standing on the far side of the turning basin;
in case you don’t believe me, I zoomed in for a close up.

The bow of the USS Hué City is decorated with a “welcome home” lei; this is the ship
that returned from deployment on Wednesday (post here); the two ships in the
top right photo are the Roosevelt [left] and the Gettysburg.

From here we retraced our path partway, and when we got to the intersection with Massey Avenue, we zigged onto Maine Street and headed towards the Main Gate.  Our goal was to find the entrance to the salt marsh, but when it looked like the path I had spied was going to take us off base and into traffic, we zigged again to check out the SH60-B that stands not far from the entrance.

According to the marker nearby, “The SH60-B aircraft was one of five prototypes used
to develop the Light Airborne Multi-Purpose Systems LAMPS Mark III between 1980 and
1984.  The aircraft was delivered to the Navy in 1985 and used extensively until 1997,
accumulating over 13430.20 flight hours.  … It was presented as a monument to the
significant role Mayport played in the development of the LAMPS system.  The aircraft
was placed in this location on July 16, 2o11 to honor the men and women who
served in Operation Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and Enduring Freedom.”

Detail from the etching on the granite base of the marker.

We were about the head home when I suggested we check out a road that branches off Maine Street.  It turns out that the road runs parallel to a ditch that attracts some of the wildlife from the salt marsh.  Even the golf course on the other side of the road had its share of white birds — looked to be cattle egrets — foraging in the grass.  An interesting feature of the road was all the “welcome home” signs alongside it — I’m guessing for the sailors who returned from deployment aboard USS Hué City.

Welcome home indeed!

Riding this road was a fortuitous decision.  Why?  Because we had some very exciting sightings along the way.  The trikes allowed us to approach the wildlife slowly and quietly, which ensured some close encounters.

Wood Stork — our first time seeing them in the wild.

Great Egret … as opposed to a …

… Snowy Egret

Juvenile Red-Shouldered Hawk
[correct me if I am wrong]

The most thrilling sighting of the day was purely happenstance.  Had we not stopped to check out some egrets and a tri-colored heron fishing in a pond, we never would have seen the — drumroll please — BOBCAT sneaking out from the ditch and into the bushes.  Unfortunately, he was moving fast, and was behind a locked gate in a no-trespassing zone, so we didn’t get to see the bobcat for long.

Blurry or not, this photo of the bobcat is a keeper.  Yeah, I know; it looks like a
house cat, but you’ll just have to take my word that it isn’t. Oh, and the "bobbed" tail is proof, too.

After glimpsing the bobcat, we headed back the way we came to go home.  But first, I had to stop at a spot on Maine Street where there were seven wood storks aimlessly wandering.  Don’t be fooled by the chain-link fence in the background, these guys were roaming free in an area between two fenced-in yards.  They were tolerant of me photographing them for quite a while, but eventually they one by one flew off to parts unknown — my signal to re-join Mui for the ride back home.

North America’s only native stork, the Wood Stork is sometimes called ironhead
or flinthead in reference to its featherless, dark-skinned head.

We saw our share of ospreys throughout our ride.  Our best sighting, though, was the one that was perched on a wire high above the intersection leading to the campground.  I’m especially glad the temptation to click the shutter was strong and the camera was ready … and that we were on the opposite side of the road …

… when this osprey decided to answer the call of nature …

… Before taking off with a flurry of flapping wings.

You would think that four hours of riding around would have been enough for us.  But after putting the trikes away, and enjoying a cup of tea (and some of Mui’s poğaças), we were inspired by the sun that finally showed its face to go for a walk on the beach.

It might not look it, but the tide is coming in … in a short two hours, the visible
strip of sand will all be under water.

We made the most of the two hours we had before high tide.  I was good and kept the shutter clicking to a minimum so as not to take away from the exercise value of our brisk walk.  Until, that is, a woman photographing the shorebirds asked me if I knew what they were.  Of course, after having a nice chat with her, and her husband, I had to take a few photos of the birds, too.

Black Skimmers and Ring-Billed Gulls

Royal Terns … double the pleasure.

On that note, we retraced our steps back to beach access #1 and returned home — this time for good.

Those who know me, know that I can’t pass a mural without clicking the shutter.

I’ll leave you with a message from the beach.  I have no idea who the Jones family is, but we decided to add our names to the sentiment when we saw their note etched in the sand.

An ephemeral message that will be washed away by the incoming tide is
the only acceptable form of graffiti.

And on that note … enough words and photos for one post.