Port Charlotte–at a new RV resort

 

From Port St. Lucie on the Atlantic, we headed west and slightly south to Port Charlotte on the Gulf coast to a new RV resort, Myakka River Motorcoach Resort, an attractive and well designed park. 

                   

It’s a condo RV park and all the sites have pavers instead of concrete – a pleasing appearance – and the sites are widely spaced, mostly facing one of the 3 lakes. 

         

         

Our Chihuahua Tina – a few months short of her 13th birthday – likes sitting outside with us, though she usually prefers being in the sun.  She was predominantly black in her youth.

                       

We explored the park by bicycle and enjoyed seeing the club house, pool, pier, and the landscaping in the park. 

         

         

         

Tina enjoys sitting on the dash getting a “sunbath” and we enjoy the view of the lake and all the birds, some searching for their dinner.

         

         

                      

We took lots of photos of the little blue heron which frequented the lakes in the park . . .  

          

          

And also captured shots of a snowy egret.

                                                              

 

We saw several other birds from our lakeshore RV site:  ducks, a killdeer, and an anhinga which is known for stretching it’s wings out to dry

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Near sunset one day, George saw a great blue heron from the coach and took some shots out the window.

         

         

         

In case you missed it, the heron is in the lower right corner of the photo above.

Most of the birds we saw were on the lake shore, but one tricolored heron perched on the TV antenna of the coach 2 sites from us.  After taking a good view around, it took flight.

         

         

         

In addition to a variety of birds, we also observed some other wildlife from our site:

         

                          

         

As you can probably tell, we had fun watching and photographing all these creatures!  And we never expected such a show of wildlife at this park. 

Port St. Lucie

 

We stop here at the beautiful Outdoor Resort every year primarily to get our coach detailed. These guys really know how to polish an aluminum wheel as well as polish paint. The older section of the park has mature lush landscaping and is where we prefer to be. We enjoy having lunch outside with a view of the lake.

George and the boss enjoy the lake view.

              

         

         

 

NAVY SEAL MUSEUM

           

         

Memorial at entrance.

           

         

We have been coming to Port St.Lucie for several years but only this year did George discover this great museum in nearby Fort Pierce while looking at maps of the area. A couple of years ago we stayed at Jonathan Dickinson State Park near Jupiter and knew it had been the site of a top secret Army radar training school during WWII.

The US Navy established an under water demolition team (UDT)  training school in Fort Pierce at the beginning of WWII which later evolved into the Navy Seals. Below we see actual defensive underwater beach obstacles that the UDT’s were trained to blow up on the Ft. Pierce beaches.

         

There are many interesting outdoor exhibits before going inside the museum. George has always been interested in submarines, so he found these Seal “insertion vehicles” interesting. These subs are designed to flood while the Seals use SCUBA equipment.

         

These memorial bricks were especially moving when you consider the sacrifice the UDT’s made on D day.

                     

There were several Patrol Boats River (PBR’s) on display including one captured from Iran. The one below is typical of those used in Viet Nam:

         

Let’s don’t forget that the Navy Seals were involved in the Apollo moon mission. Below is an Apollo mockup capsule that the Seals used for capsule recovery practice.

         

There are many exhibits inside including this charge to new UDT graduates.

There are also many interesting military artifacts like this German P-38 pistol:

   

And these Japanese military items:

           

                   

Here we see UDT Team 10 aboard the submarine USS Burrfish during WW II in the Pacific.

Navy Seals serve in every climate and every theater of war.

           

                     

         

Possibly the most interesting display of current Seals achievement is represented in this lifeboat from the Maersk Alabama cargo ship. Somali pirates boarded the ship in 2009 and kidnapped captain Richard Phillips, taking him aboard one of the Maersk’s lifeboats when the crew had disabled the ship and they couldn’t  hijack it. The Navy responded with three ships and negotiated with the pirates, eventually convincing them to be towed behind the destroyer USS Bainbridge. When the Navy determined that captain Phillips’s life was in danger, Navy Seal team six (yes, Bin Laden raid) parachuted into the water and boarded the Bainbridge. The Seals gradually winched the lifeboat in close enough so that Seal snipers were able to shoot and kill the three pirates, leaving captain Phillips unharmed.

During the crisis the Navy obtained aerial surveillance from a P-3 Orion aircraft and a Navy drone pictured below at the Seal museum.

          

Note the broken out windshield of the Maersk lifeboat resulting from the Seal sniper shots.

            

                        

         

“Whatever it takes”

                               

Seal physical training equipment.

            

         

“Leave no one behind”

                          

                        

Jekyll

We left home on December 28 and had an enjoyable visit with family in Fayetteville, GA. We spent the night at their curb and headed for Brunswick, GA, the next day. George loves jumping off I-16 below Macon and taking the Golden Isles Parkway (US 341). It is a good four lane highway and is more direct than going through Savannah on the interstate. We love passing through the sleepy south Georgia towns of Hazlehurst, Lumber City, Baxley and Jessup. The road is flat and lined with tall south Georgia pine trees.
We stayed initially at Coastal Georgia RV Resort in Brunswick while awaiting the time when we could park at the convention center at Jekyll. We took in a movie (Wild) the next day and enjoyed some great Atlantic fried seafood at Shuck’s Seafood Market. It is take out only, so we ate in the truck, but it was some of the best fried seafood we have ever had.
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We were able to park nose first at Jekyll with a view of the Atlantic out our windshield. We dry camped there for five nights.
         
During our spare time between bluegrass shows, we biked Jekyll’s trails. We were pleased to find that the trail on the inland side of the island has been repaired and new bridges added. That side of the island had just about become impassable due to root heaves.
Here are a couple of shots from the repaired trail:
         
         
Jekyll is really special with its salt marshes, wind-shaped oaks, and marine forests.
                         
          
The bluegrass festival was good this year.  Thursday, typically a “slow day,” featured Rhonda Vincent and the Raves, pictured below.  The tall young man playing the dobro is her son-in-law, as is Hunter, the fiddler, in the next photo.
         
         
We saw the new hotel under construction that is located next door to the convention center. It will be open this spring. While biking on Jekyll we got this view of the Sidney Lanier cable stayed bridge in Brunswick.
         
And this view of the bridge while driving over it to Brunswick.
         
Irene always enjoys the clever Christmas decorations on Jekyll each year:
         
In the last few years after we have made a stop in the Jacksonville area, but cold weather there has made us head directly to Port St. Lucie which is far enough south to be safe on the weather.