Carol
writes: We have spent the last four weeks in Jacksonville, Florida,
soaking up some of life’s simple pleasures.
In retrospect, we realize that our gypsy life this past year on the road
in Western Europe was a very primitive one, with all the necessities of life, but on
a very basic level; however, throughout our 8 months in Europe, we never felt deprived
in any way. After all, we were fed, we had
access to campground bathrooms/showers much of the time, and we had shelter and
a bed to sleep in. Our simplified lives
really required nothing else, and we always looked forward to the next day’s
great adventure. If we had fixated on the things we missed, the joy would have
been sucked right out of our grand European camping experiment. Much of this blog has concentrated on our
appreciation of what we learned about European life, history, art and culture
as we progressed in our travels. Once we
were back on American shores and began a gradual assimilation back into daily
American life, we realized that we had also acquired a unique, even deeper
appreciation of many aspects of our wonderful American way life, culture, and
freedom here in the ‘New World.’
We have
spent the entire past four weeks hopscotching from one facility to another here
at Naval Station Mayport—from pampering at the Navy Gateway Inn with its
incredible ocean-view rooms right on the beach,
to the Navy
Lodge for New Years, then to a cozy campground cabin for a 2-week stay at the
Naval Station’s Osprey Cove RV site.
It was nice
for a change to have a separate bedroom, full-size kitchen, living room, and rocking
chairs on our covered porch.
It has been
a typical Florida winter so far—near freezing temperatures for several days
followed by a string of balmy sunny days.
We took advantage of one of those priceless warm Florida winter days and
made a day trip to St. Augustine to visit its historic fort…
and to have
some good Mexican food, our favorite cuisine, and one of the staples of the
American restaurant scene that is almost nonexistent in Europe.
We had
Christmas dinner in the troop chow hall, along with many other military
families. Somehow the true meaning of
Christmas seemed easier to appreciate with our no-frills holiday season. As the days of the new year slowly ticked by,
we followed the progress of the Hoegh Singapore autoliner as it made several
port calls in the Caribbean. After 32
long days at sea, we were relieved to see that the Hoegh Singapore had finally docked
in the early morning hours of January 13th. We were reunited with our RV the following day
at the Port of Jacksonville. Our emotions
were flooded with a huge sense of relief when we saw that everything was in
excellent condition! Only two hiking
hats, a safety vest, and a well-used screw driver and needle-nose pliers had
acquired ‘walking legs’ out of our RV at sea.
Our final
‘home’ at Naval Station Mayport has been at the Pelican’s Roost Campground,
which is located along the shore of the Port of Jacksonville shipping
channel.
It has been fascinating
to watch all the ship traffic float by our “front porch”—numerous Navy ships,
(USS New York, which has steel from the World Trade Center incorporated into its structure)
civilian container
vessels, and constant barge and tug traffic.
As this Danish Navy sailboat passed down the shipping channel one
morning on its way out to sea and back home across the Atlantic, fellow RVers scurried
out of their campers with cameras in hand.
I have come
to appreciate the custom of playing the national anthem at the start of the day
at all US military bases that we have visited.
The presence of the Danish Navy explains why two national anthems were
broadcast over the loud speaker.
A sizable
number of RVers from both from the US and Canada have created a large subculture
of retirees who winter in Florida in order to escape the cold and snowy months
where they live—the so-called “snowbirds.”
We have met several fellow campers here at Pelican Roost who come to
Naval Station Mayport during the winter months every year. RVers are a very sociable group and it is
never hard to join in on a conversation.
One evening we finished supper early in the RV and decided to go up to
the clubhouse and check out the ice cream social. Along
with another couple, ice cream sundaes in hand, we headed to the only vacant
table in a very crowded room. As we sat
down we exchanged a few words of pleasantries and it soon became apparent that
they were also from Cincinnati, where I was born and grew up in the small
community of Mt. Healthy. When I
mentioned Mt. Healthy and told them my maiden name, they both looked
stunned! It turns out they still live in
Mt. Healthy. Both of them attended Mt.
Healthy High School and were in the class just two years ahead of me! We had numerous acquaintances in common, even
a distant intermarriage between our two families. We had quite the enjoyable ice cream social
and plan to keep in touch via email.
Quite the cosmic coincidence!
Today we are
starting the slow crawl west back to our home in Colorado. Meanwhile, we plan to linger with friends and
family along the way...
