Corpus Christi, Texas Day 2 (GA368)

Mary is no longer available for RV traveling, but we remain good friends.
Because we have 5,000+ postings, I’ve invited her to continue posting entries on this blog.

I’m currently in my 23rd year of full-time RVing and my lifestyle is changing, For more info click Here

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The motorhome is parked at Thousand Trails Thunderbird RV Resort in Monroe, Washington. I’ll depart here June 26th.

 

Since my RVing life is changing (see above), I’m starting to re-visit previously visited places. So rather than constantly re-blogging past entries, I’ve decided to do something different.

 

In 2011-2013, Mary and I did a 682 day, 12,679 miles in the motorhome and 8,000 miles in the Bronco, circumnavigation of the United States, which I called The Great Adventure. I called it so because other than my oldest granddaughter’s high school graduation in June in Connecticut, I didn’t know where we would be going or when we would be there!

 

So, unless I do something really different and unusual warranting a new blog entry, I’ll be posting entries from that trip.

 

 

 

This entry was posted January 15, 2013…

 

 

 

 

 

The motorhome is parked at the Eagles Club #2249.

 

Yesterday we drove the Bronco the about seven miles to Corpus Christi’s #1 tourist attraction…the USS Lexington Museum On The Bay. The Lady Lex was the last operating World War II aircraft carrier.

 

 

You can read about this floating museum by clicking this official website link…
http://usslexington.com/about-the-uss-lexington/the-museum/

 

 

Here’s a Wikipedia link about the Lexington…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Lexington_%28CV-16%29

 

 

Here are a few of the photos that I took…

 

 

 

 

 

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To see the other 50 photos that I took, click this Picasa Web Album link…
https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273/USSLexingtonMuseumOnTheBayCorpusChristiTexas

 

 

We spent a very enjoyable 4.5 hours at this great museum.

 

 

Enjoying military museums is another joy of the full-time RVing lifestyle!!!

 

 

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of Texas. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…(look closely on the Texas coast…)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

 

 

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE! MARY WROTE A MANY GREAT BLOGS…SO WHENEVER SHE PUBLISHED A BLOG POSTING THE SAME DAY THAT I DID…YOU WILL BE ABLE TO READ HER BLOG BY CLICKING THE BELOW LINK! DO IT NOW!

https://otrwjam.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/lady-lex/

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE PHOTOS.

Forecast for today is partly sunny and 73 degrees.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of Washington. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

 

 

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

 

 

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

There are more than 700 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://get.google.com/albumarchive/110455945462646142273?source=pwa

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

 

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet -2018

LADY LEX

The USS Lexington is fondly called Lady Lex around Corpus Christi, Texas. She served valiantly in WWII and served a total of 48 years. The Japanese kept broadcasting her sinking, never true. She became known as the ghost ship that came back to life.

Here she sits in the harbor.

She was attacked by two kamikazes. One was shot down, the other hit her island, did huge damage, killed 47 and wounded 123 men. The kamikazes were a desperate measure by the Japanese. They recruited young men do die for their country and offered the great honor of wearing a head band (hackamachi)  used by respected feudal samurai. Kamikaze means Divine Wind, a wind god said to have repelled a Mongol fleet heading toward Japan in 1281.

The Japanese distributed these flyers to demoralize the men. You can barely read at the top, The bearer is entitled to honorable treatment as prescribed by the Geneva Convention.

This is a very personal museum. Many letters described the attack and the subsequent sadness of burying their friends at sea.

One survivor sent in his dog tags and a piece of shrapnel from the “Zeke” they shot down.

The four self guided tours take you all over the ship and while I walked I had this sense of deja vu as though I’d seen this ship before. I could see men running through the hatch doors;

water oozing up though the hatches as the ship flounders in flood mode.

I see the men running, as the horrible piercing sirens go off and some sailor struggles to turn off these valves. I was running all of those WWII movies through my brain only to learn later that indeed, the Lex had been used in several movies.

Sailors slept in hammocks like this, only 18 inches from each other.

A later refurbishment gave much improved sleeping arrangements, but the men who used them referred to them as coffins.

An old swabbie looked like this.

And a modern swabbie we recognize.

If you like models, there were rooms full of them, every size, every ship and plane.

I preferred pictures and paintings of ships.

Here is the Lex going through the Panama Canal with planes like toys littering her deck.

As you walk into a room, a sensor starts a recording and in this spot I heard Roosevelt sadly delineate the number of ships wounded and sunk at Pearl Harbor. The casualties in men. It was about 300 men and 316 ships, if memory serves me.

You can see the fear and dread in these young faces as they prepare for battle.

And, the wonderful moments of relief and joy at liberty.

Other duties than war.

It was cold and windy and we viewed the deck last. Three football teams could play on this deck at the same time.

The island, the control tower, is the highest part of the ship which from bottom to top is 19 stories high.

I climbed into this wheel well and Jim took my picture.

I liked the painted personality of the Skyhawk, the plane I crawled into.

The navigation room, again gave me that deja vu. The compass on the right, with the huge compensating  ball-magnets keep the compass functioning. So, I got to massage the navigator’s balls, as they are called.

The life rafts are now reversible, so no matter what side they fall on you can get in. But, it isn’t water proof. Brr, that’s cold.

There was so much to see here. We spent four and one-half hours on the ship. Pricey, we thought, at $11.95 each, senior price, plus $3.50 for parking.  We also ate a delicious cafeteria style lunch on board. But, they also show two major movies wearing 3-D glasses that were absolutely stupendous and worth the price of the ticket on their own. So,  go see the Lex if it is the only thing you have time for.

Corpus Christi, Texas – Day 2

The motorhome is parked at the Eagles Club #2249.

Yesterday we drove the Bronco the about seven miles to Corpus Christi’s #1 tourist attraction…the USS Lexington Museum On The Bay. The Lady Lex was the last operating World War II aircraft carrier.

You can read about this floating museum by clicking this official website link…
http://usslexington.com/about-the-uss-lexington/the-museum/

Here’s a Wikipedia link about the Lexington…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Lexington_%28CV-16%29

Here are a few of the photos that I took…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

To see the other 50 photos that I took, click this Picasa Web Album link…
https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273/USSLexingtonMuseumOnTheBayCorpusChristiTexas

We spent a very enjoyable 4.5 hours at this great museum.

Enjoying military museums is another joy of the full-time RVing lifestyle!!!

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of Texas. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…(look closely on the Texas coast…)

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2013
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust