Naval Undersea Museum – Keyport, Washington

Mary is no longer available for RV traveling, but we remain good friends.
Because we have 4,000+ postings, I’ve invited her to continue posting entries on this blog.

I’m currently in my 21st 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 Mount Vernon RV Resort in Bow, Washington. I’ll depart here August 9th. I’ve been here a number of times in past years.

 

I’ll be hanging out in this general area until about the beginning of October, taking maximum advantage of my Thousand Trails membership and very agreeable weather.

 

(Note: I’m currently a little discombobulated right now. My normal mode is to blog what I experienced yesterday. Right now, I’m a number of blogs behind my experiences. I expect to be back in my normal mode in about three weeks.)

 

 

Today’s subject…

A couple of weeks ago I spent an enjoyable three hours at the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Washington.

 

I particularly enjoyed this museum because in my earlier life, I worked at General Dynamics, Electric Boat Division at Groton, Connecticut where they build nuclear submarines. For about three years in the mid 1960’s I worked as a Radiographer…that’s an industrial x-ray person. Using radioactive materials Iridium 92 and Cobalt 60, I and others non-destructively tested the welds, castings, piping and other components of a nuclear submarine.

I did radiography on about 25 different submarines during this period. It was a very interesting job, however, I think it was in 1966 because of government financial cutbacks on military spending, I got laid off. I promptly went across the Thames River to Waterford, Connecticut to work on Unit #1 of the Millstone Nuclear Power Station…which led to my quality control career in commercial nuclear power construction for the next 15 years.

 

I was particularly looking forward to visiting this museum. Primarily because in the first photo below you will see the sail of the now decommissioned 637 boat…the USS Sturgeon. I think I can safely say I logged more of my radiography hours on the 637 than any other boat.

 

This is a great museum and you should make the time to visit if you find yourself in the area.

 

Here are some 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…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also did a lot of radiography on the USS George Washington, the first Nuclear Ballistic Missile Submarine…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also did some radiography on the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear powered submarine, when it entered the shipyard for repair work…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see the other 142 photos that I took by clicking on the below photo…

 

 

 

 

 

Naval Undersea Museum – Keyport, Washington

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can read all about the museum by clicking the below link…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Undersea_Museum

 

 

I hope you enjoyed the photos!

Yesterday was mostly sunny and 73 degrees. Forecast for today is cloudy with a few showers and 69 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://picasaweb.google.com/jimjrver

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 2016

CASTING OUR FATE TO THE SUN AND WIND.

This year, the Obama administration moved to streamline the development of large-scale solar projects on public lands by approving vast tracts across the West  identified as the highest generating potential with the fewest environmental impacts. These sites were identified after the results of an environmental impact report.  An area of 285,000 acres, with sites in Nevada, Colorado, Utah, California, Arizona and New Mexico are in the works.  Jim and I saw one of those massive solar plants  being built in New Mexico earlier in the year.  We wondered why it was out in the middle of no-where. We didn’t know about the way the sites were chosen. Anyway, net result is clean power and jobs, jobs, jobs.

When I had my solar installed, there was a handful of people installing under rigid inspections and rules to make sure there was no space for failure during the process. Now I could choose from 600 different solar producers and as many installers. The rigid inspection process is still that way. I’m investigating solar for a rental because costs have come down so far.

And, we get enough electricity from wind power for 13 million homes. The energy department predicts  that by 2030, we could get 20 percent of our energy from the wind, about as much as we now get from nuclear power plants.

But progress on wind power is in jeopardy because Congress  has yet to renew an important incentive set to expire at the end of this year. It is called the production tax credit, or PTC,  Without it orders for wind turbines are likely to stall, impeding our transition away from coal. The wind industry employs over 37,000 Americans, and we need to keep those jobs, jobs, jobs.

The PTC was instituted by the George H.W. Bush administration, a sensible policy where anyone who operates a wind turbine or solar biomass, or other type of renewable power plant that produces a significant level of electricity to the commercial grid, receives a federal tax credit of 2.2 cents for every kilowatt-hour of power it produces for the first ten years of its life. It got renewed by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus package of 2009.

Two Republicans, Representative David Reichert, and Senator Chuck Grassley have sponsored versions to renew it through 2016 in the house, and 2014 in the senate. Neither measure  has come up for a vote but it is already being heavily lobbied against by the fossil fuel industries.

As a political pessimist, I fear the worst, and hope I’m wrong.  Wind generation is actually competitive in price with the energy produced by NEW coal plants and in my opinion no NEW coal plants should  be issued permits until they can reduce industrial pollution to an acceptable level. Coal plants actually cause deaths from their mercury, soot and carbon emissions, not to mention death to fish in streams.  Wind and solar save our planet from tons and tons of carbon emissions, a clean air benefit for everybody.

THIS HEADLINE WAS IN THE WASHINGTON POST YESTERDAY MORNING:

Security lapses at nuclear site found before break-in
Security problems at Y-12 nuclear complex were identified in classified reports nearly two years before three activists broke into the facility where weapons-grade uranium is stored.
( by Dana Priest , The Washington Post)

After the Japanese disaster, and the huge up front government subsidies to build nuclear power plants (way over the small PTC tax credits), and proven vulnerability of nuclear power plants,  why would we as a responsible nation even consider building more nuclear power plants? The cost to run them  per watt exceeds that of wind and solar. The volatile nature of Uranium, its storage and no ability to render it harmless, are an ever-present danger. In a nuclear plant disaster, the cost to bring it back on-line, if it could be repaired at all, is billions.

If you add into the equation the affects of climate change on hydro power,  wind and solar seem like an even better bet. Check the link below.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/climate-change-challenges-power-plant-operations/2012/09/09/42b26b8e-f6a5-11e1-8b93-c4f4ab1c8d13_story.html

And, don’t get me started on fracking. What a dismal proposal that is. I hope you are listening Obama and Canada.

 

Meet Bob and Judy Michaud

Jim says:

These are my friends, Bob and Judy Michaud with whom I am visiting.

Bob and Judy Michaud

Bob and Judy were high school sweethearts in Washington, D.C. However, they married other people, divorced and found each other once again later in life. They have now been married for 19 years and have lived here in Summerton, South Carolina for the past 11 years.

Bob and I met in 1964 and worked together in quality control building nuclear submarines and power plants. Judy is reminding me of another reason I’m missing my life partner, Mary, because she is also a great cook. I’m looking forward to Mary joining me once again, here on the road, in the near future.

Mary and me.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2010
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.panamaorbust.com