Our Week at Oceana Naval Air Station

April 21st - Monday - Cold 55 degrees  Windy

This has been a very cold and windy week here.  What we had hoped for and what we have experience have been two different things.  We have ended up having to put our slides in, as the wind has blown so severely that it has begun to fray out canopy over our slides.  We have run our furnace all of the time and I have used the quilt that my sister made me to cover up with while we have sat and watched television or read.

Sunday we did not go to Easter sunrise service as we had wanted to do, it was 36 degrees and warmed up to 48 degrees.  We did, however, go to church on the base and had a good sermon by the base chaplain.  After church we went to I-Hop for breakfast then back to the RV to change our clothes into something warmer and we read for a while then drove over to Fort Story and looked at the old lighthouse there.  It was complete in 1792 and it the third oldest lighthouse still standing in the US.  I didn’t have my camera with me, so didn’t get a picture of it this time.

We drove into Lynnhaven and tried to find the house that Lou lived in when he was growing up and think we may have located it.  Was an interesting afternoon for him to see how things have changed over the years, even the water ways.  We had dinner at Red Lobster last evening and had enough food left over to bring home for our dinner tonight.

Finally this afternoon the wind seemed to lessen a bit, gusts were down to only 20 miles per hour, and the sun finally come out, so we decided to go sight seeing a little closer to the RV.

We drove over to the Main Gate to the Aviation Historical Park.  They have 13 Naval aircraft from the past as well as the F/A-18 Hornet on display.  We enjoyed walking around all of them and looking at all of them.  Of course, Lou knew all of the information about them and several people there asked him questions about the planes and he was glad to answer all of their questions and add his own stories.  After that we went to the airstrip and watched the F-18 take off and land, that is always an experience.

One of the Blue Angels

One of the early bombers used by the Navy

All of these planes landed on ships at sea and these portable lights were used to guide them to the ships

We drove to the Flame of Hope Memorial/Jet Observation Park.  This is a park that is dedicated to the memory of prisoners of war, missing in action, and those killed the service of their country.  The Flame of Hope itself is lit at all times to light the way for those brave young service members to find their way home.  The park is situated in such a position that affords visitors an excellent advantage for photographing and viewing Oceana jet aircraft as they take off and land. It has picnic tables and open to the public.

Across from the memorial there was a John Deere working the fields and it caught my eye, with its huge disc and I had to take a picture of it.

Our site has been a great place to get a  picture of the sailors and the marines as they march past on their way to class.  I love to sit and eat breakfast and watch them pass.

Some Marines walking to class

The day  before we were to leave here, the temperatures did get up to where we could put our coats on and walk to the beach so we took advantage of it.  Was strange that we did not find any shells on the beach.

We leave here on Wednesday and should be in Carlisle on Wednesday night and home on Thursday, the Lord willing.  Should have internet on Wednesday, so I can get caught up on my posting.

Sea Mist RV Park - NAS Oceana/Dam Neck - Virginia Beach, VA

April 16th -  Sea Mist RV Park - NAS Oceana/Dam Neck - Virginia Beach, VA  42 degrees, sunny and very windy.

We arrived here from Elizabeth City this afternoon.  It was a two hour drive north.  We have reservation to stay here for a week.  We thought we would enjoy a week on the ocean; however, last night we had a cold front move in and did it ever get cold.  We had a Coast Guard Policeman come to the door and warn us of impending wind and the upcoming storm, winds up to 60 miles per hour.

We thought it best to put the slides in, as we were on the bay and the wind was direct at our side and it certainly did blow and rain and the motor home certainly did shake.  It was 80 degrees yesterday, and was 36 degrees when we got up this morning.  The news showed ships that were blown from the ocean (bay area) up on the sand last evening and we saw many electric lines down as we drove this morning and trees down.  Once again the good Lord has seen us through to safety.  We were going to take the ferry this morning to cut down on time and driving, but with the swell in the water, thought it better to pass the ferry up this time.

We have a nice site here at Sea Mist; however, we were in hopes we could see the ocean, and were also disappointed to find that we do not have any internet here, so will type up the blog posts and hopefully will get someplace where I can post them with pictures.

We felt fortunate to be able to watch the Marines at Camp Lejeune train with the all-terrain vehicles and were able to speak to one of the young troops and he was from Scranton, PA.  They were doing a lot of different training in different areas this time and so much construction going on.  Definitely a growing base.

Our campsite at the Coast Guard Station was  wonderful, we could see the ocean and watch the Coast Guard helicopters with their training.  The boys were doing a 3K run Monday morning and that was interesting to watch.  Lou and I both got our hair cut while we were there and the gal that cut my hair was a delight, and her grandmother was from Sayre, PA.  She and her husband were being transferred to Michigan, she was from a Marine family and grew up in Havelock, NC, so we had lots to talk about, as that is where Travis and Noell lived.  She has read all of Nicholas Sparks books also.

We visited Aunt Hettie each day, and found her at her new nursing home and she was delighted to see us and hated to see us leave her.  She will be 94 in June.  She is now is a secured area and not able to go out for a ride with us, and she was disappointed about that, as she always liked to ride around her home town.  We enjoyed talking about “the old times”.  Lou and I were very thankful that we had taken her when she was able.  I had always taken lots of pictures of our visits and then made a book of our visits and sent it to her so she could remember our visits together and she told us she still looks at them, along with the adult picture book of the Bible that we got for her.  Her short term memory is not good.  Such a sweet person and a sweet personality.

Lou and I plan of doing our daily walks in the mornings here before we get started on something.  We have seen a lot of sailors walking past our RV,  so must be a good place to hoof it along!!

Camp Lejeune - Onslow Beach - North Carolina

April 13th - Sunday 80 degrees - Beautiful - Palm Sunday

We arrived here yesterday about 4:30 pm.  It is a difficult drive on route 17 through Myrtle Beach and all of the folks complain about the drive.  We  try to take the by-pass (route 31) around Myrtle Beach; however, we got a phone call at about the time we were to get onto it and we missed it, so had to pick up the next entrance, so was a bit trying.  Had a good trip otherwise and did have reservations, so didn't have to worry about that.

Camp Lejeune is a beautiful military site, the majority of the buildings are brick, with the typical southern architecture and it is a huge complex with a lot of new construction going on.  We went to church on base this morning and heard a wonderful sermon delivered by Chaplin Stewart.  He did the last part of the "fruits of the spirits" Self-Control from Galatians 5:22.  He gave us seven points to use to develop our self control.  We all made notes to use in the future.  Lou and I feel very fortunate, we have heard some wonderful sermons through out the winter in our travels, feel like we have grown spiritually.

The Church on base that we attended

After church we returned to our campsite and changed our clothes and headed for the beach, it is a beautiful beach and it was full of  people.  It is spring break here and there are children all around us.  I was able to find pieces of sand dollars, but no whole ones.

The Beach

I have taken a lot of pictures here, but the internet is so bad here it takes forever for them to load, that I just won't post them.  

We went out for dinner last evening to The Riverside Inn, it was recommended by our neighbors and it was a good meal, but we always compare our seafood meals to the Sanitary near Cherry Point, NC and it came up short.  Another interesting point, we have heard that Cherry Point has made a new Fam-Camp, has 50 camp sites, we always enjoyed going there when Travis was stationed there.  We need to make reservations for the remainder of our trip and will do that this morning after the offices open.  We plan to head for Elizabeth City for several days.

Charleston, South Carolina

April 10th  - Thursday - Sunny 77 degrees

Lou and I went through our travel folders that they gave us when we registered here at Charleston Air Force Base and decided that we would visit the Charleston Tea Plantation today.  Little did we know that this was the only tea plantation in the United States.  Neither of us knew exactly how tea really grew, and now we know how it grows, how it is harvested and how it is harvested and packaged and we already knew how it is enjoyed, and we also know why we prefer to drink our with the caffeine in ours.

Our Plantation was located Wadmalaw Island, about 30 miles from our location.  There we observed hundreds of thousands of tea bushes in their fields that are bordered by huge Live Oak trees, in fact they own the second largest Live Oak in the state and host many weddings under the tree.

Fields of tea bushes

They harvest their tea leaves starting in May and ending in October and repeat the harvest every 20 days.  They only harvest the top leaves, using the green monster, the only machine in existence.  Once the leaves are gathered they are loaded into a truck and brought into processing area.  If you want green tea, nothing is done to the leaves, other than cleaning the leaves and drying them and shredding, for Ooling tea, that is Oxidized for five minutes and for black tea, that is oxidized for up to 15 minutes.

All of the leaves are cleaned, dried and debris is removed, prior to packaging.  If flavors are to be added that is done just prior to packaging and the flavor is added to the tea leaves and then left in the barrel for 24 hours  prior to be packaged.
We were taken to their green house where they propagate all of their own seedlings for months prior to planting them all by hand.  They had many that will be planted in October of this year.

Fertilizing the fields

Machine used to harvest the leaves

One of the three irrigation ponds that are used. 

It was a very unique experience, today while we were there the men were in the fields fertilizing.  They do not use any chemicals for insects and all weed control is done by hand.  They have many deer, fox and turkeys on their land; however, the deer to do eat the leaves.

The green house where the new seedlings are started

The gift shoppe was inviting, with samples of all their teas, hot or cold as much as you wanted to drink.  The place was swarming with people, many tour buses; however, each person was made to feel welcomed and invited to partake of the refreshments available.

Lou and I came away saying that we were so glad that we had chosen that as our day’s excursion as it was so interesting.  On our way home we stopped at Red Lobster for dinner, as we had left right after breakfast and had not had lunch.

We do not have internet at our site, so am planning on going to the office to post this.