So we started out with a visit to Ed's work. He's a helicopter flight instructor in the Navy, so that meant going to Whiting Field. I had never been on a military base before. He showed me around his offices, briefing rooms, and then down to the hangar with all of the helicopter. I got to sit in one of the helicopters and he attempted to explain to me how everything worked. He did a good job at explaining, but there is so much information that I got lost pretty quickly.
We then went over to the airport where Ed flies his gliders. So his job is flying helicopters and his hobby is flying gliders. True story. I helped him get the glider set up and when the tow plane showed up, we went up for a ride. It was fantastic! So much cooler than riding a roller coaster. I was slightly terrified at first, but it became evident after a bit that we weren't going to plummet quickly to our deaths. Ed said that it was a fantastic day for soaring and we made it all the way up to 4500 feet. Once I got comfortable just hanging out up there, Ed gave me control and I got to fly for a while. Again, I was slightly terrified that I would send us plummeting to our deaths, but Ed said I did really well and, for the most part, I felt like I was in control or the plane. So after tooling around for a while up there, Ed took us down into our landing. Once you land a glider, you have no control of where you're going to stop. That was slightly anxiety inducing for me as well.
So after we moved the glider back into position for the next pilot, we headed down to the Pensacola Naval Air Station, which is not the same as Whiting Field where Ed flies. There are a lot of flight operations down at Pensacola NAS, including the Blue Angels, but what we were down there to see was the Naval Aviation Museum. We spent a while there looking at the various planes and then we went up to the second floor where there is a big exhibit on modern day flight operations on an aircraft carrier, basically exactly what Ed did before his current assignment. We talked about a bunch of the details and then watched a multimedia movie of flight operations - take offs and landings on a ship - complete with wind, shaking effects, and even jet fuel smells. Ed said it was pretty close to reality. It was definitely cool.
We were both exhausted at that point, so back to the apartment for some rest. The plan was to go to a minor league baseball game after dinner, but the game started an hour earlier than I had in my calendar and after dinner, we were still exhausted, so instead of the baseball game, we walked around downtown and had another beers at a local brewery before heading back to the apartment and both of us crashing hard and early.
Now, early in this trip, I had upgraded my phone plan to include more minutes, more data, and hotspot capability. As this trip is winding down, I decided last night was a good opportunity to revert back to my old plan. Well, when I did this, all of a sudden, my phone wasn't getting any signal. Since I still have a couple of drives left and I'm spending a couple of days by myself in New Orleans, I need a phone that works. So on my drive to New Orleans this morning, I stopped at a Verizon store in order to see if they could fix what was going on. But they basically had no idea and ended up putting me on the phone with tech support for over an hour. The manager at the store did eventually get my phone limping - I have a signal, but I don't have any of my usual settings and it doesn't say that I'm connected to the Verizon network, which makes me nervous. But at least it's working. They're also sending me a replacement phone, which I'll get when I get back to Austin on Saturday. So I guess if this had to happen, now's not the worst time for it to occur. Still incredibly frustrating though.
Since I spent almost 2 hours at the Verizon store, I skipped my first planned stop for the day, the History Museum of Mobile. I proceeded on to my one stop in Mississippi. I had to stop in Mississippi at least once because I needed to get real credit for this state. Before I left on this trip, I had been sitting at 46 states that I had visited for a long time - years and years. The 4 I didn't have we're Mississippi, Louisiana, Alaska, and Hawaii. And yes, I am aware that it's bizarre that I've lived in Austin for 11 years and I've never been to Mississippi, let alone Louisiana, but such is the case. As of this moment, I have now checked them both off my list. So anyway, my one stop in Mississippi was Beauvior, the last home of Jefferson Davis. Another old house, more old furniture. This house was interesting in terms of the layout - to get to the master bedrooms (male and female), and dining rooms (adults and children) one had to go out onto the back porch. They are connected to the front portion of the house only by one corner. It does make sense in that it allows the rooms to have windows on multiple sides and promotes airflow throughout all of the rooms.
After I concluded my visit in Biloxi, it was on to New Orleans. The original plan was for Ed to join me in New Orleans, but he ended up having to work, so I changed my reservation a few weeks ago from a normal hotel to an airbnb reservation where I have a whole apartment to myself. On the drive down, I got a call from the owner that the air conditioning wasn't working in the unit I had rented, so she let me pick between either of the other 2 units she had available, which were both upgrades to what I had selected. So the apartment I'm staying in is great. High, vaulted ceilings, a super comfy bed, and plenty of room for me to stretch out.
I skipped lunch today, so I found a local wine bar for dinner tonight which is where I am now. A glass of wine and a cheese plate make Lisa a happy girl.
I'm kind of itching to get home, but since I've never been to New Orleans, I'm doing my best to embrace being a tourist for 2 more days and savor the bit of time I have left. Lots of logistical details I have to deal with soon and I'm trying to push them out of my mind for now, but they keep creeping in.
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