Tanks, APCs, and a Huey

Sunday, 31 March 2013.  Happy Easter to everyone!   Here’s hoping that each of our blog readers had a wonderful holiday and are enjoying a fine spring – wherever you are.  We’re currently staying at the Camp Meade RV campground (again) -- near Odenton, MD -- and enjoying the hospitality of the Ft. Meade Army community.  Staying here also puts us quite close to our youngest son, Jamie, his wife, Lisa, and our two grandsons, Ben and Luke, who live nearby in Pasadena, MD.  We’ll be staying at the Camp Meade campground till sometime in early May, depending on how my knee responds after some minor surgery.  That’s scheduled for this coming Wednesday, 3 April, followed by a few weeks of rehab.  Hopefully everything will turn out just fine and dandy, and we can continue our travels in LynDenHaus.

We recently were thrilled to have Ben and Luke come stay with us for a few days in our motorhome here at the campground.  The weather was only so-so for the first couple days so we took in a movie (“The Croods”), played some games inside, and did some shopping for Easter and Lisa’s birthday.  As the weather improved, I was able to take the boys outside for a couple walks around the small lake near the campground, feed some ducks that frequent the lake, and just let them “cut loose” on a couple nice playgrounds near some Ft. Meade Post housing.  Believe we all enjoyed getting outside and I’m sure Grandma thoroughly enjoyed some “quiet” time!

We also planned to take Ben and Luke to the Ft. George G. Meade Museum while they were staying with us, but were counting on some decent weather since several of the displays are located outside on the museum grounds.  This small, but well-maintained museum was established to “collect, preserve, study, and exhibit historical artifacts pertaining to the history of Ft. Meade,” and is dedicated to those US Army members who died in the defense of freedom.  Visitors to the museum will discover a wealth of historic artifacts, photographs, documents, and paintings inside the museum, while outside on the grounds visitors are treated to an array of historic military equipment including tanks and armored personnel carriers (APCs) from WWI and WWII, and a Huey helicopter from the Vietnam era. 

I took loads of pics of both Ben and Luke outside with every tank and APC on display, and of course the Huey.  The inside offered more photo-ops and I think we got some pretty good shots of the boys enjoying their time exploring the museum.   Their excitement as they ran from one tank or APC to another was contagious, let me tell you.  And they especially love the Huey!

One last note before posting the pics: Ben helped me with the nomenclature of the pieces various of military equipment, and while I can’t verify 100% each piece of gear or hardware, I think we got most of them right.  Hope you enjoy looking at the pics of the boys at Ft. Meade’s museum as much as we enjoyed the whole experience of our visit.    

Ben & Luke posing with the UH-1H "Huey" at the entrance to the museum grounds

Monument to American POWs

Boys posing with Grandma next to the Huey

Close-up of Luke and Ben next to Huey cockpit

The "obligatory" rear view shot of the Huey, with a M113 APC in the background

After a good 20 minutes, and after thoroughly checking out this Huey, we decided to go inside and see what we could find -- and to save our exploration of the tanks on display outside for later.

The boys in front of a French Renault FT-17, WWI era tank.  The French outfit that fought with these tanks was called the "Five of Hearts" -- hence the red heart.

The boys posing with a couple of WWI Doughboys

The boys in front of a WWII display, showing an infantry soldier/rifleman (left) and a tank commander on the right, with some sort of radio in the middle.  Should have heard me trying to explain "shortwave communications" to Ben.  Boy, that kid has loads of questions!

Luke astride a full-sized replica of a cavalry horse.  I'm sure you weren't supposed to get into the saddle, but Papa swooped Luke into the saddle while Grandma snapped a quick pic

The museum had several replicas of WWI Doughboy jackets for kids to try on, so we put a couple on the boys and had them pose with a WWI "Mountain Howitzer"

Ben solo with the howitzer

The boys in front of a Civil War display, flashing the WWII "V" for victory sign, which PaPa taught them during our museum experience.  Flash the "V", smile, and snap the pic!

Boys in front of a marble monument to the Battle of the Bulge

Luke atop a M113 APC

Both boys on the M113 APC (and no, I didn't mistake the letters; the "ACP" above is written in Army-ese; stands for "Armored Carrier Personnel")

Astride a M41 "Bulldog" tank

Close-up of the Bulldog, with Luke about to slip around the turret!

Atop a M4-A3 "Sherman" tank

Last tank on display, a M47 "Patton".  Notice the boys are no longer posing on the tank.  

When we got to the Patton tank we "discovered" this nice little sign.  So glad the Army placed the sign at the END of the line of tanks.  Oh well, I think the boys had more fun the way we did it!

Parting is such sweet sorrow...so long Willow Tree

Monday, 11 March 2013.  Willow Tree RV Resort will soon be a fading image in our motorhome's big sideview mirrors. Sadly we will be departing this absolutely wonderful country setting on Wednesday and head north into the icy, snowy worlds of WV and MD.  It might not be quite that drastic a change, but it sure  won't beat the wonderful weather we've had the last couple days here in Longs, SC.  Brilliant sunshine, mid-60's temps, and bright blue skies.  And this is supposed to continue through the weekend.

Our initial journey will be a two-day trip back to Lost River campground (WV), near our son, Kip and his family in Mathias, WV.  We'll stay there through the weekend and help our eldest granddaughter, Skye, celebrate her big 13th birthday.  Then we leave on Monday to head over to Maryland where we'll once again be staying at Camp Meade RV Park on Ft. Meade -- only a few minutes away from our youngest son, Jamie and his family in Pasadena.   We're hoping we'll be able to watch our two grandsons, Ben and Luke, play some soccer. This will be Luke's first year playing and we're anxious to see this sturdy 5-year old in action on the soccer field.

The primary reason we're leaving the wonderful weather here in Longs this early in the year is because I have some minor knee surgery scheduled in early April.  Just a scope job and to clean out some of the arthritis on my left knee.  I had  arthroscopic surgery performed on both knees previously and the surgeons told me I'd most likely have to readdress the whole thing again in 10-12 years -- and it's been 17 years for my left knee so I guess that's pretty good.  About 3-4 weeks of rehab will follow the surgery before we can "hit the road" again and continue our journey with LynDen Haus.

We tentatively plan on heading first to Michigan's Upper Peninsula (or UP, as the locals call it) and spend a couple week in the region; we've heard great things about the UP and are anxious to see it for ourselves.  After that we'll head pretty much due west, crossing Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, the Panhandle of Idaho, and on into Washington State.  We'll stay in the Evergreen State for several weeks, visiting my Mom and sister, Carolyn, in Yakima, and also Lynette's folks and sister, Lori, in Wenatchee.  Lynette's parents are celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary this summer and we're gonna help them party in style!  But more on that in a future blog.

Before leaving Willow Tree, we wanted to leave our readers with a few more pictures of this very picturesque campground.  I took my camera with me on a couple walks and came away with a few photos that give a different perspective of the campground.  Hope you enjoy them.

View looking back across the lake toward the main part of the campground.

Taken from the other side of the lake, looking back toward the campground's cottages.

Looking down one of the side streets in the campground.

Main part of campground.  Lynette (blue coat) is walking back to our 

motorhome after picking up our mail at the office.  

The lake here at Willow Tree can turn to "glass" when there's no wind blowing. I'd seen it numerous times while we've been here, but never had a camera handy to catch the reflections of the trees on the far side of the lake.  While the foliage isn't that great this time of year, the reflections are almost perfect. Thought I'd share a couple of the better shots. 

That's a golf cart on the far right of this pic. No golf course here, but lots of people use the carts to go from one part of the campground to another.  Some, like this guy, seem to get a kick out of riding around the bike path the circles the lake.  For exercise?  Think I'd use my bike.

Our two resident geese.  They've been here since we arrived, and come and go from time to time.  We've seen other geese flying overhead but none ever landed on the lake.

   

As I mentioned earlier in this blog, we are sad to be leaving Willow Tree.  This has been the very best campground we've stayed at since we started our travels.  In fact, we've been so impressed that we've already signed up to come back next winter.  As of right now, we'll be staying here from December through end-March or early April.  We'll probably close up the motorhome for a couple weeks in December, hop in the car and head north to WV and MD to spend the holidays with our two sons and their families. But other than that, we'll be "wintering" once again in Longs, SC.

Will close this blog entry with a photo of our last campfire here at Willow Tree.  A huge "white man's" fire, just how Lynette like them!  Cheers to all -- catch up with everyone again soon!

Gemütlichkeit in Myrtle Beach --- Plus sehr gute schnitzel, spätzle and wurst!

Friday, 8 March 2013.  As a former Air Force German linguist, I can tell you that the proverbial German gemütlichkeit might be difficult to explain, but you won't be too far wrong if you think of good food, good company, a drink or two and plenty of time to enjoy it all.  English synonyms include friendliness/friendship, brotherhood, cordiality, goodwill, good-fellowship, kindliness, and neighborliness.  From our travels in Germany, we remember all too well of walking into the local Gasthaus in a little village and immediately feeling the gemütlichkeit that permeated throughout the entire inn.  Virtually guaranteed was a most wonderful evening!  This was the feeling we had when as we walked into the Horst Gasthaus in Myrtle Beach for dinner last night.  The place just looked and felt like we were back in Germany – or at the very least, in one of the fine German restaurants found in the small alpine town of Leavenworth,Washington.

Described as “a taste of Bavaria brought to Myrtle Beach,” Horst Gasthaus features a menu that offers a wide variety of German dishes including several schnitzels (a breaded cutlet, usually veal or pork), spätzle, and a good selection of German beers and wines.  We decided on a Bratwurst appetizer (absolutely delicious) and also ordered a bottle of Piesporter Michelsberg Qualitätswein wine from the Mosel River region for dinner.  Lynette ordered the Wiener Schnitzel with spätzle and mashed potatoes, while I opted for a Jäger-Schnitzel (literally translated as a "hunter's cutlet") smothered in brown gravy and mushrooms, accompanied by spätzle and warm red cabbage.  Lynette said hers was quite delicious.  I'd rate mine as very authentic and extremely mouthwatering.  The servings were quite substantial and we both brought some schnitzel home with us.  

We topped off the evening with a warmed up apple strudel for dessert, along with coffee.  As we ate our dessert, we were treated to some live entertainment -- a one-man band playing a variety of German folksongs on his accordian -- everything from "Edelweiss" to "Muss I Denn" to that infamous Bavarian drinking song, "In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus" (loosely translated as "In Munich there's a Royal pub house") with its stirring chorus of Eins, zwei, g'suffa (literally "One, two, drink" or in Bavaria to chug your drink).  We got caught up with the whole atmosphere and were soon chiming in with great gusto on the Eins, zwei, g'suffa...and perhaps just a wee bit too loud!  But we certainly had a great time.  

All in all we spent a wonderful evening at the Horst Gasthaus.  Good food at reasonable prices, good German wine, and fun music.  All in all a wonderful atmosphere of German gemütlichkeit.  If you're ever in this part of SC we'd highly recommend an evening out with Horst at his very authentic German restaurant.