Author: Susie

Kevin ‘s pub’s upstairs "museum" is called the "Hall of "Heroes" and it is a room full of commemorative memorials to September 11 first responders, WWI and WWII, Afganistan and other middle East wars… so we spent some time up there and then hit the river walk going all the way to the end (west to east), then back up to Bay Street to visit the Viet Nam memorial and Irish memorial. Then to what Savannah calls the oldest pub where I met a retired Air Force veteran and talked with his wife who loves to travel! Then an Air Force guy walked in in the khaki uniform. As we got up to leave I engaged him in conversation. Pointing at his bars I said, "lieutenant, right?" " If I were Navy, yes, but captain." All field commissions. I pointed at another patch and asked… "Chaplain", he said. I said, "it’s the 10 Commandments, are you a Rabbi?" I’m now falling in love, he’s not treating me like an idiot!!! Chuck and he talked about what it’s like being on submarines versus jumping out of airplanes as a Ranger "If I go down in a sub, we can come back up…" Chuck said! They laughed. What a day we had, such celebration of America. Go hug a military person or a first responder! God bless us.

Ah! Savannah!!! Today we toured on the Old Town Trolley and went on the usual tour of Savannah past all the buildings built in 1700s and 1800s built to protect the colonies from the Spanish in Florida! Meanwhile, then came William Tecumpsa Sherman to burn the town down but it was the Mayor of Savannah made a deal with many barrels of cotton and money. Sherman sent a telegram to Lincoln asking if he could spare the city. Lincoln took the money and agreed. So, Savannah has original OLD houses. Our submarine ladies want to see the Cathedral of St James, market, Lady and Sons, Antique shops. We are traveling in a group of 6: 3 men who served together on the Quillback together, Chuck, Rick, and Glen… And 3 ladies, Penny, Betty and Sue. We got off the trolley, went to the market, walked to the River, and are currently sitting in Kevin Barry’s Pub with the "museum" upstairs… Chuck says it’s not a museum just a room full of military memorabilia. I love it!!! After beers and corned beef sandwiches upstairs we will finish walking the river bank and head back to the hotel!!! Beautiful day!!! God bless you.

Chuck and I have taken lots of use from our interstate highway systems, traveling most recently from San Diego to Miami on interstates all the way using I40, I10 and I75 to get home so I could recover from pneumonia in my own bed (and thank God I’m OK!). Most recently we once again took advantage of President Eisenhower brain child. Called the interstate and defense highway system… Built to make it easier to move military personnel and and equipment around the country if needed. We traveled on I 95, the longest north-south interstate in the US.

Thanks to President General George Washington for creating the Badge of Military Merit and to General Douglas MacArthur for reviving the badge and renaming it the Purple Heart awarded to those killed or wounded in combat in defense of the United States. This research came from driving by a Purple Heart Trail marker on I95. What exactly is that I wondered. The trail was established in 1992 to place markers on US roads to pay tribute and honor to combat veterans killed or wounded. So thank God for those who fought and fight today for America and freedom. It’s so hard to go away from family, get into "fighting shape" and put life and limb on the line for people like me. Thank you.

Tonight we open the reunion of men who sailed on 3 submarines; USS Quillback, USS Picuda, USS Truta Most men served in 60s. Tall tales have started in the hospitality room and will continue as we enjoy escorted trolly tours all around Savannah, into museums, special Riverboat cruise, all fun. Thank you Jesus for this opportunity to honor men (and now very recently,women) of the US submarine service! Break into the Navy hymn here! God bless America!

Good Sunday dear readers! We are covered with lovebugs driving up Route 27 to measure rooms in our new house, to see if there’s a dishwasher, and shelving in the garage etc. I can’t remember size of bathrooms… I like room for a laundry basket. Ok so what else is happening? I had a CT Scan and pulmonologist appointment last week. Pulmonologist showed me the CT. The pneumonia is gone, leaving a little lesion that we have to check on in 6 months. Apparently when you get a lot of white blood cells in one place like I had with the pneumonia you get calcified white cells… It’s always something. The size of the aneurism is the same. I see that doctor next Monday.

I wrote the above about 3 hours ago! We stopped at Bo David’s a restaurant and bar in Lake Placid. I liked it very much. Then we bought some car washing fluid so I can wash the love bug bodies off my car when we get to Renee’s. Then we went to our new house (we will close in September). We measured rooms and talked about where we will put furniture and bar room etc. Driving now up route 441 to Turnpike on our way to sleep in Orlando. Tomorrow finish this drive to Savannah for three submarines reunion. All diesel subs so the men were on the boats in WWII through the 60s. It’s raining so the love bug bodies are somewhat washing off.

Happy Mother’s Day, or if like me you aren’t a mom… Then remember your mom! God bless you.

Good morning dear gentle readers! Last night was the final event, a tribute to 119 years of submarine service. 119 years ago in 1900 the Unites States Navy purchased the Holland built by John Holland in Elizabeth, New Jersey at the Holland Torpedo Boat Company, later named the Electric Boat Company. Our first modern submarine (there were submersibles in the Civil War, but this is the "modern Navy"!). We attended a birthday ball filled with Admirals, Chief petty officers, sailors, Army, the English, other military and our own USSVI (The veteran submariners). Two WWII submariners attended. One qualified in 1939! He won the prize for longest qualified! There were a few Mavericks (one was an Admiral which Chuck said was very unusual… Admirals usually have to come from the Naval college at Annapolis)… Mavaricks are Sailors who qualified as enlisted men and worked their way to warrent officer and qualified again as officers (they wear silver and gold dolphins). The English sailors were here for training and working with the US on "ordinance." There is not a Navy base with boats per se, it is a Naval Ordinance Testing station… where missiles are designed and tested… It is the same base we went to for wings and beer the other night. it is hush hush, hard to find, well guarded, and well… it exists to test missiles. One of the Admirals who spoke talked about maintaining our strength is the only way to maintain our freedom. He said a lot of other things that I didn’t understand about the present and the future. Nuclear submarine talk is way above my training and my paygrade. What I hear from Chuck and his buddies is diesel fuel, torpedos, deck guns, and old train engines!!!! This nuclear world is a whole new bucket of mystery for me!!! It was a beautiful night, men in uniform, ladies in ball gowns, a big birthday cake for submarine service, cut by a saber that a gentleman at our table won in a raffle drawing. Funny thing! a lady at our table won a handful of money in the drawing, and I won $100. That goes into the new house cash jar. I did not wake up in time for church here, so we will be heading for Miami where I will pick up a late Sunday Mass. This herd of turtles will be home in Miami to pick up the litter… and start my search for cash for the new house!!! We used to say when Chuck’s dad needed money, he would dig up another coffee can in the back yard, well, I’ll be out there digging up coffee cans! Pray for me this coming Tuesday when I have CT scan to measure my aneurism…. I’d like to get it repaired; I am not afraid of surgery. I do not like carrying a time bomb around in my chest. Pray for me! God bless us!!! Susie

224am: Renee and I are out in the parking lot at the Radisson Resort facing Astronaut Blvd in Cape Canaveral. Space X is supposed to launch at 248am. I tried to sleep, but I took about a 3 hour nap yesterday after a long lunch over 2 bottles of wine 🍷. So I’m wide eyed and looking north east towards Kennedy Space Center which is about 5 miles away. Sky is clear, wind is low, temp is mild. 240am: I had the count down notes but then it wanted me to sign in, but says I don’t have a proper something in my browser. But I had it! No problem… 6 minutes. I don’t need to hear the countdown, I think I will hear it roaring. This is the 17th delivery of supplies to the space station. It must go at 2:48am and 58 seconds in order to meet the space station in a few days. T minus 2… Listening to count…. Go for launch! T minus 15…. Lift off! Separation looked like a giant explosion. I of course was afraid! But NASA said it is wonderful. We waited for the booster to come back and the Sonic boom, and now it’s bedtime! God bless us!

On Thursday we had a rainy day as if getting ready for the big rain that is coming into Florida from the "tropical" moisture invading south Florida from the south. The weather channel said, "We are breaking out the ‘T’ word." It’s tropical time. I remember one year tropical storms started in May and we went through the alphabet and half way through the Greek alphabet to name the storms. Texas and Oklahoma are suffering with storms and tornados. God bless America. Despite the rain yesterday we went up A1A and US1 to Titusville to "The War Bird Museum" and visited the restored airplanes flown during WWII, VietNam, and the Cold War. Beautifully restored aircraft stored in big warehouses and maintained by volunteers. Lots of memorabilia from soldiers and sailors of the various wars. While we were there the volunteer mechanics worked on one of the WWII aircraft, changing oil and making lots of noise, then they rolled her out and… took off on the regional airport runway for an airshow in Mississippi! Wow! Noisy and odd to think of this creaky vulnerable, propeller driven aircraft in war compared to our big jets! To Southern Charm for lunch! and…. you guessed it, a nap for Susie before the final meeting dinner. Our speakers were the Commander of the Kings Bay Submarine Base and 2 lieutenants, both submariner women! They studied at the Naval academy and received masters degrees in subjects like mechanical and chemical engineering. They described their first days on submarines. They had to qualify just like men like Chuck did, learning all the systems. But these are nuclear submarines, new big war ships. They are now lieutenant and lieutenant junior grade and are very passionate about career and future! Boats have to be refitted with separate quarters and heads for women… showers have a sign that is turned… men/women. So facilities are also shared, but privacy is respected. Interesting. Our old guys have been a little skeptical about the cost of refitting the new nuclear submarines, but the commander was quick to defend "integration." He praised the intelligence and passion of the new women coming onboard. OK dears. Today is still sunny so I might go swimming! Have a great day. God bless us!

We have had a great time here at Cape Canaveral with the SE conference of Submariners. It’s a collection of about 7 SE states all gathered at a resort about 1 mile from the ocean. I walked over to the ocean today in about 50 minutes round trip. Most of the coast is condos that hog the beach and actually have locked gates! but my neighbor Mike sent me information on a park that I will take Chuck to tomorrow to see if we can walk and get sand in our shoes. Tomorrow we go to a war bird museum. Today Chuck went to Kennedy Space center and was given a special exercise of working tasks while weightless! He enjoyed that. I walked the 50 minutes then swam in the pool about 40 minutes and painted some more hibiscus. Good time. Today when Chuck got back we went over to the Navy Ordinance testing base and went on base to the club for wings and beer. It’s so cool to be able to go on actual working bases and see working military people. After that we stopped on Astronaut Blvd at a giant ice cream cone and ate great ice cream with some other submariners. Chuck is in a meeting and i’m lounging and watching a Hallmark movie. All is well here. We will be home Sunday! God bless you.

I am usually up, showered, out to Mass and back, have the kitchen cleaned up, and ready for the next move…. but in hotels we are like a herd of turtles…. Chuck just got up from hogging this computer to start packing…. so in a few we will stuff all our stuff into my car and head south on A1A to Cape Canaveral for a week. There are actually 2 submarine events at the same hotel so… like the Asterbilts, we will be hotel guests for a week. Home in Miami on next Sunday when we will seriously start adding up all our coins… literally, I’ll take coins to the bank, so we can close on new house in early September. Beach here in Daytona is gorgeous. We have walked daily and it is cool in the morning and at night. During the day, like Miami and rest of south Fla it can be blistering hot in the sunshine. OH no, Chuck is making more coffee. The turtles have come to a dead stop!. ….. When we drove back from friend Edith’s yesterday afternoon we stopped in Ormond Beach at a bar called Dimitris on A1A. Climbed to the 3rd floor to the outside deck and ate great food, and drank a bucket of beer while looking out at the Atlantic Ocean. Oh my gosh. It is green and gorgeous. For northerners, this might be news, for the rest of us, we know it; cars can pay a parking fee and drive and park on the beach. Saturday the beach was full of jeeps!!! I saw 2 cars stuck in the sand, but friendly folks pushed them out. Amazing. We pulled into the parking lot here at the hotel and I plucked a beautiful orange red hibiscus off a bush and painted it in our room. I can’t capture the amazing contours and beauty, but I showed God how much I appreciate his work!!!! Having a great vacation and … like a herd of turtles, we will be off to new venue and old sailors soon. God bless you. Sue.

After a beautiful and lively Sunday Mass at Daytona Beach Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Chuck picked me up and we drove up to Palm Coast to visit friend Edith Campins who lost her husband of 45 years Karl…. 2 weeks ago. We talked long about all the things Karl did that Edith "took for granted," "Karl, how does this fan work?"… for example, the spouse who knows stuff does it and we depend on that….. I told her, I have trouble getting the tops off water bottles… "Chuck!!! can you open this please????" It’s sad. Karl was only 72, and so are we. Heart gave out. Amen. After we left Edith we headed south on A1A and enjoyed the beach road and found a 3 story restaurant called Dimitris and drank too much beer and ate bad stuff like french fries with feta cheese and olive oil, lick your fingers good, onions rings, ditto on licking fingers, and I could not take a bite from my pizza which we will heat up about 6pm. Chuck ate 1/2 his sandwich. So feast at 6pm, comin’ up. I am going to try to paint a glorious orange hibiscus and then…. a walk on the beach is in order. Tomorrow, Cape Canaveral for USSVI (submarine) conference at Cape Canaveral. Don’t forget space X lift off at 420am April 30. What a lovely vacation!!!! God bless us all. Bless friend Joe in Big Pine Key whose been having trouble with lingering sinus infection. Bless people hit by violence in California. Bless us all.