Memory Lane 23OCT08
BRISK!!!! But it's all good when you are on holiday and looking forward to the day. Didn't get up until the sun was full out, hoping that would warm things up in the kabin, but it is well insulated and more like a refridgerator than you'd believe. It was fun to take advantage of the FREE WIRELESS INTERNET to check in with the folks back home.
First stop was the Walmart up the road, where I picked up some fruit for snacks, a fleece blanket and some long-johns! A 10$ space heater looked tempting as well, but I put it off in anticipation of my buddy Lou's RV due to roll in tomorrow at midday.
Finally off to Annapolis, with that inital trepidation over what my emotions would be. Ghosts? Memories? Regrets? It is difficult to convey what this place means to me. Not only is the town picture perfect (and the day matched it, warming to about 60 under a clear sky-blue sky), but the Academy is still manicured, awesome, orderly, and full of purpose and energy. I spent probably the best 4 years of my life there, with the best of the best, and I am humbled and grateful every time I go back and see it, and think of them.
Since most of my company/classmates are arriving on Friday, I took the day to walk around and get my 'tourist' out so I could concentrate on them. I coffeed at the city dock and checked in with the harbormaster to find out about rates and requirements (not bad at all - 25$ a day on a mooring buoy or 2$ a foot at the pier!), then strolled a loop around my old 'dorm' wing of Bancroft Hall. Coming around one of the many new buildings I was presented with another reminder of how great the legacy of the Naval Academy is: a bronze statue of Adm Stockdale. One of the many boots new midshipmen strive to fill.
Around noon I headed to a yacht broker for a look in the flesh of a Nonsuch 30 sailboat. The drive over was just wonderful - the trees are turning colors (cold, remember, it's cold) and the roads are smooth and winding, much like I remember from home in Sewickley PA. The boat itself was not a let down, though I am for the moment only looking. It needs serious fiberglass and core work, but is priced to make it attractive. As I expected the interior is plenty large enough for one or two people to live in, and the access to spaces was better than anything I've ever seen before (trying to work on a motor, for example, when hanging upside down through an opening the size of a cupboard door is not as easy as it sounds). There was also a smaller version, a 26', that was amazingly large inside - possibly big enough to live-aboard as well.
Back to town for some more wanderings, and then back up the KOA with a dinner of chili and bread.
I heard it's going into the 30's tonight.
Hubboy.
First stop was the Walmart up the road, where I picked up some fruit for snacks, a fleece blanket and some long-johns! A 10$ space heater looked tempting as well, but I put it off in anticipation of my buddy Lou's RV due to roll in tomorrow at midday.
Finally off to Annapolis, with that inital trepidation over what my emotions would be. Ghosts? Memories? Regrets? It is difficult to convey what this place means to me. Not only is the town picture perfect (and the day matched it, warming to about 60 under a clear sky-blue sky), but the Academy is still manicured, awesome, orderly, and full of purpose and energy. I spent probably the best 4 years of my life there, with the best of the best, and I am humbled and grateful every time I go back and see it, and think of them.
Since most of my company/classmates are arriving on Friday, I took the day to walk around and get my 'tourist' out so I could concentrate on them. I coffeed at the city dock and checked in with the harbormaster to find out about rates and requirements (not bad at all - 25$ a day on a mooring buoy or 2$ a foot at the pier!), then strolled a loop around my old 'dorm' wing of Bancroft Hall. Coming around one of the many new buildings I was presented with another reminder of how great the legacy of the Naval Academy is: a bronze statue of Adm Stockdale. One of the many boots new midshipmen strive to fill.
Around noon I headed to a yacht broker for a look in the flesh of a Nonsuch 30 sailboat. The drive over was just wonderful - the trees are turning colors (cold, remember, it's cold) and the roads are smooth and winding, much like I remember from home in Sewickley PA. The boat itself was not a let down, though I am for the moment only looking. It needs serious fiberglass and core work, but is priced to make it attractive. As I expected the interior is plenty large enough for one or two people to live in, and the access to spaces was better than anything I've ever seen before (trying to work on a motor, for example, when hanging upside down through an opening the size of a cupboard door is not as easy as it sounds). There was also a smaller version, a 26', that was amazingly large inside - possibly big enough to live-aboard as well.
Back to town for some more wanderings, and then back up the KOA with a dinner of chili and bread.
I heard it's going into the 30's tonight.
Hubboy.
posted by Randy Masters at 4:01 PM
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