Willing and Able
Dennis and Sue Bubnar have been on an "Odyssey" across America for the last several months. They supplied us with an updated picture of the 320th monument at the Airborne & Special Ops Museum. They attended the 2007 Reunion at Clarksville. Now we see them at leisure in Texas. Their next stop, we believe, is Ft Lauderdale, Fl. Updates as they travel.
10/18/07 Tom, You getting this? I think I had your address wrong. I got pictures at Bragg of the monument, but they kept coming back to me. Let me know if I'm getting through now and I'll resend the pictures. Still in NC, The Bubs
Just another day out on the ocean passing the time away. Gee, I Wonder who really caught the "big one"?
Is There A Better Way To Spend A Day Of Retirement?
This is Dennis at Martinsville, Virginia about to drive the Army #01 sponsored Nextel Cup car in the Subway 500 on October 21st 2007. He started on the 1st row outside but had an electrical problem on lap 111 (or was that 101) and had to shut it down!
11/22/07 The shot helmet is from a 2/325th Infantry 82nd Airborne Trooper in Iraq named Barnett on tower guard duty. He bent over to pick up a scope and was shot. If he had remained standing he would have been hit in the face or neck. As it was he only was knocked down.
Monster Live Oak At The Middleton Plantation On The Ashley River In Charleston, South Carolina.
Arthur Middleton Was A Signer Of The Declaration Of Independence.
Helluva Way To Order Gator Nuggets! Hey Denny, It Tastes Like
CHICKEN!
World War II Memorial, Washington, DC
Korean War Memorial, Washington, DC
Here's a picture of Shannon "Horace Deadwood" Cash & me, Dennis "Bad Bub" Bubnar as we attended a Cowboy shoot-out with the "Gold Coast Gunslingers", a SASS (Single Action Shooting Society) affiliated club in Ft. Lauderdale, FL this last Sat, 12/1/07. Had a great time shooting with a great bunch of "cowboys". The photographer told us to look serious & mean - so this is as "serious and mean" as "two old silver-tipped, wanna-be-cowboy-fuddy-duddies" can muster up.
Key West, FL. Next Stop South From Here - Havana, Cuba!
Hey, Who Is That In The Water Back There?
Tom
and
Perry Walinski, Dennis and Sue
December 13, 2007 Naples, Florida. Not quite winter!
Dennis and Sue about to take the plunge in the Gulf of Mexico 12/13/07 at
Naples, FL Water temperature about 72 degrees.
Great
swimming weather and there were Dolphins about 150 yards in
front of us. We tried to lure them to us, but they would not have any of
it.
We
weren't the only ones on the beach that day.
The beach at Naples is very nice and if we have a chance to come back
we will. Tom and Perry told us we have a bed any time!
When
we are not travelling in our luxurious "Luci" the motorhome, "Dink"
gets
the job done. Otherwise, he is just along for the ride!
Here
we pose with "Luci" our luxurious motorhome as we prepare to leave Naples heading to San Antonio, TX. for a family Christmas celebration.
12/19/07 Well, it's been awhile. A lot's transpired. Not quite sure
where I left off, but here goes. The Keys were sort of a bust to us, not
what we expected, but that happens as you dream of places and things you
dream up to do - watch out for advertisements, they DO tend to embellish the
act. All those white sand beaches, coral reefs and tropical fish? The reefs
are 2-6 miles offshore and require a boat ride and then the fish are there;
the actual beaches are up by Miami on up to Ft. Lauderdale (speaking of
their "right", east coast). We were in most of Fl pre season, not too
crowded. Sue managed to turn a mahogany color and I've got a "tan" for the
1st time in 20 years after having given up sun exposure at about age 45. She
runs a "turn-over timer" for me. It works, I haven't burnt. We both have
really enjoyed the warm, salty ocean water (the locals think it's freezing
when the water temp reaches DOWN to 72). Drove Dink all the way down the
keys w/ frequent stops all the way to the end and took our pictures at the
"southern-most point of the continent" at the buoy placed there. HAD to go
to Jimmy Buffet's Margaretville in Key West after walking all the way up
Duvall St. (should have rented a scooter); it's NOT owned by Jimmy Buffet,
live music doesn't start till 10 PM and their souvenir shop was closed to
the public for a special show for fan club members only. Total Bummer - us
old fogies couldn't stay awake past nine after diving out at the islands all
day, and had to leave before the music started. The Mel Fisher Treasure
Museum was great. His dream was to find the ship "Atocha" - while searching,
his motto was "Today's The Day" until finally it was. Ours, for clean white
sand beaches, beach snorkel diving in clean clear waters and night life
partying (as best us old timers can) has become "should have been here
yesterday (or, come back tomorrow)". Our 1st night in town I picked up a
travel brochure in the lobby of the hotel. You know - where all of the
brochures about things to do and see are there in a rack? It was published
by the "Gay & Lesbian Coalition" that advertised "their paradise" of Key
West. Sue asked my why I picked that up!?! - Why, to pinpoint places you
don't want to be caught in w/ your pants down! That's all I have to say
about that. I suppose I should be pleased though, walking up Duvall St. Sue
& I got separated 3 times, shopping and all. I got hit on by "men" all 3
times before I got the idea that Sue & I had best hold hands the rest of the
way! There goes my fantasy that some sweet young, smart, pretty girl would
pick me up if I took a shower, dressed 'casual', put $100 bills in my hat
band, girdled my gut up to my chest and lost my wife! Why would a viral,
strapping young man want to pick up a graying old man? I have no delusions
any more, I know it was the $100 bills. That's all I have to say about that.
(frequent re-runs of Forrest Gump help me immensely). Sue found an excursion
by sea plane to go farther west, out to the Dry Tortugas Islands. The least
visited, most remote National park in the system, so we went for it - I
tried to make reservations for 3 days in a row, including a Mon, and was
told "you should have been here yesterday". They said that every time I
honestly answered their inquiry into our combined body weights! We
acquiesced and took a fast-catamaran ride out there (I was afraid the "fast
cat" was going to ask my weight too). On the main island was Ft. Jefferson,
the largest masonry (brick) structure in the country, for sure on those
islands). We snorkeled the coral reefs and submerged fort structures to see
the best diving we got in FL - (should have took the boat rides out to
the reefs), but I LOVE beach diving, always have.
We then returned to Shannon's place via Key Biscayne & Miami Beach
(couldn't find Miami Ink for Sue - no tattoo for her there?) and picked up
Luci on the way, she's all better now. Shannon & I disassembled his 1906
Winchester, model 1892/.38-40 and cleaned it (still the hardest gun to
re-assemble I ever saw). There was lots of 'antique' black powder & general
grunge in it's internal spaces. - Nice tight gun. I had to put a new
heater/AC fan in Luci and build a shelf to house our new printer (old one
self-destructed. Yes, w/ my help).
We took leave of the Cash clan (Thanks again Cash's, one and all) on the
13th driving across Alligator Alley to Naples. Sue saw about 15 gators while
driving! I was sleeping. There must have been plenty more as she WAS
driving. At Naples we were introduced to the 'left', west coast of FL by
Tom & Perry Walinski. Tom's an old Army buddy originally from Chicago
(literally 2 blocks from where my dad's family resided many moons ago). Tom
& Perry moved to FL after Tom gave up the corporate world in Atlanta after
20 years. Tom drives around every day and says "We live in this paradise".
Beautiful beaches, land, un-crowded spaces and some of the greatest
communities we've ever seen. Tom & Perry were very gracious hosts. We all
went to dinner and Tom gave us a lead to the best rv park we've been to
date. Tom & I went to breakfast the next morning (Sue doesn't do mornings)
and he took me out to Marco Island. Housing and lot prices are unbelievable
- 1.2 million for a bare lot. We picked up Sue and then went to where there
were MILES of white sand beach and went swimming. We've gotten behind our
'loose' schedule, an unexpected side trip to TX, Luci's health, a day for
Dry Tortugas, et/al so after lunch w/ Tom & Perry (who works full time) we
headed on north. Thank You very much, Tom & Perry, Y'all showed us a great
time in a great place.
I've been in communication with Suzanne Corbett since the Army/320th
reunion @ Clarksville, TN this year. She's a friend from those days and
lives in Sarasota, our next stop as we went north. She couldn't attend the
reunion as her friend of 13 years, Maggie, was ailing badly. As it was
Maggie, her black lab, passed just a few weeks ago. We dog lovers, as most
my friends are, know all too well - dogs just don't live long enough in our
lives. Sue's doing well. She has a great home there and treated us to a good
day on her part of the 'left' coast. About the only thing she seems unhappy
with is that her coast is called 'left' - she's a good conservative. Hadn't
seen Sue since Detroit, 1965 after I got out of the Army. My Sue & I enjoyed
meeting/re-meeting Suzanne after 42 years. Ain't it cool that my wife of 40
years drove me to see my ex-girl from the '60's? and through alligator
infested swamps even! - NOT! Sue was a good friend and married to Don Clark
back then, also a good friend of mine back in the day. Now we're working
hard to get back to San Antone for Christmas with the family. Lori & Caleb
are flying out there too.
So, we went from Sue's place to Crystal River (at her suggestion) and
went snorkeling w/ the MANATEES there. A storm blew through the night before
the boat trip (we spent the night in Luci in the dive shop parking lot,
which was nice & remote). It rained & BLEW all night until 4:30 AM; got cold
too - 30's. The boat trip was a bit rough and cold but the river is fed by
warm springs to the tune of 600,000 gal. per day with a constant temp year
round of 72 degrees. It was more comfortable in the water w/ the manatees
than it was in 'our' atmosphere! One manatee 'pup' of 7' & 800lbs played w/
all us divers for hours. Gentle giants they are. We found out that afternoon
a TORNADO touched down that night of the storm & blew the roof off the local
jail house. We didn't know anything about it! We're tough, and Luci stayed
anchored to the ground. We rolled on and up through the emerald coast,
seeing what had to be great beaches before the last couple years of
hurricanes there. Not any visible damage other than silted in where great
white sand beaches are/were, yet almost every house on the beach is for
sale. At Port St. Joe, Sue had me turn around and go back to a 'historical
cemetery' (road sign). As it was, the only thing historic about that place
was that Sue tried to bury me, Luci & Dink there in the sand - I got us
stuck in the sand trying to drive out of it. God bless our AAA premium road
assistance cards. Didn't cost us a dime to get towed out of the sand, but it
took 4 hrs for them to get there because of the remoteness of the area
(that's a lot of cross-word puzzles). We then rolled on to Pensacola, where
we are now, at the local Wal-Mart 'camping lot'. We went to the National
Naval Aviation Museum yesterday. The best yet; history that started circa
1911. BEST WW 1 air history displays we've ever seen. All the old Navy & CG
amphibian's are awesome - I want a PBY! Later Grators, Dennis & Sue
Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!
Dennis and Sue
Howdy Y’all. That’s Texican for “Hello my dear friends”. We did take hwy 90 west through Hondo & Del Rio, TX, due west from San Antone to the border w/ old Mexico. We saw a ‘map thang’ & stopped at Amistead Ntl Wildlife Preserve, a huge delta on the Rio Grand which is actually a dammed lake. It boasts 850 miles of shore line and has been the home to the ‘Bass Masters’ for coming onto their 4th year. Now being claimed by some as the largest, most diversified bass lake in the states (which of course to most Americans, means the whole wide world). Weren’t prepared for that, sure would liked to have fished it. Saw lots of ducks and a few deer (having just passed through an area where many signs said ‘Welcome Hunters’ and at LEAST 10 taxidermy shops!) Wasn’t prepared for that either so didn’t attempt to hunt either. Rats!
Going deeper into the ‘Texas bad lands’ we crossed the Pecos river at an incredible river gorge and made it to Langtry in time to catch Judge Roy Bean’s last trial of the day. It’s really a small place that died out back when the railroads re-routed away from the town. We continued on, turning NW to Marathon. You know us by now, we saw another ‘map thang’ & turned south down to the Big Bend Ntl Park.
Now we’re really deep into the ‘bad-lands’ and the park is right on the border again; pretty remote, nature trails and hot springs, a few campgrounds and a whole lot of roadrunners. One of the more remote and least visited parks in the system. You could go right into the Rio Grand, but it looks pretty funky, being down stream from a lot of towns & villages and moving pretty slow. We hitched Dink back up in her traces and headed NW thru the park and on to Presidio where we cut due north to the town of Pecos. They had the neatest city owned, but stocked 100% by donations, historical museum we’ve seen and we’ve seen a lot of them. Something as well presented as was this museum says volumes for the volunteer docents that put it together. We ought to give them a crack at cleaning up and sorting up Washington, DC.
Sure glad we traveled this region in Jan-Feb, even if we had to endure night-time cold down into the lower 30’s; can’t imagine driving windy, hilly, remote roads such as these during Jul-Aug, with temperatures soaring, while towing a car! All through the area of west Texas we encountered towns, farms and ranches that were shut down or shutting down and drying up because the farms and ranches can’t operate profitably because the cost of fossil fuels is so high that they can no longer afford to pump aquifer & spring water up for their traditional irrigation source! Sad to see. We went to Pecos expecting? I don’t really know, but I had been studying ‘Weather Underground’ and noticed that when surrounding places in the whole SW, not just Texas, were hot & humid, Pecos was mild. When the whole SW was cold and rainy, Pecos was mild. But when WE got there, it was freezing and we spent a whole day hunkered down due to high-cold-uncomfortable winds. Y’know, there’s NEVER a Camelot of utter perfection for ANY of us. But, we role-on and have fun doing it.
After Pecos we drove on to El Paso, which along w/ Juarez, Mex are the two largest border towns. (2 countries & 2 states come together there). We didn’t get there until Feb 1, which is, we are lead to believe, one day too late to go into & out of Old Mexico w/o passports, that we don’t have w/ us. Now that new law is for U.S. citizens only, it doesn’t include foreigners?!? Oh well. The history in El Paso reads like a GOOD Zane Gray novel. The latest addition to our cruise group, ‘Sally’ the GPS map navigator couldn’t navigate around El Paso (maybe the satellites were tired that day); one museum was shut down and 2 were on Ft. Bliss – but we couldn’t stand the wait in line to get a base pass. There was only ONE incredibly slow Fed Civil serpent muddling along w/ at least 20 people waiting in line to get passes.
SO it was on to the western trek again and yet another ‘mapthang’ – We decided to detour south to Tombstone, AZ, planning to arrive there prior to the kick-off of the Super Bowl Game. We managed to get a space in the Tombstone RV Park. Went to town long enough to buy take-out-dinner at ‘Big Nose Kate’s Saloon’ (Doc Holiday’s lady friend) and went back to Luci and watched the game. I thought the game was great, but I wanted to see the Patriots go all the way. Manning sure did well – don’t see how he escaped that last sack-trap AND hit his target.
Tombstone is a great 1880’s/’90’s reconstructed town. I wore my western duds into tombstone;
think they’d let me carry my 6 shooter on my hip w/o getting incarcerated or maybe shot? NOT! I will remain good-to-the-core - and stay sober too, Ma. As we went into town, it started to rain and quickly turned to snow flurries. While totally unexpected, and certainly cold, it made the old town look even more authentic with a dusting of snow on the buildings. We found another “map thang” while we were here and it turns out that Fort Huachuca is right down the road a piece – so we will detour again over to see that while we are still in the area. Never know what other interesting roads might turn up along the way.
I keep monitoring the weather from here to home so we can try to stay in somewhat temperate areas. No luck - where we were is warm, where we are is cold and windy and where we’re headed is going to get whacked with another storm. The first 3 quarters of our travels brought mild, warm weather to wherever we went; we even brought rain to 2 drought stricken areas (then quickly departed). I just this moment realized that maybe my monitoring the weather is affecting our own weather! We never watched it once, until we turned our nose toward home. I will have to adapt.
Well - Later, Dennis & Sue
Our Final Report February 22, 2008
As you know, we had fun in Tombstone, AZ. It was mostly cold there and we left by heading north to Tucson where Luci got her last worn out flip-flop replaced (new tire) from her right inside rear and all of them rotated, putting the new one on the right front. Can’t believe how good the alignment is, I probably should have had rotation done back at mile marker 6,000, but she ran then, as now, so smooooth. So we only replaced the one tire on the whole trip, and I kept an eye on that one for about 7,000 miles. Sue & I both beat a casino in Tucson out of some of their money, but they were so upset they gave us a BAD case of the flu. It was kind of insidious as it started w/ just a dry little chest cough and took a week to develop – I thought my sinuses were just dried up after 3 weeks in Texas & AZ deserts. We spent some good & leisure time w/ Jerry & Peggy Briggs in Mesa, AZ. We went w/ Jerry to the local CAF air field where he spends his ?leisure? time helping in the restoration of their B-25 Mitchell Bomber, circa 1943. They’re almost done w/ it now, just doing FAA final inspections & paperwork to get it flight certified. They like Jerry on the team, he’s still an active commercial (corporate jets) pilot w/ every rating there is, I think, this side of astronaut. So what running tests there’s been, he’s been at the yoke. They have the cleanest B-17G there you’ll ever see, it’s 1945 vintage and never made it to war – all polished aluminum finish and suffered only the minimum wear & tear of any of the survivors. Full military rigged, including all her "Ma Duces" (.50 cal. Guns). We have a pic of Sue & I managing the waist guns, I’ll forward that! "Zeroes, Zeroes, he shouted, 12 o’clock high!" "Whasis 12 o’clock high?", she retorted – another fantasy shot to heck! Jerry does a breakfast thing all the time w/ his flying cronies, so I tagged w/ him every morning. He has a putting green in his back yard and he took my putt challenge – he gave me a ball that had the mumps! Jerry, with his friend Fred, as pilot of his Commanche twin took Sue and I flying all around the greater Phoenix basin for about 3 hrs. all the way up to the beautiful geography of Sedona. The area is RIFE with lakes & reservoirs. That area of AZ has never had a water shortage and they sell water to other regions. What a way to see a place, especially something as diverse as the Phoenix area. We stayed with the gracious Briggs’ 2 nights before moving on. We went not far up to Scottsdale to look up my cousin Doug there but he must have known we were coming, he and wife Marsha beat us out of town by going on a cruise ship the day before we got there! So it was on up the road to Prescott, at elevation 5,500’ to visit w/ old marine pal Jon Pack. His wife Marion was away working in CA. We visited 3 days, saw his gun range he’s adopted (works there part time). Sue got to feeling real bad so she went to bed and wouldn’t come out of Luci to play. We got up Thurs. A.M., looked at the sky, then weather underground and decided we needed to drop down a couple thousand feet before that nightfall. Gave "Mr. Coffee" Jon his lb. Of ‘French Roast’ from N’Olens, I’d been dragging along and beat feet over the 6200’ peak, (got snowed on again there), (Wrong turn out of town) SW into the valley back to I-10 W toward home. We got way-layed in Blythe, CA due to high winds. Hid Luci & Dink close up to a motel (scared of getting windshields sand-blasted), ducked out to a motel room and both crashed w/ the full blown flu! Took off the next afternoon for home – should have stayed another day at the motel, more wind & still sick. Next day made it just a few miles to Coachella At the Trump 29 Casino RV lot. I crashed in bed and Sue went in and beat the Donald out of $300. She makes a special point of hitting the Trump casinos when she can (by staying in bed, I broke even).
We got up about 9:30 the next morning, ‘medicated up’ and headed for home down I-10 all the way to the great blue (it was an unusual pretty blue) Pacific ocean at Santa Monica. An ocean with WAVES! Imagine that! We putted casually on up PCH to - Home-sweet-home! We unhooked Dink & shoo’d him out to pasture (driveway), danced a quik little 2 step on the front porch, emptied the freezer/fridge, locked up Luci about 4:30 P.M. Saturday, locked ourselves in the house & went to bed. Sunday, we lazed up & down and reveled in LONG, hot, steamy showers, very little to eat and watched, between dozes, the 50th anniversary running of the season starter; NASCARS Daytona 500! We’re still locked in ‘til we beat out the bug.
It was exactly 5 months to the day since we left Bakersfield on our "Grand Adventure" towards Las Vegas back in September. Luci, bless her smoothly beating hearts of 260 ponies, pounded out 12,000 miles of FINE cruising with both Sue & I alternating at the reins. We didn’t document Dink’s contribution to the mileage total on his numerous, trouble-free, ‘buggy’ ride side excursions until way too late, but from oil change records, he puttered us around and about neigh on 2,500 miles too; really wouldn’t have been the trip without him. Sue drove Dink almost exclusively, as I did the brunt in Luci’s saddle. We each co-piloted for the other from our respective ‘shotgun’ benches, a gruesome wrestling match with inconsistent hiway signs and maps ‘til we adopted another working daughter, Sally, the GPS map. It was a great relief just having advance notice on which turn lane to be in to maneuver countless different styles of intersections, on-ramps, off-ramps, under-passes, over-passes, r/r crossings, turn-abouts and all the like. (Ah, bless the sweet ‘Old Dominion’ of Virginia w/ her penchant to label roads & hiways AFTER any given intersection)! We camped at a BUNCH of diversified camps, parks, rest stops, friends (unbelievably good friends) places, wilderness back roads, parking lots and, on occasion, just wearily pull off the road at some protected spot for a nap-or-a-nights rest. The only time we off-roaded Luci we stayed stuck in soft sand for 4 hrs in a ‘historical’ cemetery, somewhere off a road in either coastal Mississippi or Alabama or Louisiana. (Sue’s always on the prowl for possible lost relatives, especially if they rest under a military headstone or in family plots). We conversed w/ more people that represented more dialects from more places around our land than we could ever have imagined – and they say there’s more dialects in China! I don’t know about dat! You know what we DID do? We met a whole country full of great people.
Well, that’s our story; and we’re sticking to it! Until another time, Bah, Y’all – Bye – G’bye – until we meet again – See’ya – See Ya Later, Alligator – and – Happy Trails,
Dennis & Sue Bubnar