April 29, Tuesday Four States in a Day

Today I had a purpose: I was going to meet Derek Mitchell for lunch in Mobile, Alabama. To get there I started out in Mississippi, went into Louisiana then turned east again and re-entered Mississippi and traveled the entire coastal length to arrive in Alabama. The luncheon date was setup through Derek’s mom, Melanie, at my request. (My friend, Melanie –from Bellingham, is going to meet me later on for the Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI part of the trip.) Derek represents some of the best in the US Coast Guard; he’s a flight instructor for the HH 64 Dauphin helicopter. All the pilots in the service have to come to Mobile once a year for a week to get updated. Also besides being in the classroom and on the flight trainings Derek travels to the different bases once a year to check on operations. After lunch we drove the short distance to the Aviation Training Center and I was given the admiral’s tour of the facility. We were not only able to see units up close but also Derek was able to get us into the flight simulator for the Dauphin. We were treated to a student struggling to keep his aircraft from doing a crash landing. The wrap around screen view spin, the simulator lurched and the on-board instructor froze the screen so we didn’t have to endure the finale. Another high light of spending a couple of hours with Derek was our search and rescue discussions. Very fruitful for both of us. Cool place; Cool guy. Now when I hear the signature whine of the tail rotor of the Coast Guard Dauphin flying down the Swinomish Channel, I’ll think of the time with Derek.
After the tour, we said our “goodbyes” and it was on to state number four – Florida. I just got across the state line and had to throw the anchor out. I was exhausted so I spent the night nestled between idling semis at the Welcome to Florida rest stop. Tomorrow I start my two weeks in the Sunshine State; two weeks from today I leave my trip and fly back home to Seattle for a week. Travel on.