From San Diego to Austin

I have been meaning to write this blog post for over a month now but for some reason haven’t been able to make myself sit down and do it. Writing isn’t always easy work but if you enjoy it the process can be very satisfying. As you know I was able to traverse nearly all of the legendary Route 66 and I saw so many interesting things along the way. So much variety along this vast road but going through Los Angeles pulling a travel trailer just didn’t appeal to me. Instead I chose to turn south at San Bernardino and spend some time in the San Diego area. Years ago my brothers and I spent a few days here and had visited Torrey Pines Gliderport in La Jolla and I always wanted to return. The cliffs at Torrey Pines rise to a height of 300 feet and the updrafts from the ocean make for a unique environment for paragliders and hang gliders. Those of you who have been following me here and on Facebook have seen photos of the plethora of paragliders that will be in the air when conditions are right. My goal on this visit was to find a good spot to get as many action shots as I could. I knew there was access to the beach below and I thought maybe this would be a better spot to get shots of the gliders taking off since I would be beneath them. As I made my way toward the stairs leading down to the beach I spotted what looked to be an old viewing platform built at the edge of the cliff. I decided to check this spot out and discovered It was a small solidly built platform around 4’ x 6’ with a rail around the perimeter and it was well secured to the cliff edge giving you the ability to get clear views of the gliders as they made their take offs, sailed up and down the edges of the cliff, making their way over the ocean, and then coming back into land. It was still too early in the afternoon for them to be flying so I set up my camp chair, enjoyed the picnic lunch I had prepared, and enjoyed the ocean views. After an hour or so the first paraglider launched it was time to put the camera in hand and make my way onto the viewing platform. The gliders began to trickle out until there were more than 20 in the air! For me time seemed to stand still as I was having a blast taking photos and watching the skill of pilots as they seemed to effortlessly glide across the sky of this beautiful place. I soon realized there was a highly skilled, and daring, pilot who was giving rides to tourists this afternoon. He would ham it up for me and come in close for photos which was actually a challenge with the zoom lens I was using. As I was shooting both he and his passenger as they approached yet again I suddenly realized he was headed straight for me so I lowered my camera to see what his deal was and he called out, “high five buddy”, and sure enough we slapped hands as he passed by mere inches from me and the platform. What a gas that was! He did that one more time with me and then some tourists began to gather around to see what I was doing and I offered the platform to them so they could take turns getting a birds eye view as well. That same pilot continued to come by with his high fives and giving several more people a thrill. I ended up taking photos for 4 hours and can’t begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this day!

The next day was whale watching with Next Level Sailing on Shelter Island in San Diego. This trip would be aboard a 139 foot wooden yacht built in the 1990’s and is a replica of the first America’s Cup yacht winner the “America”, built in 1851. I have to admit my expectations of seeing any whales wasn’t very high since it is a very big ocean! The first two hours was filled with spectacular views of the San Diego shoreline, many naval ships, naval aircraft, sea lions, and great conversation but as expected no whales. Our crew whale expert Rachel (I really don’t remember her name but I will call her Rachel) continued to be upbeat and positive while relating her vast knowledge of whales to a hopeful group of 47 passengers. Suddenly, Rachel calls out whales at 1 o’clock. There is excitement among the group as we scramble for our camera’s and find a position at 1 o’clock! There are screams of delight, there they are, exclaimed an excited woman from Denver I had been chatting with and it was game on! For the next hour we spotted several pairs and two groups of 4 whales determined to give us the show of our lives! Other whale watching boats joined us in the area creating a frenzy of excitement for us land dwellers. And then the whales decided they had entertained us long enough and headed for deeper waters. It was an amazing experience with the crew informing us this had been the best sighthing they had in several months. I have to say the humpback whales did not disappoint with a very happy yacht full of passengers relishing the experience on the way back to shore. Several passengers aboard had been on other whale watching tours and had never seen so many and none of them had seen them so close. The rules in these waters is to stay 100 yards from the whales but you can’t control where they decide to break water and we had them within 25 yards on several occasions. Rachel fielded many questions on the way in and even she who has seen whales all around the world was pumped with adrenaline and was bouncing up and down the deck with glee the whole way back in. It is so apparent she genuinely loves and has great passion for whales.

After two days of excitement I needed to take a break and spent the day at the park/beach on Shelter Island just relaxing and watching the sailboats and listening to music. The next day I visited the San Diego Zoo, my third bucket list item of the trip. What a wonderful zoo! Photos of this day and whale watching can be viewed on my Facebook page. The zoo is very well laid out and has amazing habitats for the animals. No cages of the old style zoos but natural looking habitats that the animals seem right at home in. I chose to walk the entire zoo and for an old guy like me it was a bit challenging at times with all the up and down hills but I wanted to get up close rather than ride a bus and be further away from everything. There are decent food options in the zoo when it is time to recharge the batteries. If I were traveling with children this would be a must stop!

After a couple of low key days back at Shelter Island relaxing at the park it was time to pack up and head toward Arizona to visit my brother Don in Phoenix, Arizona. This would begin my long trip back east along US 10 all the way to Florida. The morning was crisp as I began winding my way through the mountains steadily rising then descending and repeating this pattern. Somewhere between El Cajon and El Centro I found myself in the middle of the most unusual mountain peaks I had seen on the trip so far. The peaks appeared to be piles of stacked boulders that had been randomly placed there by an intelligent designer who I imagine has a sense of humor and wanted people to wonder how this came to be. Like jenga puzzles it looked as if the right, or wrong boulder depending on your point of view, the whole thing would come tumbling down. The reddish orange color of the rock was striking! I so wanted to stop and take photos but the roads were narrow with no room to pull over and stop even if the temptation became too great. The images are imprinted in my brain so this will have to do. When I finally came out of the mountains I was back in the desert with not much to look at for a period until I came into the Imperial Valley just before the city of El Centro. I had heard of the Imperial Valley but didn’t realize it was in the middle of the desert! What a surprise to see such a rich agricultural economy here! Nearly 600,000 acres are farmed here harvesting lettuce, broccoli, onions, melons, cauliflower, alfalfa and more with a value of over a billion dollars. Before you can get over the wonder of it all, suddenly you are in a barren desert again. Approaching the Arizona border sand dunes rise up giving a perfect environment for off road Dune Buggy and Sandrail enthusiasts. I made a stop in Yuma for three days to check out the area. I discovered there really isn’t much in Yuma if you aren’t into off-roading. There is a USMC base here though with jet fighters flying maneuvers each day along with many helicopters. If you don’t mind the noise it is fun to watch them. After Yuma I made my way to Phoenix and finally the desert began to produce the Saguaro cactus I had been so eager to see! They appeared slowly at first but the closer I got to Phoenix they became very abundant. Brother Don took me to an area north of Phoenix one day where the landscape was littered with them and I was geeking out on them. You may think it odd I would get so excited about a species of cactus but this was another one of those things I had been dreaming about since I was a young boy and they did not disappoint! I had no idea how tall they can get (40-60 feet) and take up to 150 years to be fully grown. This was my first visit to the Phoenix area and the city wasn’t at all what I had expected. For a city of over 4.5 million people I was expecting a very large central downtown area similar to the midwestern cities I have frequented over the years. Instead the downtown area was much smaller than I anticipated and rather Phoenix looks like a massive suburban bedroom community that goes on for miles and miles and miles. The city is still rapidy expanding and perhaps only the mountains will stop the growth? Other than spending time with my Brother and sister-in-law, the highlight of this weekend was visiting Prescott where my friend Pete met Don and I for a long afternoon of catching up. We did some sightseeing around town enough to know I will come back for more visits but the day was more for three old Caledonia boys to regale each other with stories of past and present. Pete and I have connected periodically throughout the years, but he and Don hadn’t seen each other in over 40 years, but we all seamlessly fell into comfortable conversation and we all agreed it was a very good day!

After a nice weekend of catching up I was on the road again making my way through southern Arizona, southern New Mexico and West Texas. I have to admit this stretch of US 10 was the least interesting and frankly boring stretch of road on my adventure so far. It is all mostly desert that looks pretty much the same mile after mile. The only break was a stretch of mountains leading into Las Cruces, New Mexico. When you come out of the mountains into the plain that holds Las Cruces it is really quite pretty. Within 30-45 minutes things take an almost comical change of pace. When leaving Las Cruces I suddenly noticed a strange smell and not a good one at that! I was pondering if my black water tank had busted loose when I realized there were hundreds, which turned thousands of dairy cattle on the West side of the expressway. This was a gigantic Dairy operation that went on for miles and along with it its stench! What had seemed such a nice city minutes prior had last all of its appeal. I was relieved to get back to the boring desert minus the smell of manure! It wasn’t until I hit the mid Texas hill country did any interesting changes in the landscape appear. I found West Texas very mundane but native Texans tell me there are very beautiful parts but they clearly are not along the US 10 corridor. After a few hours of very boring driving I entered into Central Texas and finally the landscape began to change with a hilly landscape and much welcomed green trees! Real trees, not just stunted scrub brush doing their best to imitate trees. As I am driving along I received a text from my brother Mark inquiring how my trip is coming along. I was able to stop and answer him, let him know where I was, more or less. He texted right back and stated there are lots of interesting things to see in Texas with one of them being the Nimitz museum in Fredericksburg, Texas. I couldn’t believe my luck, I was only 10 minutes from reaching Fredericksburg so the timing of Mark’s text couldn’t have been more perfectly timed! I let him know I would be making a stop very soon! If you have been following my adventure you may have already seen the photos and previous story about Admiral Nimitz and my father. If you haven't, you can click on the link to my personal Facebook page and find the photos there.

Writing this blog post brings to mind another WWII story from the south pacific that my father enjoyed telling. While stationed on Guam the Marines found the weather to be very warm and humid. In fact for the entire year the daily low and high temps are between 76 and 88 degrees fahrenheit. This explains why so many of the photos my father had from the War the Marines were often shirtless. Brother Rob has visited Guam while in the Army to inspect the Hospital and he tells me it is oppressively humid there. Getting back to the story one day several of the natives on the island made their way into the Marine Corps camp created quite a commotion. Apparently the Chamorro women were all topless much to the glee of the marines! My dad loved to tell how the Commanding Officer, being a very religious man, was shocked by this behavior. (How a grown man could be surprised by a native culture in such a climate not to see a need for shirts is beyond me.) The flabbergasted CO ordered the enlisted men to gather up tee shirts to give to the Chamorro women so they would be more decently attired around the men. After a couple of days the Chamorro people left to go back to where they lived on the island. This was a major disappointment to the men as the presence of women, some very attractive, was a welcome distraction to be sure! Several weeks passed by before the native peoples would return to visit the marines. My dad reports as the Chamorro people made their way into camp there was again quite a commotion. The woman appeared with the tee shirts the CO had demanded they be given but with a minor alteration. The tee shirts had been given an upgrade of two strategically placed holes to allow for certain parts of the female anatomy to be free to the wind! My dad would roar with laughter whenever he delivered the last line of the story and of course his eight boys never tired of this story while sister Susan was slightly less amused.

Back to my drive through Texas. I proceeded to a stop just east of Austin near where my brother Rob and his wife Marietta now reside. I had a nice four day stay and visit with them while central Texas was in the midst of an unusual cold snap for early November. We had a nice Texas barbecue/brisket meal together on Friday evening with plans for Rob and I to attend a Garrison Brothers Bourbon charity event the next day. It was a beautiful sunny day with a few billowy white clouds painting the sky while we drove to our destination. Rob informed me this was a fundraiser for the museum I had visited on Thursday. We arrived at a nice Texas ranch style location which had an attractive rustic decor and grounds were well prepared for a crowd that would spend the day drinking bourbon and listening to music. However, the blue skies belied the very cold wind and how very cold it really was outside! We gutted it out for about 2 hours before we decided we had enough because on the way in we spotted a Meadery just a few minutes down the road. We both thought this would be a fun place to visit one day and with the present weather conditions it seemed like a better alternative to freezing our butts off! Indeed the cozy, warm, atmosphere of the Meadery was a welcome change from the cold outdoors of the bourbon fest. We were able to taste 5-6 different Meads for $20 inside this large A Frame building with a wall of windows to view the beautiful sky without the cold. Rob and I were impressed enough to purchase some bottles for future drinking pleasure before we were on our way. Our day being cut short Rob offered to have me over for dinner and he would cook whole chickens on the grill. I have to say my mother did an excellent job of teaching her boys how to cook because most of us seem to excel at it. I have to say the chicken was top notch and we all had our fill with plenty left over for the next day. On Sunday I met Rob and Marietta back at their home to finish off the chicken dinner and visit before I left to continue my adventure. Marietta surprised me with an embroidered kitchen towel that I have hanging from my oven in my travel trailer. The towel says “Home Is Where I Park It” with a travel trailer in the exact color scheme as my own embroidered onto it. The next morning was onto new adventures and eventually Florida to spend the winter near my brothers John and Chris.

Garry Durkee Meets Chester Nimitz

On Thursday November 10, the day the US Marine Corps celebrated its 247th birthday, I visited the National Museum of The Pacific War in Fredericksburg, TX. The museum has a space dedicated to Admiral Chester W. Nimitz who was born here. Visiting this museum brought to mind the following story.

Garry Durkee Meets Chester Nimitz

The day is August 6th 1945 just after 8:15 in the morning on the island of Guam. Radio operator USMC, PFC Garry Durkee is on duty when a message comes in that an atomic bomb has been successfully dropped on the city of Hiroshima in Japan. He dutifully relays the message and thus became one small link of the chain in reporting the news of one of the most historic days of World War II. Three days later another bomb was exploded over the city of Nagasaki and on PFC Durkees 20th birthday on August 15, 1945 Emperor Hirohito announced Japans surrender to the United States. This would formally be signed and delivered to General Douglas MacArthur on September 2, 1945. The days following would be much different for the fighting men in the South Pacific.

PFC Durkee related to his sons years later that once the war was over the daily life became very mundane with “make work” duties which the enlisted men disliked very much. One day he noticed some of the men practicing football and inquired about it. He discovered that if you made the football team you would practice every day and wouldn’t have to perform regular duties. Back in Grand Rapids, Michigan PFC Durkee had been an All City and All State guard at Central High School so football was right in his wheelhouse and by the next day he donned pads and became a part of the Guam USMC football team. Though he had been a guard in high school he was small and after two years in the South Pacific his weight had gone from 152 lbs down to 130 lbs with all his gear. PFC Durkee now was a split end on offense and a safety on defense. In the days of waiting to be shipped back stateside the Armed Services decided to hold football games between teams from the many different islands using Naval ships to transport them from island to island. As the games progressed it was becoming clear that the USMC team from Guam was a very good team winning most of its games. It was decided the two teams with the best records would play for the Southern Pacific Armed Forces Championship.

When the USMC team was informed they would have to play the championship game at a neighboring island of a Naval team with the second best record they were none too happy about it. They felt since they had the best record they should be playing on Guam and they were the Marine Corps by god!! But, being marines they knew they had to make the best of it and worked their tails off preparing for the game. On a humid but beautiful Saturday fall morning the USMC football team boarded their transport and made their way for their date with destiny. As they traveled a few clouds began to gather in the air but it didn’t look too foreboding. Upon arrival the shirtless troops unloaded their gear and were escorted to the field. They dressed into their gear, sweating in the humidity, and began warmups for the big game. As kickoff time arrived the clouds had increased and a light drizzle began making an already humid day feel even more repressive. The teams traded touchdowns and the first half ended with the score tied at 6 - 6. At halftime the drizzle had now turned into a torrential downpour and the field was quickly becoming a vast pit of mud. As the teams waited out the rain it soon became apparent the rain, though slowing, was not going to stop any time soon and the field had become virtually unplayable. It was decided the commanding officers, the team captains, and Admiral Chester Nimitz would meet at midfield to discuss a course of action. Admiral Nimitz was in attendance to present the awards to the winning team. PFC Durkee now found himself at the 50 yard line in the presence of the Commander of the entire Pacific Fleet of the US Navy. Admiral Nimitz and the Commanding Officers were discussing what to do since the game was a tie and there needed to be a clear winner. The Commander of the opposing team wanted the USMC team to come back the following Saturday to complete the game but was getting push back from the USMC Commander. Admiral Nimitz seemed to be pondering in his thoughtful way when he looked at PFC Durkee and said,” Son, what do you think we ought to do?” PFC Durkee replied, “By rights we should have played this game on Guam since we were the team with the best record. My suggestion is the second half of the game be played on Guam next Saturday.” Admiral Nimitz agreed and it was decided to conclude the game on the home island of the USMC team and where the Admiral had his headquarters at Fonte Plateau, later renamed Nimitz Hill.

The following Saturday was greeted with bright sunshine with not a cloud to be seen. PFC Durkee could not wait for the game to resume after a week of anticipation and was still in awe of the fact Admiral Nimitz had actually agreed with his suggestion. The game was hard fought with both teams struggling to move the ball. Late in the 3rd quarter PFC made a one handed grab of a forward pass keeping a drive alive and eventually they would score. The extra point failed and the game now stood at 12-6. Midway into the 4th quarter the Navy team was finally putting a drive together and was now deep into USMC territory. The Navy was now inside the 10 yard line but a stout USMC defense did not allow them beyond the 8 yard line and it was now 4th down. The Navy had a big time college player at receiver and PFC Durkee playing safety on defense figured they would try to go to him in a last ditch effort to score. Sure enough when the ball was snapped he read the play as a pass and tracked the talented receiver through the end zone. He saw the ball leave the quarterback's hands and it was coming his way and though the receiver was much taller PFC Durkee leapt into the air and batted the ball away preserving the lead for the Marine Corps. The USMC team took over on downs and were able to convert a couple of first downs and ran out the clock and had become the Southern Pacific Champions of the Armed Forces!

At the end of the contest the teams lined up on the field and watched as Admiral Chester W. Nimitz made his way to the field. Standing between the two teams he made a few remarks and congratulated both teams on a hard fought contest. It was now time to award the winning team. Each player was personally presented with an engraved sterling silver bracelet with a sterling silver football attached to it. PFC Durkee had a wide smile on his face as Admiral Nimitz gave him a wink and presented him with his award.

PFC Durkee would come back to his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan to marry Helen Jean Bolter and have 9 children, a daughter, then 8 consecutive boys and I am number 6. This story and many more were related to his children over the years. As was the way of many of the Veterans of this War, PFC Durkee would make his time in the awful conflict sound more like summer camp than a war and the stories he regaled us with were light hearted and humorous. My father was a storyteller and he taught his sons the art of the story as well. Garry Durkee's philosophy of telling a story was that if you could embellish a story to make it more interesting it was perfectly okay. The story you just read is really a conglomerate of some of the stories he told to my siblings and I. The main facts are correct but a couple of the plays I cite in this story actually occurred in other games but the spirit of how that game was played and won is correct. Also my Dad really did receive his award from Admiral Nimitz and the halftime interaction occurred but the actual dialogue is lost to memory. Some of the other facts are fuzzy but nothing has been bent to make the story more than it was. Garry Durkee knew how to turn a tale and in time I will bring you more of them to lighten your day.

Torrey Pines Gliderport, California