Seeking Susie

This is my recap of what we did on Saturday, August 3rd. As you can see, this is August 14th, and I am way behind.  I had every intention of updating each night, but then my laptop went capoot, and I just didn’t have it in me, to do it from my iPad.

This day of my trip, was so tiring, that I just get tired all over again thinking about it.   My poor feet haven’t seen this much action since I was a teenager probably.

Speaking of which, the couch to 5k was put on hold during this trip because I was so busy there, and I was already doing so much walking, but there’s no worries.  I swear I have walked more this trip than I have in the last year.

Yay, me!

Ok, here comes the recap:

Leslie and I got up and drove back over to Bonnie’s house. We had a great stay in the local Holiday Inn Express thanks to Bonnie. Then we set to work visiting with Bonnie. She tells wonderful stories which I recorded and will be shared here with you in the future.  I can’t wait to get these recaps over with so I can share all the great genealogical stuff I found!

This is me and Bonnie.

Here is Jim working on some files we were sharing back and forth and Bonnie was telling stories.

Look at all that stuff on the table, what you can’t see is boxes, and stuff spread out on the floor that we went through.

I can’t even begin to tell you how wonderful it was to sit and listen to Bonnie talk about my grandmother’s family. I was so close to my grandmother my whole life up until her passing, and this just made me feel closer to her again.  When I look in Bonnie’s eyes, I swear it’s like looking in my grandmother’s.

We had a sad goodbye and departed. Leslie and I then headed to Camden, New Jersey where the U.S.S. New Jersey was docked.

You see these ships on TV in documentaries, but no one can prepare you for the sheer magnitude of them.

Leslie and I tried throughout this whole trip to get a selfie at each stop.  Sometimes it became quite comical.

Visiting the USS New Jersey was really special for Leslie and I because our cousin Mr. Carl Hurt served on the ship during WWII. This is Mr. Carl during that time.

And this is my sweet Mr. Carl back in April when I last visited him.  He lives three hours from me, and I sure wish we lived closer together.

He’s fallen and hurt his hips and is not doing so good, so I was happy to call him from the ship. He was able to tell me what his job was, and what part of the ship he was on. I had him on speaker phone and one of the men working on the ship listened in, and asked Mr. Carl a few questions, and then he took us to the part of the ship that Mr. Carl worked on. This section was closed off to the public, so this was a very nice gesture.

Mr. Carl was a gunner loader, and he put these shells into the gun behind this man.  You can see the tip of one of the shells sticking up inside the gun, and he’s holding an empty shell that would eject out of the side of the gun.  He was explaining that when the shell would pop out, it would leave dings in the deck.

All those dings represent shells fired.

I had to beg this nice gentlemen to let me take his picture, he finally agreed and I’m so glad.  He went out of his way to show us where Mr. Carl worked and to explain Mr. Carl’s job to us.  He did not have to do this.  I wanted to be able to show Mr. Carl his picture.

I will give more details on Mr. Carl’s job and experience later, as this was just part of the process of the interview I have planned with him. He wants to tell his story from WWII and since Leslie and I were so close to the ship, I had to go and get some pictures for him and to see the ship myself.  Now, when he tells his story, I will be able to understand the ship.

I can see why these ships were made for young men (and women), because going up and down these stairs is no easy feat.  We weaved our way up and down and in out of the ship.

We tried out the beds, and I’m telling you, they should get an award for just sleeping on these things.  I’m inserting Leslie’s picture here cause she just looks way better than I did laying on this bed!  LOL

Back up on deck and I can imagine that when these guns were fired, you would want to be below deck.

To show you the sheer magnitude of this deck, there’s a helicopter on here and there is still plenty of room for lots more stuff.  The helicopter is small in comparison.

The U.S.S. New Jersey is one of the most decorated ships in Naval history.

As we left the ship, I had to take one last look back, and think about my Mr. Carl and what he must have seen and done on this ship.  It blows my mind that we got to stand where he stood.  I can’t wait to share my experience with him.

One last look back, before we left.

It was getting really late in the evening by the time we left, and we decided to go to Philadelphia and find something to eat.

This was my first trip to Philadelphia, and I was in awe of all the history you can see just from passing by in a car.

We parked and ate at Chili’s and then got back on the road.

Then as we headed back over the Ben Franklin Bridge, what do I see but a beautiful rainbow!!

And an even more beautiful sunset!

Guess what?

It’s not over.

Ha!  When we got back to D.C., Leslie wanted me to see how beautiful everything is when lit up at night, and boy was she right.

Now, it’s over.  Thank goodness.  I’m worn out just going back over the whole day.

I’ll be doing a catch up of the other days, and don’t forget, my two-year blog anniversary is coming up in just two days, and I have a huge give-away, so stay tuned folks!