The Big Trip (including ship museums)
 

Last month My wife, Kelly, my stepson, Sebastian and myself took a circular trip from Texas to New Jersey to visit Sebastian's grandparents. We planned various stops along the way there and back. Besides seeing such things like:

https://fantasticcaverns.com/

https://www.bigthingssmalltown.com/

https://www.discoverlancaster.com/am...story-beliefs/

https://www.visitphilly.com/articles...f-a-new-nation

https://www.palmettomoonshine.com/home

I was able to work in visits to a couple of ship museums that included subs.

First - the U.S.S. Intrepid and U.S.S. Growler in NYC. (Images from the internet since I wasn't up to snuff in my pic taking with my smartphone.)

The U.S.S. Growler (SSG-577) was very interesting.

https://museumships.us/images/submar...er/growler.jpg

As with many ship museums it had most of its stations protected with plexiglass. The volunteers seemed to have a rudimentary knowledge of the boat, at best ... until we got to the aft torpedo room (the last thing you see inside before going back above deck). There we met a died in the wool torpedoman from back in the day that went into great detail about operations and equipment (once he learned that I was a bit more into the subject than most tourists that waltzed through). We were fortunate to see him for as it turned out he was being called back to active duty to show boots how to do his job (I've seen this before with old WWII reserve gunner's mates being recalled to AD to teach new GMs how to operate the 16" guns on the old BBs when I was in the reserves in the 80s).
http://navsource.org/archives/08/574/0857713.jpg
http://www.traveladventures.org/coun...e-museum05.jpg
https://64.media.tumblr.com/7cc90447...d0a80776ac.jpg
https://tvd.im/uploads/posts/2020/09...-ssg-577_6.jpg
https://as2.ftcdn.net/v2/jpg/03/59/9...ceDLYIzQ4g.jpg
https://as1.ftcdn.net/v2/jpg/04/09/7...bwkxeJMQsu.jpg

We saw the U.S.S. Intrepid along with many aircraft, including a Lockheed A-12 and the Space Shuttle Enterprise.

https://www.intrepidmuseum.org/AircraftCollection

A very nice experience, all around.

On our return trip we stopped in Mobile Alabama to see:

https://www.ussalabama.com/explore/uss-drum/

https://live.staticflickr.com/4694/2...b49bf3d9_b.jpg

It was a bad blood pressure day for me and the stairs up and down nearly did me in. But I was actually more interested in the U.S.S. Drum than I was the Alabama so, with my Stepson in tow, we climbed aboard (and ended up skipping the BB, entirely).

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pr...KAKZc_6h8oQtY8

https://www.ussalabama.com/wp-conten...um_inside7.jpg

https://img.peapix.com/2811c677856f4...37488c_480.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...pedo_room.jpeg

I somehow managed to miss the conning tower ... (I was tired after touring the main decks and we ended up walking right past the open hatch to it on our way to 'the stairs from hell.'

https://live.staticflickr.com/8324/8...079cfaf8_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/3020/2...14d3cfd5_b.jpg

Still, it was a good experience.

By the way, anyone know about this?

https://www.al.com/entertainment/201...nt_to_hos.html

Thank you for sharing! Especially the Drum. I grew up about 50 miles away in Florida and have visited the Drum and Alabama many times. Alabama is great, but the Drum is my favorite. I miss the days of my youth in the 90's and early to mid 2000's, Drum was moored in the water behind the battleship and WW II era sub veterans were common at the park, including Drum crew members.
I am visiting home in August and plan to visit the park for the living history drill, mainly to see the Drum(will post pictures of course) as it has been a while. Usually visit at least once a year but have not since COVID.

I do hate you were not up for the battleship tour though, it is a great ship to visit as well. Thanks again for sharing.

Sounds like you had a good time. A great experience for you and your stepson.
:Kaleun_Salute: