Happy New Year......................Tempered

Nutshell
Good year it was.
My niece married the man of her dreams.
I got to spend a day aboard USS Ronald Reagan CVN-76 with OldAFSarge and The WSO on Mother Ocean.
I managed to roll 60 without any major complications.
There was the loss, however of a couple of dear friends.........................................
Buck Pennington aka The Exile In Portales...............One of the first bloggers I connected with on a more personal level.........................
Lionel Gendron, LTC, Armee' d'le Air, Retired
Member of a Facebook Group all about Flying Machines and Bikinis.........................
He was also a bit of an authority on the war in French Indochina..............................I learned a lot from him about that..................

Sigh......................Another Old Friend.........................

Ranger...........the second ship I served aboard...................
She is going away.

The Good Ship Ranger on 5 May 1981 returning to NAS North Island CA completing a deployment to the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean that began on 10 September 1980. I was in Attack Squadron 145 in Carrier Air Wing 2.

A port quarter view of the aircraft carrier USS RANGER (CV-61) approaching port at Yokosuka on its last visit to Japan in 1992. The RANGER was on its final deployment prior to decommissioning. (PH2 STEVEN COOKE – ID:DN-ST-93-05530 / Service Depicted: Navy – via Wikipedia)

San Luis Harbor, Firestone Walkerin Paso Robles and James Dean

We came home today from the Central Coast. We did however make a few short stops on the way...........................

First Up was Avila Beach and San Luis Harbor.

This fish has blue meat!

We are going to take one of these next summer.

Seals Chillin

Some of these guys are HUGE!

The nice lady we asked to take this actually made us set up for this shot!

Firestone Walker................A New Flavor was procured!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is so very, very yummy. I am saddened that I never got to share something like this with Buck.

James Dean

Little James Dean, up on the screen 
Wond'rin' who he might be 
Along came a Spyder and picked up a rider 
And took him down the road to eternity 

James Dean, James Dean, you bought it sight unseen 

You were too fast to live, too young to die, bye-bye 
You were to fast to live, too young to die, bye-bye 
Bye-bye, Bye-bye, Bye-bye, Bye, bye