I'm finally back - The War Wagon and the $100 Turkey Wing

Hang onto something while this meanders around. I finally returned from a long journey deep into the Florida peninsula. We were duly armed too, as noted in a previous post. We drove in all about 3k miles. For someone from Arkansas that is a bunch. I wanted to make note of our family SUV as there are still many around at great prices used that would make dandy hunting vehicles. Gary has had at least one Expedition and I think he had good service too, until he tried to give an Elk a hood surfing lesson. They are heavy and powerful enough to pull boats trailers of good size. While there are only five of us it has seating for seven in total comfort. On long trips we use external storage to augment our room inside, a useful trick. I bought this new 14 yrs. ago and have put 180k on it myself. I remember we had one front wheel bearing get noisy once, a new alternator just recently, some small vacuum piping repairs lately too. The air leveling suspension system went amuck at 140K and I installed a coil over shock kit myself for $450. Never get air ride anything again.

We used to get 18 mpg fully loaded on the freeway but the crappy fuel made today has dropped it to 15. In town it also gets 15 mpg. She is both 4WD and AWD, the latter flat rules in the slick stuff like ice. The dual air’s conditioning vents can have issues front vs back so watch for that. But in all the 4x4 Expedition would make a great reliable hunting truck. FWIW

This is our “War Wagon” after more than a week of beach assaults.

We stopped at Venice Beach on our way back home, just below Sarasota where Gary used to have his shop. BlackPete lives in the area some too. I wanted to hunt for fossilized shark teeth in the surf. But they were experiencing the worst “Red Tide” that I have ever seen. Dead fish everywhere of all sizes, nose to tail there would have been a continuous line for miles. We even found a dead baby seat turtle that succumbed to the carnage. If the eco-freaks would have seen that they would have had a public funeral, and orgy. I let it be. My wife did find a single shark tooth fossil and Roman found a current tooth.

For many years I have been searching for my very own found “Turkey Wing” shell for my collection. The hotel at Venice was $100 for the stay over. I finally found my Turkey Wing! That itself made the trip a bonus. We could only stand about 1-1/2 hrs. before the tide made us cough too much and puffed up our eyes badly.

In the area I tried to visualize Gary being one of the locals, it seemed difficult. Lol The little town is touristy but nice, everyone seemed happy.

On the way back we had to hit the Battleship Park, the kids love it. This year it was my very first "Senior Citizen" discount I have every used. I’ve always been entranced by the 20mm deck guns and always wonder what they were really used for in the wide open ocean. They seem to have them everywhere.

They seemed to mechanically be able to shoot someone on deck in the face if they got somewhere they should not be. I envisioned they’d be great sport with a Somali Pirate boat running around looking for mischief. I’d pay well for a weekend of that sort of action with free ammo and targets of opportunity and due reason.

I noted the gun barrels are flared at the muzzle and are pretty thin for such a powerful gun.

Also I noted that U.S. Artillery seem to have what us gunnies would call "Micro-groove" rifling. I thought Marlin was the one to start that?! The history is humbling and my kids really appreciate the park.

Good to be home though.