April 10: More of the war museum

We went back this morning to the Pacific War static display. Again, it was really unique. As we waited outside for the tour to start, Larry took my picture beside this atomic bomb. I call this photo "Fat Woman with Fat Man" because that's what they called this short, fat bomb, Fat Man. Had Japan not surrendered when they did, this was one of several more they had made to keep dropping on Japan. I've included the write up on why they justified dropping the bomb.

We went into a building and there was the front half of a large one engine plane that was involved in dropping bombs over Germany. Maybe one of you military types can identify it. Then we went into another building that housed an actual PT boat. It was the PT309. She saw action in the Mediterranean. There was a veteran in our group that had served on the PT34. Didn't get a chance to visit with him about it but I'm sure that would have been interesting.


Then we moved on to the bunkers with actual working guns. They do live demos several times a year. They also have a flame thrower they demo on those days. Then into a Quonset hut for a look at a precursor to the Korean War MASH unit. At the end was what the guide called "the representative crosses of every war museum". They showed each branch of the service including the Merchant Marine and the Coast Guard which some museums don't include. Their theory was that many of the sailors of the war started out in the Merchant Marine and the Coast Guard. Not to mention that they patrolled the American coast lines during the war. Each cross listed the number of wounded and killed for each branch. Pretty sobering.


After that, it was time to eat lunch. We had decided on going to Hondo's this time because they had a really neat sounding menu we found on-line. And it was good. Larry, again, got the Reuben but this time he left some of the kraut on. It was a Reuben gone south version with BBQ sauce. I had the chili cheese burger with onion strings. The burgers are made with egg and served on a sourdough bun. Would go back in a heart attack minute. Hondo is the guy who kinda started the current trends in Luckenbach - a very big person in this part of the country. To learn more about him go to http://www.hondosonmain.com/hondo.html. I think you can also get the menu from here.

Then we decided to go looking for the last remaining ice cream store we hadn't hit yet. It served Blue Bell but that's OK - it was ice cream. And then, as we were walking back to the truck, we found another bakery - dang. Larry reminded me that he'd gone thru his Danish (I still had half of my banana nut muffin left) so we went in to check it out. Came away with a small key lime pie for me and Larry got a banana nut muffin. Good thing we're walking about 30 minutes each evening. Not enough but about all I can do right now with my toe problem.

Did I mention that we live under a pecan tree. Actually, the whole camp is one big pecan grove. It's been pretty cool because we can sit in our lawn chairs and crack and eat pecans all day long. Early this morning a storm blew thru here - lots of wind and some rain. The camper sounded like it was being hailed on when the pecans dropped on the roof. We had lots of good eating today. These trees weren't leafed out when we got here. Seems like they just popped out over night.

Tomorrow is laundry and maybe geo'ing.