Finally visiting the Mighty Ike

We got an early start on that Sunday to make our way from Mount Airy to Suffolk, Virginia.  It was 275 miles (which is a long day to begin with), and Nicolas wanted to give us our tour of the Ike since it’s quieter and less busy on Sunday.  With only duty sections on the ship, we could go more places and see more than we could on a normal work day.

It might have been shorter to take 77 up to 58, and go across all the way to Suffolk, but there are some twisty mountain grades on 58 that far west in Virginia, so the safer bet was to go back south to I-40, and take it across to I-85, and then take that up to 58 . . . so that’s what we did.

It was a nice, easy drive on a Sunday morning . . . we drove past Pilot Mountain again,

and through Winston-Salem and Greensboro, before getting on I-85 and heading north into Virginia.

We arrived at Davis Lakes Campground in Suffolk in good time, and got set up on our site with enough free time to have a quick snack and a little nap before we had to drive down to Naval Station Norfolk to meet Nicolas when he was done for the day.

We met him out at the NEX, and he drove with us in the Jeep to get on base.

Our first view of CVN69, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower --

BIG, isn’t it!?!

We followed Nick up to the hangar deck where he boarded, and we turned in our drivers licenses to get visitor passes.

We stopped to look at the display on the quarterdeck,

then went below a deck or two, to where Nicolas lives and works.

That was about as close as we could get, but we did see the doors that he goes through to get down to the Plants, and we saw where their offices are.  Not much to take a picture of – just a door!  Top Secret stuff!

Just down the aisle from where their offices are is the bakery . . . we must have walked by about a dozen times as Nicolas took us back and forth to different areas . . . and they were baking something chocolate!  Nicolas says they don’t get to eat it, just smell it all day!

Hmmm . . .

We did get to see Nicolas’ bunk, though.

Not a lot of space . . . but I did get him a memory foam mattress topper, and he says it helps a lot.

Nicolas just got pinned with his Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist pin – he completed the requirements a couple months ago, but just officially got pinned on the last underway.

We could only stay for a minute, and had to be quiet, because somebody was sleeping in the berthing.

From there, we went out to the fantail, although we had to take a roundabout route – there was some floor painting being done on this off day.

Walking through one of the small gyms – open to outside.

View of Hampton Roads

View of the ships on the next pier.

This is the back of the ship, and the aircraft that come in to land come from this direction.

The light tower mounted on the back of the ship tells the pilots whether or not they can land  -- kindof looks like the light tree at a drag strip.

Above us is the flight deck, and we went up there next.

Looks really huge without a bunch of planes parked up there!

Another good photo op --

it was hot and windy up there!

The only plane we saw was the captain’s plane.

The flight deck is the main function of the aircraft carrier (although they can’t function without the steam and power produced by the reactor department!) --

Nicolas has had the opportunity on underways to watch flight operations from up on the Bridge,

so he’s got a pretty good handle on what goes on up there, and he was explaining it to Dad --

arresting cable – for stopping the jets when they land,

and jet blast deflectors  -- used to protect everyone from the jet engines when they take off.

We walked all around the flight deck,

and we could see the Stennis and the Truman on the pier to our Port side,

and the USS Comfort on the Starboard side.

See – I’m getting that Navy lingo down!!

Back below, we walked through one of the galleys (this one is undergoing renovations right now, so it wasn’t open),

they even have fancy table covers!

Our next stop was the fo’c’sle – the upper deck in the forward portion of the ship, and it’s where the anchors and anchor chains are located.

Two hours later, we felt like we had walked several miles as we travelled front to back and up and down multiple times – but it was great, and we were so glad to be able to see where Nicolas spends so much of his time, and to meet several of his shipmates.  I never did master going up and down the ladders like they do, though, – I definitely needed the railings, and was much faster going down backwards!!

Thanks for the tour, Nick!