Postcards

Slow Miata to Texas Day 3

Escape to a tropical paradise like no other–the Isle of Capri Casino – Vicksburg, MS! 1-800-THE ISLE
Bill,
Day 3 of 14 of the "Slow Miata to Texas" tour. Tupelo, MS to Vicksburg, MS. 215 miles. Our original destination was Jackson to see a minor league babseball game. Arrived just in time (2:30pm) to see the last out. Didn’t know it was an afternoon game. Vicksburg has 4 hotel/casinos. The hotel, shops and restaurants are on land, but the casinos are floating on the Mississippi! Tommorow we will see some antebellum homes and tour the battlefield.
Brian & Donna, Aiken, SC		 Bill Kirby
The Augusta Chronicle
P.O. Box 1928
Augusta, GA 30903

Slow Miata to Texas Day 2

NATCHEZ TRACE PARKWAY – SUNKEN TRACE
During the late 1700’s and early 1800’s thousands of trvalers walked the Natchez Trace, a primitive pathway through the Choctaw and Chicasaw Indian Nations. The trip of nearly 500 miles between Natchez and Nashville required as much as four weeks. In places the trailwas eroded deeply into the land giving rise to the term “Sunken Trace.”
Bill,
Day 2 of 14 of the “Slow Miata to Texas” tour. Fort Payne, AL to Tupelo, MS. 280 miles. Would have been shorter, but got to zig-zagging around looking for covered bridges. Found 2 of 4. Arrived too late to get into you know who’s birthplace (Elvis.) Tomorrow we travel the Natchez Trace to Jackson, MS.
Brian & Donna, Aiken, SC		 Bill Kirby
The Augusta Chronicle
P.O. Box 1928
Augusta, GA 30903

Miata World ’99

Twenty years ago today Donna and I got back from a 2 week vacation which consisted of a drive to Dallas, Texas. We were going to a national gathering of the Miata Club of America to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the car. We were going to take 4 days to drive over, spend 4 days in Big D and take our sweet time on the way home. The big draw at this event was they were giving away, to one lucky attendee, a brand new 1999 10th Anniversary Edition Miata (it wasn’t us.)

Bill Kirby, who was the Metro Editor for the Augusta Chronicle, wrote a column for that section 4 times a week. He’d collect postcards from readers when they went on summer vacation. Each year, his goal was to get one from every state and as many different countries as possible. This served three functions: 1) Local folks get their names in the paper with the added bonus of bragging about their travels, 2) Bill got to go on lots of vacations, and 3) Bill got an easy way to fill his column in the summer months. A couple years prior Donna & I had made the paper, because we took a trip to New England and that seems to be a neck of the woods little visited by folks from the CSRA. So I vowed to sent him a postcard every day of our trip.

I had intended to start on May 2nd and post one of those postcards each day until today, but forgot, so better late than never, here is the first, with the rest follow.

LITTLE RIVER CANYON FALLS
Desoto State Park, Fort Payne, Alabama
Bill,
A little early for vacations, but this is ours for the year. Day one of fourteen of the “Slow Miata to Texas” tour. At 300 miles, the Aiken, SC to Fort Payne, AL leg is the longest of the trip. Staying in a lodge in the State Park. Saw Desoto Falls today, this one and others tomorrow.
Brian & Donna, Aiken, SC		 Bill Kirby
The Augusta Chronicle
P.O. Box 1928
Augusta, GA  30903

4 Hours & 41 Minutes

Sunrise Over Hartsfield

We watched the sun come up while waiting to board our 8:20 AM flight and when we arrived at our destination 4 hours and 41 minutes later it was not even 10:00AM. That’s how long you have to sit in an airline seat to get from Atlanta to San Diego. We checked in, unpacked our suitcase and walked across the street to get our second lunch of the day. From there we walked a couple blocks south to visit the U.S.S. Midway.

It has been 40 years since I was last aboard and when I walked into the entrance area that led to the hanger deck I noticed it still smelled the same. We didn’t bother with the self guided tour and just wandered around on the tour route.

The only place that was really familiar was the mess deck, but that was mostly because the places that were open to the public were the surface Navy areas where I didn’t spend a lot of time in. Our berthing area was never always in the same spot each time aboard because our little detachment was only part of the Air Wing some of the time. I would have liked to think I could have found our little Maintenance Shack because it was in the same spot all the time, but I’m not so sure. But it didn’t matter as most of the aviation areas were not open to the public anyway.

We did take the guided tour of the island to to get to see the Bridge, the Chart House and PriFly (the airport tower.) Very interesting. The only time I was ever in the island while on board was to pass through on the way up to Vulture’s Row or the Crow’s Nest to take pictures of flight ops. Last stop was the Gift Shop on the fantail where I bought a hat and some postcards.

Seattle “Stoner Tour” Souviner T-Shirts

Usually when I go on vacation I send back postcards to my still stuck behind their desk co-workers, but for next week’s trip out west it might be different. I’m hoping that some enterprizing individual out in Seattle has decided to make up some I-502 relevant souviner T-Shirts, because something like the mock-ups below would make a perfect gift to bring back for them.

These will also make a nice bit of related merchandise for my Cannabis Cabana stores (opening soon in a empty lot near you.)

Postcards from Big Bend

It has been a whole year since we were in the middle of the BKR and took a week off to visit west Texas. And it has been nearly as long that this post has been in my blog’s drafts folder awaiting completion. I don’t know why I didn’t ever finish it in the beginning, but I do know why I didn’t for the last 6 months or so, out of sight is out of mind. On the site’s backend admin page there was a spot that listed your drafts front and center when you logged in, but on one of the updates to the WordPress software that item for some reason disappeared. I recently discovered this during another update and now the drafts are listed again. Anyway…

Whenever I go on a big vacation I try and send back a postcard to each of my co-workers along the way to let them know I’m having a good time not at work while they are having a not so good time at work. This time when I mailed out the 6 cards, instead of writing something different on each card as I went, I took a blurb from the Big Bend National Park website and an explanation as to why the cards all came from the same spot this time, divided them into 6 somewhat equal chunks, one for each postcard and sent them off. I was hoping they would get the card, read the partial phrase, scratch their heads, compare notes and then put the cards together like a big jigsaw puzzle and marvel in my creativity. I put a #1 at the bottom of the card that had the beginning of the phrase to get them started.


[spoiler]No one comes to Big Bend by accident and most would say it is a big effort just • to get here. Once here, many decide that it is just big enough for them to want • to stay for a lifetime. Big Bend National Park encompasses over 800,000 • acres. You could stay forever and not see every nook and cranny. It’s a little • piece of paradise that most are unaware of. This is one of the least visited • parks in our National Park system. So even the solitude and the quiet are big here.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]We usually don’t have any • trouble finding postcards from all • the neat sights we see • on vacation, but Texas proved • the exception, so everyone gets • one from the same place.[/spoiler]

So much for curiosity and/or teamwork, each person got their card, looked at the pretty front, read the back, wondered if I might have been tired, drunk or just plain crazy from the heat, and pinned the postcard to their cubical wall. It wasn’t until I got back, gathered everyone’s cards together and showed them what I had done that they went, “Ahhhh.”

This year I may buy a post card, write out an individual sentiment on it, then cut it into 16 pieces, throw that into an envelope and mail it to them. Oooh, I just had an even better idea, but I don’t want to spoil it here…

With the Mountains and the Lakes and the Plentiful Fish

Perth Postcard FrontCourtesy of Uncle Sam’s Cruise Lines I had the chance to visit the land down under back in 1977. The U.S.S. Midway made port in the town of Perth in southwestern Australia for 7 days. Perth is about the same size as Columbia, SC, that is to say a big city, but small town compared to the big cities in the US. From what I remember of it, it was very clean and there were blond-haired blue-eyed people who spoke English, which was a rarity compared to most ports of call in the western Pacific.

Perth Postcard BackTo let everyone know I visiting such a far away land I sent out postcards. This one was to Donna’s younger brother Scott. It was mailed from the ship, hence the 13¢ US postage. Even then I cracked me up. Of course then, like now, I’m the only one who gets my sense of humor. “I have to walk around with my hands in my pockets so I don’t lose my change.” You see? I was down under, on the bottom of the world, I was upside down. If my hands weren’t in them, stuff would have fallen out the top…sigh, oh well.

This postcard surfaced today as Donna was going through another box of photos and such trying to sort out the wheat from the chaff in the big ol’ pile of Morrison Memories her mom left behind. The back room still has a couple of tables scattered full with images from 1890 to 1990 and she wants to try and get it sorted by sibling and down to a manageable level. I’ve told her that I don’t envy the task, I can’t even throw out a blurry, underexposed digital image of the Aiken High School Marching Band from the local 2003 Christmas parade, I don’t know how she can make the decision to toss a family photo in the waste basket no matter what it’s condition.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 55