Two Recent Road Trips

Dubbed Coronavirus Challenge I and II (CV I and CV II)

While I have never in these past 2 years made light of this pandemic, I have refused to change my whole life or be afraid paranoid of catching it. Last May, I took a 6,500 mile road trip through the Southwest and this month I completed a 5,200 mile trip through the northern west.

Ever since I could drive, I have liked to roam. When I went to school in Virginia, I would pick a new route each time when going across the country. Although with that kind of driving, having to “be there” in a week or so, one doesn’t have a lot of time for sightseeing. Although even 50 years later, I remember one route: US 50 through Utah, then old US 40 through Steamboat Springs and 11,000’ high Berthold Pass. Which if I remember correctly, is the highest year-round road in the country.

I did write some time ago about my “mini lap around America” in 2006.

One thing I did discover on my latest 2 “Mini Loops” around America.

9/11: An Airline Pilot’s Memory of that Day

Posted on September 11, 2021

Some of us were reminiscing what we were doing that morning 20 years ago, and one Lexican had a particular poignant memory. With his permission to post this, here it is.

“On this date, 20 years ago I was a young captain on the MD-80. We got up early for a trip from Houston to Tampa. It was my leg and the second day of a four day trip. It was a beautiful bright morning and clear skies at both Houston and Tampa airports. A great day to fly and what I thought at the time would be an easy leg. Like the fateful United and American flights that would go down that day, and were departing at about the same time as I was, the last thought on my mind was a hijacking. There were no warnings. No memos to keep a “heads up”. Nothing.

The Jaguar E-Type’s 60th Anniversary

Somewhere floating around my home – I believe the upstairs loft, is a somewhat faded picture of a boy in a suit, sitting in the driver’s seat of a British Racing Green 1963 Jaguar E-Type. He has a slight shy smile.  It was my 16th birthday, and my father asked me what I would like.

I wanted to rent an E-Type and enjoy it all day. Even called rental companies in the Bay Area to no avail. I guess I was a bit naïve, although Hertz was renting the Shelby GT-350, so why not? There are many stories about that, including the time a customer returned one minus the Shelby-prepared 289 engine and put in some wheezy tired 289 from a pedestrian Ford station wagon.

Needless to say, Hertz didn’t make any money on its “weekend racer”. But it became a legend, so much so that Ford made a commemorative GT350H a few years ago.

A Fourth of July Message for These Polarized Times

As I was reposting so much of Carroll “Lex” LeFon’s work, I came to realize how timeless some of it is. Even though he has been gone from us for 9 years, he can still be in the national conversation. As I was reposting his work, I thought it would be nice to time a few of his posts for the days long ago that he originally posted.

This is one of them that just popped up today, 14 years ago from the time he originally sent it to the blogosphere. I must have told WordPress a few years ago to (re)post it today.

I had forgotten about it.

I was just re-reading it, and felt that he could have written this today.

Think this polarization is something new to this country?

Two of the country’s founders, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, one an aristocratic Virginian and the other an established New Englander, had different ideas as to the direction the country should take.

Sound familiar?

The 2 didn’t speak for 15 years.

Lex wrote about this with more eloquence than I could offer…

80 Years + 2 Days Ago

They are all probably long gone now. It is funny, as a 23 year old stationed in Germany, I considered them at the time, old. And now I am far older – by at least 20 years – than them.

When I wasn’t under the ground in the NATO bunker in Germany, I was more often than not in the photo lab by my barracks. The man who ran it, Willi Schubert, became a friend. Besides teaching me the art of developing and printing my film – and Agfa 8×10 paper was $2! – we talked a lot. If you look at my post Europe in B & W, that was just a small portion of those 8 x 10 prints.

As I have mentioned before, in my travels I remember the people I have met along the way as much as the sights.

Paul Tibbets Interview

This is a fascinating 2 part interview with Kermit Weeks. Tibbets tells the story of the B-29 development and why Boeing wanted to cancel the development. Tibbets was instrumental in helping Boeing finish the development.

He talks about the preparation of the mission, and what happened during that mission.

Odd Statement

Posted By lex, on March 8th, 2011

In this otherwise mundane article about the usual foreign policy tug of war within the Capital Beltway – Libya, this time – we find an interesting insight into President Obama’s grasp of history:

Iconography

Posted by lex, on September 29, 2010

Courtesy of occasional reader Zane, the iconography of Iwo Jima, with an essay on Joe Rosenthal’s tribulations. His photograph of the second raising of the American flag atop Suribachi guaranteed the existence of the Corps for the next 500 years, according to Navy Secretary James Forrestal.

I’ve walked those beaches and climbed that hill, and was in awe for every moment of it. And I wasn’t carrying a ten pound rifle, nor a forty pound ruck. And no one was shooting down on me.

If that’s a little too distant, these images * from the war in Iraq may evoke memories of a more innocent time, while graphically depicting our gradual loss of innocence over the years.

I don’t know that we come out of Iraq with any guarantees at all.

Two very different fights. Two very different endings.

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** 02-15-21 Lex’s original link had the text in the Wayback Machine but not the images. I found another link but sadly it has but one image . Lex has several posts on his time at Iwo Jima. – Ed.

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The Day the Music Died

I was only 8 years old when it happened, so I didn’t remember the anniversary. I was just driving home listening to SiriusXM’s 50s on 5 listening to the host interviewing people who were there.

On a cold, windy and snowy evening on February 3, 1959, 3 young men, whose music is still appreciated 62 years later, died 10 minutes after takeoff, when their chartered Beechcraft Bonanza crashed on an Iowa field.

Hitler’s Would-be Assassin

For those who have even a modicum of WW2 history knowledge, the first thought that came to your mind was most likely Claus von Stauffenberg.

But there was apparently another some years earlier who, but for some fog, would have been successful.

That’s why I enjoy reading the BBC History Magazine. Many of their articles bring out either a revelation of daily life in the ancient times (for example in this issue, Vol 21, Nbr 13, life in the Roman Army for those who were Centurions (who commanded 80 men) and below), to obscure moments and figures in history.