It's in the mail 7.1

Nearly a year ago, I wrote about a mailbox near my place of work.  And just today, I noticed it had been replaced with a new model.  The old one was quite shabby looking, having been weathered and beset by vandals.  The new one is bright and shiny, though it, too, has already been marked by vandals (not visible in these photos).  In the continuing drive towards increased security, this box has been equipped with the newer anti-fishing mail slot of the type I first noticed on another local box well over a year ago.  Here's hoping the new box will serve the neighborhood well for many years!

Sweet Home Alabama

 After a whirlwind weekend in New York, it was suddenly time to head home.  After the long day Saturday, the 8:30 am start for our return journey came early.  But wifey and I managed to get packed and ready to go with enough time remaining for essential morning coffee and breakfast at Jake's, the in-house coffee shop in the Knickerbocker Hotel.

Our UAB Alumni group then gathered in the hotel lobby and boarded the bus to LaGuardia Airport and retraced our steps home:  LGA to DCA, a short layover at Reagan Airport, then the last leg to BHM Shuttlesworth Airport and home.  In contrast to the outbound flights, the trip home was smooth, uneventful, and on time.  Almost.  We landed on time in Birmingham and taxied directly to the gate.  But American Airlines wasn't going to allow an entire trip to go completely without trouble.  We pulled up to the gate and then sat many minutes, waiting as nothing happened.  It turned out the jetway malfunctioned, and it was several more minutes before a tractor could be sent to tow our aircraft to another gate where we finally got off the plane.  Miraculously, our luggage was waiting on the baggage claim carousel when we reached it, and the adventure officially concluded.  We were home, our first real travel in over four years was complete.  It was a fun and memorable weekend.  Here's hoping the next one isn't so long in coming.

Knights and Dragons

 Today was the day that is the real focus of our trip: the football game between the Army Black Knights and the UAB Blazers.  The group of about 60 UAB fans made the journey from Birmingham to the US Military Academy at West Point NY to watch the game at Michie Stadium.  Our day began just after 7 am as we met in the lobby of the Knickerbocker Hotel for the bus ride to Pier 11 at the tip of Manhattan.  There, we boarded a Sea Streak ferry for the two hour ride up the Hudson River to West Point.  The ferry ride on the perfect cloudless day provided incredible views of the city of New York as well as the countryside upstate.  The fast catamaran vessel carried us swiftly up river with a comfortable but very breezy ride.

We arrived at West Point, and after a brief shuttle from the dock, sat in our seats in the stadium. A good hometown crowd turned out to watch their team, while we Blazer fans attempted to support the team in spite of our small numbers.  And the dismal play of the team.  UAB football had been on the upswing in recent years, with multiple postseason bowl appearances and a conference championship.  But after the sudden unexpected retirement of beloved head coach Bill Clark due to health problems, the team has been quickly dismantled.  Clark was replaced by Trent Dilfer, a Superbowl winning NFL quarterback with no previous college coaching experience.  The risky pick has not paid off as Dilfer has shown no coaching ability in the past two seasons as the Blazers have descended into ineptitude.  Most fans devoutly hope for a coaching change at the end of the season, if not before.  So it was no surprise that Army beat UAB 44-10.  Still, the experience was a memorable one, being my first visit to one of America's military academies.

After the game, our group returned to The Knick by bus.  A small group of us then set out walking across Times Square to Junior's, a well known restaurant.  Initially dubious about visiting what I assumed was just an overpriced tourist trap, I was pleasantly surprised by the whole visit.  We were able to get a table with only a very short wait, the food was impressively good, and the service was superb.  Junior's is most famous for their cheesecake, and it did not disappoint.  I recommend the reuben and French onion soup.  After dinner, we made our way through the raucous Times Square crowds one last time for our last night at The Knick.  Tomorrow, the journey home to Birmingham.

Our Town

 On the second day in NYC, we begin with a familiar routine.  Our first stop was The Strand Bookstore, near Union Square.  This place has long been a favorite shopping spot during all our NY trips.  A large part of our house is filled with books from The Strand.  So we paid another visit and were not disappointed.  The place has changed a little inside, and now includes a small coffee bar in the back.  We perused the stacks for over an hour, and came away with some new books and a stack of postcards I will be soon sending to Postcrossing members around the world.

We walked around the farmer's market set up in Union Square for a while, enjoying the beautiful day before then going to nearby Ribalta, a Neapolitan pizza joint we've come to love.  The wood fired oven pizza can't be beat, and we enjoyed an elegant and delicious lunch.  I strongly recommend the Brigante pizza with spicy oil and salami.  Superb!

From there, a stop at the St. Regis Hotel, where the famed King Cole Bar has just re-opened after a long period of renovation.  At this bar, it is said the original Bloody Mary was invented, though they call it the Red Snapper.  We ordered one, and so this trip included a martini and Bloody Mary at the places where they originated.

Back to The Knickerbocker to freshen up before we headed out through Times Square to the Ethel Barrymore Theater to watch the revival of Thornton Wilder's classic play Our Town.  Opening night for the play was the previous evening, so we'd just read the glowing review of the familiar play.  Familiar, because in the 1970s, my father, a high school teacher, and my mother played Mr. and Mrs. Webb in the high school's student-faculty production of Our Town.  In this Broadway version, their parts were played by Richard Thomas (John-Boy, from The Waltons) and Katie Holmes (ex-wife of Tom Cruise).  The lead role of the play, the Stage Manager, was played by Jim Parsons (from Big Bang Theory).  The show was a triumph, and I enjoyed watching the examination of human mortality as presented via small town New Hampshire life.  A very memorable evening!  But then it was time to head back to our hotel, as tomorrow will be an early start.

Escape to New York

 In a former life, wifey and I were frequent visitors to New York City.  We'd travel there 3 or 4 times per year, mostly to see Broadway shows, but also to partake of all the culture in a large metropolitan center- museums, parks, shopping, dining, and all that.  We really grew to like the city and became comfortable moving around in it.  On our last trip over the first weekend of March 2020, however, there were already rumblings of a looming disaster.  Cases of a new disease that would come to be called Covid had been detected in nearby Westchester county the weekend we were there.  But we largely did our usual thing- travelled by subway, ate indoors at restaurants, and went to movies and Broadway theater.  We saw a very fine production of The Lehman Trilogy at the Nederlander Theater which starred Adam Godley, Ben Miles, and Simon Russell Beale.  In fact, we saw the first performance of the show in previews on March 7, 2020.  We flew home Monday the 9th.  And by Thursday the 12th, the show had closed and the city of New York began lockdown.  The global pandemic had begun.

The rest, as they say, is history.  It was a couple years before the country would begin to emerge from the pandemic limitations, and longer yet before wifey and I would travel.  But more than four and a half years later, we return to New York, eager to resume where we left off.  This time, we travel as part of a group from UAB, with the purpose of attending the UAB-Army football game at West Point, NY on Saturday.  But we'll have time to do some familiar things in Manhattan as well.  In preparation for the trip, we got the most recent Covid and flu vaccine booster shots, and eagerly look forward to the adventure.

Alas, the cynic in me always points out that air travel in the USA is reliably a hot mess.  I can't remember any of our NYC trips ever going completely smoothly and according to schedule.  This one was no exception, right off the bat.  Past experience had taught us to book non-stop flights after many missed connections.  But since we were part of a tour group, we had no say in the arrangements for this trip.  Our journey was to have two legs on American Airlines: from Birmingham to Washington DC, a 90 minute layover, then on to New York Laguardia.  We were all seated and buckled in for an on-time departure from BHM when the pilot came on the speaker to tell us there was a mechanical problem with the airplane and we'd have to de-plane for repairs to take place.  The problem? A broken armrest on one of the seats. With this inauspicious beginning, we all got off the plane and waited in the gate area.  While we waited, we heard over at the adjacent gate that their inbound plane would have to be taken out of service, as there had been an "event" in flight and all the overhead oxygen masks had been deployed.  So those passengers were out of luck as their plane would be unusable.  Could be worse for us, or so I thought.  The seat "repair" (a mechanic simply duct taped the armrest out of the way and put a sign on the seat saying it was not to be used) was quickly finished, and so we all re-boarded the plane, sat down and buckled up.  Then we waited.  And waited.  No info from anyone while we waited as our layover in DCA ticked away.  After nearly an hour of waiting on the hot, stuffy plane, we departed and were headed to DCA at last.

We landed with what seemed like just enough time to reach our connecting plane at Reagan Airport.  But with great cruelty, American Airlines wouldn't make it quite so easy.  We landed, then waited and waited for a gate assignment so that we could get off the plane.  Once we finally did, it was, naturally, a gate far from our connecting flight. So we ran (or as close to running as I can manage these days) and reached the NYC bound plane with mere minutes to spare.  Finally!   This flight departed on-time and the rest of the short journey to NY was smooth and on schedule.

It was a beautiful, sunny, cool Autumn day as we landed at LaGuardia Airport, which had been an absolute dump in the midst of a major remodeling the last time we had been there.  Now, it is actually rather nice: modern, clean, and reasonably well laid out.  It also seems a bit bigger- we had a long walk to baggage claim and then the group bus that took us to our Times Square hotel.  But at last, we arrived at The Knickerbocker Hotel, our base of operations for the next few days.  We checked in to the very nice room, then went to the St. Cloud rooftop bar for a Martini, supposedly invented here at the Knick.  Our first day of travel was complete, and we are back in Manhattan at last, after four and a half years.

Even Dozen

 Today marks my 12th anniversary as a member of the international postcard exchange project known as Postcrossing.  Twelve years ago today I began an adventure that has occupied a significant amount of my leisure time, and has been rewarding in many ways.  Over that time, I have sent 10,709 postcards to 117 different countries, and I have received 10,684 postcards from around the world. Among the 74,946 registered Postcrossing members in the USA, I rank 27th in terms of number of cards sent.  Among the 802 members in Alabama, I am #1 - the leading Postcrosser in The Cotton State.  It's been a rewarding experience, mostly in coming to know people from all around the world, and to realize that we are all the same, more or less.  We all have the same dreams and goals.  And in sending so many cards, I've seen some familiar comments in the thank-you messages I get when a recipient registers the card I've sent.  Among the most popular: "I knew of the Birmingham in England, but not the Alabama one."  or "I did know of Alabama- from the Lynyrd Skynyrd song, 'Sweet Home Alabama'." or, only slightly less often "Donald Trump?!  What the hell is wrong with you, America?"  Here's to many more years of Postcrossing.  Write on!

World Postcard Day

 On this day, we celebrate the 155th anniversary of the marvelous communication device, the postcard.  On this day in 1869, Dr. Emanuel Herrmann, an Austrian professor of economics, wrote an article describing the advantages of a single, small piece of stiff paper to convey short messages through the postal system.  These early  Correspondenz-Kartes were quickly adopted by the Austrian postal system, and the familiar post card was born.  Since then, millions of people have bragged to friends and family about their holidays and vacations, long before such things could be done electronically.  Today, of course, the postcard is not commonly used as a communication device.  But postcards continue to live on in communities such as Postcrossing, where I meet interesting people from all around the world.  In upcoming travel, I intend to send postcards to all my friends and family and in so doing commemorate the humble postcard, which has brought joy to many throughout its long history.  Happy World Postcard Day!