The Terrible Catsafterme

Dave and I awoke bright and early the morning of July 29, 2007 in our hotel room at the Westin LAX Airport Hotel. We packed up our stuff and headed over to the Wiley office to help load up the afternoon’s coolers with beverages and ice in preparation for the second leg of our bus tours to the various Laurel and Hardy locations. While the prior day’s tours had been centered around Culver City, this day would see some of the other film locations in the outlying areas of Los Angeles. Read the rest of this entry »

I spent my fourth Sunday morning in the presence of Jimmy Carter, as he taught the congregation at the Plains Maranatha Baptist church a weekly lesson from the Bible, on September 23, 2007. Since I knew that the town was crowded from the Peanut Festival and P.O.W. gathering in the area, I pushed Mom and Bob to rise and shine early and speed into Plains in order for us to get in line and get good seats in the church. After we loaded the car and ate a somewhat leisurely breakfast (although Mom might tell you differently), we were on our way at about 7:10am. Read the rest of this entry »

In December of 1997, several cast members of Star Wars made an appearance at the Bookery, a comic and card shop in Fairborn. I recall that I only got to meet John Hollis (Lobot) and Kenny Baker (R2-D2). Dave Prowse (Darth Vader) had been and gone by the time my friend Eric Flinn and I made it there, but he left behind some autographed photos to sell. There were also some signed photos available for purchase from cast members Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett) and Kenny Baker(R2-D2). I purchased all of them. Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t generally eat three meals a day – but by gum, if I was going to do it on the road to Plains, Georgia, I was going to chronicle it. My fourth trip to Plains to see President Carter was certainly one of the parts of our vacation that I was looking forward to the most. You might call it our semi-destination, for after our time there, we were going to press on to Kissimmee for two days at Disney World – and then from there on to Daytona Beach. The saga began in the wee early morning hours of Saturday, September 22, 2007.

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James Madison was our fourth United States President from 1801 – 1809 and the primary author, hence the title “Father of the U.S. Constitution.” Among his other achievements were the co-authorship of The Federalist Papers and the creation of the first ten amendments to the constition, better known as The Bill of Rights. Quite a fascinating and well-educated man, Madison’s life both began and ended in Virginia, a state I recently toured and was able to visit several of the important locations of his life…all carefully and excitedly detailed below. Read the rest of this entry »