Crew of the USS Tom Clancy,
I hope this dispatch finds you well. Today is my birthday! So the day very much finds me well, jamming out this short dispatch from the Barnes and Nobles on Jefferson Avenue in Newport News, where I used to spend an *inordinate* amount of time as a teenager and in my early twenties when I was stationed at Fort Monroe.
Tonight my best friend and I will have dinner, tomorrow we will go to the beach, this weekend we’ll be doing tourist stuff (I love tourist stuff, even in the place where I grew up the most). So a very happy Birthday from the Birthplace of America, Yorktown, Virginia, it’s where I was this morning, it’s where I will be this evening.
Last battle of the Revolutionary War, where independence was won in 1781!
I thought I would be at a Rolls Royce convention in Nashville with my friend Peter, but Clemmie (Peter’s 1954 Rolls Royce Silver Dawn in Tudor Grey and Shell Grey with a crimson interior) red-lined up Afton Mountain and “failed to proceed” (Rolls Royce automobiles don’t break down, they fail to proceed) just north of Roanoke—you’ll be able to read about this adventure in an upcoming issue of County Highway.
It’s been an incredible month, many irons in the fire, many adventures in planning, but today—if you feel so inclined—*is* my birthday, and the system that we are trapped within dictates that money is required for adventures, so why not kill two birds with one stone, and get me a birthday present that will also provide you with at least a few moments of enjoyement and amusement.
And maybe a few of alarm; the Pyramids are everywere.
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In any case, this summer will bring additional Tom Clancy exegesis and reports from weird places. Thanks again for being along on this crazy ride. Hope you all are having a wonderful summer, and thank you for reading my work.
Happy Birthday, Matt!!! May you have many more healthy and and prosperous ones.
It seems that most of us never pay attention to the touristy places where we live. I lived in Philadelphia for over 4 years before I went to see the any of the local historic sites. I fact I worked in an office just across the street from Independence Hall for over a year after college and didn't go look at it until my mother asked if I had seen it. I was so embarrassed that I crossed the street the next morning and wandered through the building for about an hour.
When I moved back to Mobile, which I consider my home town, I vowed to visit the historic sites, which I have done for the most part.
Best wishes.
Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Matt!
Afton Mountain has been the doom of many a good vehicle. In the 1960s and 1970s, it took my family's '63 Fairlane station wagon (head gasket) and broke a friend's '67 bug (piston rod). Blue and gray smoke, plus the smell of burnt oil, were just part of the Afton driving experience on the way to Crozet.
That overweight, underpowered, non-aerodynamic Silver Dawn never had a chance. It is a beautiful piece of coachbuilding, though, and I can't wait for the Country Highway post-mortem.