First Day off ! Woo hoo.

Early Monday morning we checked into a hotel in Jersey City, NJ. I spent the first hour of my first day off lost in the NJ underground trying to find a ferry to Manhattan. I wanted a picture from the New Jersey side. Finally, I emerged in Hoboken to find the weather had changed to a foggy, rainy day. Not great for pictures. I took a ferry to financial district and then the A train to 42nd Street. (Thank you New York strangers who patiently explained the MTA maze to me)

I picked up a few things in Times Square and then moved towards objective 1 for the day which was here.

Walking around the Intrepid Museum was wild. I had never been on an air craft carrier. I saw rooms the size of my hotel room that had 40 bunks. I'll pull that image to mind if ever I grow weary of my much bigger bunk on the bus. I don't know how the sailors did it. In addition to more comfortable bunks when on the bus, I sleep without worrying that a kamkasi fighter pilot will crash onto the flight deck. At any given time over 3000 men were in service aboard the Intrepid from 1943 through the early 70's. World War II ... collecting astronauts for NASA ... Vietnam. My visit was a very rich experience.

Monday night Al, Mitch, Rob, Allan, Eric, and John went to The Iridium Jazz Club to see the 93 year old Les Paul perform. (he will be 94 in June) Here's a snap taken by master cameraman Rob McLaughlin.

I missed the show so that I could get together with my friend Katy and her brand new husband John.

I met the former Miss O'Brien working at KSP. We both
shared "the pipe"(internet) on the back bench of the
control room. Everyone in Foxboro is curious about
the type of guy that could lure Katy away from blissful
Massachusetts. Monday night I found out. Great guy.

Coming later this week ... a possible violation of my
blogger "terms of service agreement" !

Also - apologies for all the weird page breaks
(words broken up) I'm trying to fix it.

mm