Early June Travel Report

Greetings

Well, George's appearance at the Ypsilanti Orphan Car show was enjoyable, however, I was traveling without my Chekcer, which did not make it out of the shops properly repaired (I was having tie rods and break pads replaced). As I was leaving the mechanic's property, I blew a break line, and left a puddle of fluid in the street. I came to a halt, and had to be pushed back into the mechanic's shop. Not a good sign at the start of a 600 mile trip, so the car stayed home and I took my daily driver on the adventure.

This was my first trip to Ypsilanti, the city is the location of the home of Preston Tucker, the Michigan Firehouse Museum and the oldest Hudson dealership - all sites worthy of a visit. The restored downtown is an interesting study in how a planed restoration can revitalize old buildings and bring folks back into the area for lunch, dinner and events.

My travel from Wisconsin to Michigan always includes a round-trip on the S.S. Badger, a 1950s car ferry. It is a coal fired steam ship (the last in operation in the U.S.) And overnight visits with a sculptor friend of mine, James MaloneBeach. He is an art teacher at Big Rapids High School, and an end-of-term day with high schoool students is always interesting.

The second part of the adventure was a long weekend to Little Rock, Ark., at the invitation of Tom Dodson and the Central Arkansas Coin Club. I gave a slide talk on new technologies of world bank notes at a special meeting of the club. It drew a varied attendance of current and prospective members as well as professionals from the banking council. Tom and I have been working at the Coin Collecting Merit Badge Midway Booth at the National Scout Jamborees of 2001 and 2005. We are already planing the 2010 event, celebrating the centennial of scouting in the United States.

The leasure part of my time in Little Rock included visits to the National Park Service Historic Site of Central High - the site of the 1950s school interegration events, the William Clinton Presidental Library, which also includes a restored train station, and a Arkansas Traveler's baseball game. The Razorback, a WWII submarine, is docked on the river, and in town for the day was the venerable paddlewheeler the Delta Queen. All said and done, it was a great trip.

Now, I've got plenty of voice-mail and e-mail to tackle.

George ?uhaj