You know Jay, I get the feeling that one day, maybe ten or twenty years
from now, you'll just hang it up and stop flying at all. Been there, done
that, whatever. The passion will have just... well... died, and you won't
understand why, nor will it make much sense to you to even ask why,
because you won't be actually =feeling= the passion any more.

It will happen, for sure.

My vision will continue to deteriorate. My blood pressure -- recently
brought under control through weight loss -- will continue its inexorable
upward climb. There will be no escaping the final defeat, and my flying
*will* cease.

But not until I've seen every last corner of this country from the left
seat. And not until I've passed my passion on to every person who sets foot
in my lobby. That I can promise.

You can't imagine it now. But you tout flying as the "be all and end all
for everyone" so strongly that I wonder what the future will surprise you
with. One thing I've learned in life is that things don't turn out the
way it looks like they are going to.

Boy, ain't that the truth. Three years ago, I was embarking on an almost
unbelievably risky venture to rescue an old hotel from the jaws of collapse,
and to rebuild it in the image of an almost unimaginably stupid dream. NO
ONE thought it could succeed, and none of us thought it would make money.

Well, here we are, three years later (on 8/19), and I'm here to tell you
that we haven't lost a dime. We haven't made much, either, but the entire
flying community has come out to support us, and we've turned a small profit
every year. People we could never have counted on (and had never even heard
of) came out of the woodwork with irreplaceable, one-of-a-kind memorabilia
and artwork -- all of it donated -- to help make our hotel unique and
therefore successful.

Mustang stuff came from Vlado. SR-71 stuff came from Bill. Memphis Belle
stuff came from Bob Morgan himself. Stearman stuff came from local pilots.
Reno air race stuff was received from the race organizers themselves. Web
space was donated by Jav Henderson. ALL of this stuff was donated,
freely -- because these folks knew we didn't have a pot to pee in, and they
wanted to see their stuff enshrined in a setting that real, honest,
down-to-earth pilots and enthusiasts will see and enjoy.

They shared the dream.

I don't know about you, but that makes my throat tighten. I tend to get
awfully choked up about the generosity and assistance we've received from
pilots all over the world -- none of it requested or expected. These folks
just gave, freely, and without reservation, and all of us have benefited
from it.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"
"Jose" wrote in message
t...


Jose
--
Quantum Mechanics is like this: God =does= play dice with the universe,
except there's no God, and there's no dice. And maybe there's no
universe.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.