Builders,
This started out as a joke between Earl Brown and myself at CC #36 in Texas. I said that I was thinking of new college locations, and Kevin mentioned that he and Shelley are relocating to Tyler TX in the future. I said I’m sure it’s nice but I was thinking of something really different like the island of Martinique in the French West Indies.
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Thus it began, and for the two day’s following the college, Earl and I spun and evermore elaborate tale contrasting what CC #58 would be like vs Kevin’s future in Tyler. It evolved to Corvair powered amphibians on beaches with topless French women and our own personal bartender named “Henri ” vs Kevin driving a minivan to Tyler PTA meetings for his yet to be conceived grandchildren. Mind you, neither Earl nor I have been within 500 miles of Martinique, but details like that should never get in the way of teasing a close friend.
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OK, into the picture comes Corvair/Piet builder Stuart Snow to last Week’s CC #37. Stu has actually been to Martinique in an official capacity; he was part of the White House secure communications team when G Bush 41 met Miterand of France there for a US-French summit meeting. Stu reports that half the stuff that Earl and I dreamed up actually happens to be real……..and so I have signed him on as communications director for CC #58. That is why he is holding the sign which says “Sorry Kevin”.
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As a foot note Stu added that as much as we think of Airforce one, Miterand traveled on the Concorde, and after watching it leave with 150,000 pounds of thrust from four afterburning jet engines, he decided that afterburners and Mach 2 is really how the head of state should travel.
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-ww.
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Astro van Band-Dad!
By the way I also had the privilege of doing a stop in Bali Indonesia and I can report that it is a suitable location as a Corvair College also. It was tough duty but I felt the call to serve my country. 🙂
Shelley’s looking at a house in Tyler as we speak. They have airplane service to Martinique, by the way.
One of my wilder ‘wild-hair’ projects is to design and build a WWII ‘replica’; in this case, a scaled-down PBY powered by a pair of corvairs. Bali is just too far, even for a full size PBY, so I vote for Martinique.
PietVair with extra fuel……….”the Spirit of St. Martinique”.