DO YOUR OWN THING DAY

One thing that we have discovered during the course of our marriage, 40 years, is that we need to give each other space to do their own thing. Especially when living on a boat. So today was a Do Your Own Thing Day.

After breakfast I left for Manhattan to visit two museums, the Rose Space Center at the American History Museum and the Intrepid Museum. Joy spent the day with her trusty yellow kayak going around the marina and exploring Liberty State Park. I think we are going over to Liberty Park on Wednesday as we can take the ferry there for a dollar.

The Rose Space center houses the Hayden Planetarium, which has a new show called Journey to the Stars, and the IMAX theater was showing the movie, Hubble. I took the subway and walked to the Intrepid which is parked on the west side of Manhattan. It features the aircraft carrier Intrepid, a lot of planes, and a British Airways Concorde. After the Intrepid, I walked 50 minutes to get to the PATH train at 33rd and Broadway. It was a nice walk, not too hot.

A little piece of aviation history. The Concorde was built in a combined effort from British Airways and Air France. It was to compete against US aircraft companies, mainly Boeing, McDonald Douglas and Lockheed. Its claim to fame was speed, and nothing else but speed. It crossed the Atlantic in under 3 hours. It head 100 seats, 25 rows of 4 seats, sitting 2 by 2 with one aisle down the center. Crew of 9, 2 pilots, one flight engineer and six cabin people. I remember back then that US planes had a lot of leg room and the Concorde was considered very tight in terms of leg room but it had speed to offer. When I was on the plane today, I noticed that the legroom seemed large compared to planes today where they pack people in by cutting back on leg room.

They had a sign that said the average fare was over $6,000. However the two airlines and thus the governments lost millions and the Concorde was discontinued. If my memory is still working, I believe at that time both airlines were owned by their national governments.

Pictures today are of the cover that Linda Franko made for us. It helps provide shade and keeps the inside temperature from increasing. Thanks, Linda!

Joe

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