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The Adventures of BJ and Tony Morris
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Christmas 1999 Dear
Friend, We
hope you,
are
having a In
January, we had a great time aboard the Presidential Casino boat in St. Louis. It was cold in the train station, Two business
trips in February took me to Kansas City, where I even won a little at BlackJack aboard
Harrah’s Riverboat Casino. Also in
February, we found that RVing in Boston in the winter time wasn’t a great idea. The
pipes in our rented motorhome were frozen and didn’t thaw out until we got close to
Virginia. We had just reached Virginia Beach
when we learned of the sudden death of my Aunt Peggy.
It was quite a shock. We drove
straight to the funeral home in Jefferson to be with my family. After the funeral, we drove the RV up to the North
Georgia mountains and into North Carolina before returning it to Smyrna. It was a beautiful drive. Tony’s
brother, Tim, has rekindled his interest in motorcycle racing. Tony flew down to see his brother take 2nd
place in the Super Twins event at Daytona International Speedway in February. Tim, Barbie and Emma (the only Morris
grandchild… not spoiled at all) have a great web site
(http://people.atl.mediaone.net/timbarb/). Tony started
shopping for a motorhome for our retirement. We
didn’t really intend to buy one for a few more years, but he located one on the
Internet in Portland, Oregon that sounded like a great deal. We flew out March 13th and found that the 24 foot Safari Trek complete with a
“magic” bed that raises up to the ceiling was just what we were looking for. Tony and his friend David flew out a week later to
drive it back. I had my heart set on a beach
vacation, so my friend JeRie, and I went to Key Largo while Tony and David were driving
back from Portland. We got to swim with a
manatee that hangs out in the ocean next to the Howard Johnsons. In the pictures, the only way to tell which one is
the manatee is by the bathing suits… got
to go on that diet… Tony and I went back
to Key Largo in May for a week’s vacation and the manatee was still there! Our
motorhome’s first outing was to Roebling Road Raceway for another of Tim’s races
in April. We watched 2 life-flight
helicopters and 3 ambulances take injured racers away from the track. Thankfully, none of them were Tim, but it was
very scary. The motorhome developed a little
electrical problem, so Tony drove it down to Tampa in May for repairs. I
got to fly on the inaugural flight of Delta’s Boeing 777 to Orlando May 1st. My friend Rita and I sat in business class and
tried out all of the bells and whistles of the new “Business Elite” seats. It was almost as much fun as the new Scorcher at
Six Flags which I experienced a few weeks later. The
“Girl’s Trip” to Maui for Memorial Day included a luau and a sunset cruise. I wanted to get a matching mumu and hawaiian shirt
for me and Tony, but I couldn’t find just the right one. Tony seemed relieved. I brought my neighbor a cutting from a Plumeria
tree and she has already rooted it. Next year
we won’t have to go as far to get a lei! In
June, my friend Sue and her dad entertained
us in their beautiful hometown of Staunton, Virginia. Tony
and I attended Georgia’s motorcycle safety course.
We are now licensed to kill (ourselves)! Tony bought his dream motorcycle, a Yamaha RZ350
(which he now wants to sell!), and I have tried both a small Honda and a Suzuki. We are looking for something we can take with us
when we go motorhoming. Three
friends joined us on our annual July 4th European trip. We arrived in Frankfurt, took the train to
Rudesheim and enjoyed a riverboat cruise to Koblenz.
We had fun, despite a heat wave which we had not packed for. Our one near fiasco was running out of money the
last night. Tony and I left the group at a
restaurant while we went in search of an ATM because the restaurant refused to take credit
cards. The one ATM machine we found was
“Kaput”, and the hotel had already locked their vault and could not exchange our
American money. We returned to the restaurant
to find that our friends, confident of our ability to get money, had ordered dinner. After we ate, we were able to convince the owner
to take our credit card. Tony and I flew to
Belgium when the rest of the group flew home. There,
we rented motor scooters in Kraanim, drove to Gent, Brugge, For
my birthday this year, my father and I flew to Charleston, South Tony
has been travelling a great deal on business since He’s
also been to Dallas twice, I
will be back at the Galleria as the Project Manager of the Technical Architecture group. I’ll be starting this after the Y2K The Worldspan
Golf Tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina this year, was a perfect motorhome trip. Tony was kind enough to drive my foursome to the
tourney while we ate, drank, and played cards. He
was the official photographer for the tournament so of course there were lots of great
shots of me! Tony took
another trip to Savannah to see Tim race in September while my sister, two girlfriends and
I went to Panama City. I won
Ladies’ longest drive and Ladies’ closest to the pin in a vendor golf tournament
in September. I knew I was going to win when
I looked around at the pre-golf sales presentation and noticed that I was the only female
in the group! My long drive was not in the
fairway and my closest to the pin was not on the green, but they gave me a new Odessey
putter anyway! I tacked a stop
in Las Vegas on to my Delta Ladies’ Golf Tournament trip to Palm Springs, California. I won few hands of blackjack and got third place
in the 8th flight at the tournament. We are still
stunned by the loss of Tony’s father in September.
He went very quickly, only two weeks after learning that he was in the
advanced stages of cancer. It was a blessing
that he didn’t suffer long, but we were not prepared for his death. Tony’s mother is doing well and staying busy. She was a pillar of strength during Cracker’s
illness. She accompanied Tony in the
motorhome to Daytona in October to watch Tim race at Biketoberfest. I had to work, but was able to fly down during the
weekend to see one race. Our new
Slinglight chairs made Tony and I the envy of everyone on our annual backbacking trip,
along the Chattooga River in November. Dining
was another story though. We discovered a
dehydrated food to never buy again. You won’t
recognize us in our brand new Honda CR-V which we ordered from the Internet! Carorder.com gave us a great price and even sent a
limo to take us to Honda Carland to pick it up! Of
course I had to wear my tiara to ride in a limo! We have just
returned from Paris, where we spent Thanksgiving. You
might think that 5 adults and 4 children is too many to travel with, but we had a
wonderful time. Tony and I took our niece,
Lauren along with some friends and their children. We
rode up the Eiffel Tower, climbed the Arc de Triumph, toured the museums and took a cruise
on the Seine. Lauren is a great travel
companion. That
wraps our year up. We are looking forward to
the House Family Christmas on Christmas Eve Eve, the traditional Porter Family BBQ on
Christmas Eve, and the Morris Family Christmas on Christmas Day. All of that will be followed by New Year’s at
the computer center and then starts THE BIG DIET! E-mail
me at bj.morris@worldspan.com or Tony at tony.morris@delta-air.com! |