Autographs - Daniel Vieyra

(Click the image to enlarge it.)

Dan and I attended Rice together. Dan is an architecture professor at Kent State.

Since leaving Rice, we've only gotten together a few times. Once, when he visited me in the 1970s in Los Angeles, we spent a good deal of time visiting gas stations he wanted to photograph for his upcoming book, "Fill 'Er Up": An Architectural History of America's Gas Stations

When I visited him in Trenton in 1982, I probably said that I was sorry I forgot to bring the book and have him autograph it for me. Instead, he autographed this item.

The inscription says:

March 24, 1982
To Rodney
My close personal
& moderately demented
friend. FIRE DRILL!
Dan

Maybe someday I will manage to get his autograph on my copy of Fill 'Er Up.

(Index of autographs)

Oregon (August 2013)

At Crater Lake

Link: Photo album (22 photos) As always, view the photos individually to see the captions.

I've flown over Oregon many times, especially all those Alaska trips, and every time I saw Crater Lake from the air, I said, "I want to visit!" I also wanted to see Portland, and I have long wanted to visit California north of Sonoma County. But, of course, I didn't want to drive. Driving is not a vacation for me!

So this tour looked good: nine days in Oregon and far northern California. It would also let me try out Elderhostel (now Road Scholar). I added two days before the tour to have extra time in Portland.

As I feared, I ate too much and exercised too little. But other than that, the trip went quite well, with good weather, too. We only had rain one lunchtime. There were 31 people in the tour group, including at least one gay couple. I'll probably try Road Scholar again sometime.