Soundwalk in Denver, Colorado - La Quinta

Greetings From Route LQ (Hotel chain La Quinta)

The Most Unusual Art You'll Ever Hear

Soundwalk
Soundwalk is a unique sound installation in downtown Denver, created by artist Jim Green.  Head down Curtis Street, and you may hear elephants, chickens, or even subway sounds from the grates below (there is no subway in Denver).  The only thing more fun than listening in - is watching the reactions of other passers-by.

Denver, Colorado

Nearest la Quinta: 1 miles

With over 780 Locations, La Quinta Inns & Suites is everywhere you travel.

unused, from 2010

Kennedy Space Center, Aerial Views - Then and Now

 Aerial View of Cape Canaveral, Florida, showing service towers at the Air Force Missile Test Center's launching site, Cape Canaveral, Florida

Patrick Air Force base, Florida

postmarked in 1971 with a USA 'First Man on the Moon' 10 cent stamp!  The postcard is stamped and bumped at the postoffice, but has no address or writing on it!! 

Here is an Aerial View of what it looks like today ...

The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex provides an exhilaration and educational experience of the space program.  Whether touring the Rocket Garden, or boarding a full-scale replica of the Space Shuttle Explorer, visitors are guaranteed to gain a new perspective on the incredible feats accomplished by the space program. 

Photo courtesy: NASA

unused, bought in 2009

China - Hongcun Yixian, Anhui (Qing dynasty)

 China - Hongcun Yixian, Anhui (Qing dynasty)

postmarked in 2011 with 4 China stamps

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Hongcun is a village in Yi County county, Anhui Province, People's Republic of China, near the southwest slope of Mount Huangshan.

The village is arranged in the shape of an ox with the nearby hill (Leigang Hill) interpreted as the head, and two trees standing on it as the horns. Four bridges across the Jiyin stream can be seen as the legs whilst the houses of the village form the body. Inside the “body”, the Jiyin stream represents the intestines and various lakes such as the “South Lake” (Nanhu) form the other internal organs.

The architecture and carvings of the approximately 150 residences dating back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties are said to be among the best of their kind in China.

The village became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.

Scenes from the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon were filmed on location in Hongcun, leading to a dramatic increase in tourism.

 

Fallow Deer in Arbuckle Wilderness, Oklahoma

Arbuckle Wilderness
Exit 51 Interstate 35, Davis, Oklahoma 73030

Arbuckle Wilderness is a fantasy land, filled with nearly 2000 animals from allover the world.  An eight mile scenic drive allows you and your family to view these animals as they roam freely through the park.  One of the animals you will see during your visit is the fallow deer.  Possessing good senses of smell and hearing and a great sense of sight, the fallow can spot a motionless person were other deer cannot.

unused

Tibetan Mastiff

Tibetan Mastiff

This postcard is postmarked from Hong Kong in 2011 with two Hong Kong stamps and one stamp that was pre-printed on the card. 

The sender writes: 

I visited Tibet last year and went up to the Himalayas. The view is amazing, so close it's like you could touch the sky.

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The Tibetan Mastiff reflects its use as a guardian of herds, flocks, tents, villages, monasteries, and palaces, much as the old English ban-dog was a dog tied outside the home as a guardian. However, in nomad camps and in villages, the Tibetan Mastiff is traditionally allowed to run loose at night and woe be unto the stranger who walks abroad after dark.

 

Zorbing

Zorb Smoky Mountains

Yes, that's 3 people inside an 11 feet high Zorb ball!  The Zorb ride is just a totally bizarre and fun adventure experience where you're protected by a massive cushion of air whilst sphering down a hill. 

postmarked in 2011 with a matching Zorb stamp!

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Zorbing is the recreation of rolling downhill in an orb, generally made of transparent plastic. Zorbing is generally performed on a gentle slope, but can also be done on a level surface, permitting more rider control. In the absence of hills some operators have constructed ramps. There are two types of orbs, harnessed and non-harnessed. Non-harness orbs carry up to three riders, while the harness orbs are constructed for one to two riders.  The longer runs are approximately half a mile.

Easter Greetings

Easter Greetings

Baby Angel coming from colored Easter Eggs - Embossed

This is one freaky angel!  The one arm is very short and almost looks like the front leg of a lizard and the other arm is missing a chuck out of it!

postmarked in 1909 with a one cent stamp

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Easter Greetings

embossed postcard with a rabbit choir (in egg shells) and a rabbit conductor

unused
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In honor of my wedding anniversary tomorrow ...

Driver carries no cash - He's married (we were married in ...9teen87 :)

back has, "this is a Mailable Sticker from the Expression Factory  - so you mail it as a postcard, then the person uses it as a bumper sticker!

unused, but has 2006 written on the back

Bay of Plenty, New Zealand

Bay of Plenty
New Zealand

The sun soaked north eastern coast of the North Island was name the Bay of Plenty by Captain James Cook. It has more than lived up to its name as a major fruit exporting region and favourite tourist destination.

This is postmarked in 2010 with New Zealand stamp.

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The Bay of Plenty is a large indentation in the northern coast of New Zealand's North Island. It stretches from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runaway in the east, a wide stretch of some 259 km of open coastline.

The bay contains numerous islands, notably the active volcano Whakaari/White Island, which lies 50 kilometres from the North Island coast in the eastern bay.

The favourable climatic and growing conditions around the bay's coast make this area a major fruit- and vegetable-growing region, with major crops including kiwifruit and apples. There is also productive pastoral land along the coast utilised for sheep and dairy farming.

New Zealand stamp 2009

1.80

Russell

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Russell, formerly known as Kororareka, was the first permanent European settlement and sea port in New Zealand. It is situated in the Bay of Islands, in the far north of the North Island. As at the 2006 census it had a resident population of 816.  Much of the accommodation in the area consists of holiday homes or tourist accommodation.

State Capitol, Austin Texas, 1941 and 2010

State Capitol at Night, Austin, Texas

At night the State Capitol dome is brilliantly illuminated, and is the finest thing noticed by visitors approaching the city from any direction.  Austin lies in a valley, and the Capitol at night appears as the center facet of an immense diamond, surrounded by the many tower lights which are a unique Austin institution.

unused from 1941

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Construction of the Italian Renaissance Revival capitol was funded through an article in the state constitution, adopted February 15, 1876, which authorized the sale of public lands for the purpose. In one of the largest barter transactions in recorded history, the builders of the capitol were paid with over three-million acres (12,000 km²) of public land in the Texas Panhandle; this tract later became the largest cattle ranch in the world, the XIT Ranch. The value of the land, combined with out-of-pocket expenses, added to a total cost of $3.7 million for the original building. It was largely constructed by convicts or migrant workers, up to a thousand at a time. 

The cornerstone for the building was laid on March 2, 1885, Texas Independence Day, and the completed building was opened to the public on April 21, 1888. The building was originally planned to be constructed entirely of limestone from Oatmanville (present-day Oak Hill), about ten miles (16 km) to the southwest. However, the limestone was found to have a high iron content after it began to discolor. Hearing of the problem, the owners of Granite Mountain near Marble Falls offered to donate to the state, free of charge, the necessary amount of pink granite as an alternative. While the building is mostly built of the Oak Hill limestone, most of it is hidden behind the walls and on the foundations. Pink granite was subsequently used in many state government buildings in the Austin area.

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Here is a postcard from 2010

420 - National Weed Day

Bud Market

This is the cheese market in Holland - only someone took the cheese off the 'tray' and added marijuana plants!!

This is postmarked with three Nederland (Netherlands) stamps in 2008.

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April 20th is known as National 420 Day, or National Marijuana Day.

The term 420 can be used to refer to marijuana, but it is not a code word used by police, which is a common myth among many. Another common myth related to this term is that "420" actually refers to the number of chemicals that are in marijuana. This is also untrue, as there are no synthetic chemicals in cannabis.

The term was coined by a group of teenagers in San Rafael, California in 1971. Calling themselves the Waldos, because "their chosen hang-out spot was a wall outside the school," the group first used the term in connection to a Fall 1971 plan to search for an abandoned cannabis crop that they had learned about. The Waldos designated the Louis Pasteur statue on the grounds of San Rafael High School as their meeting place, and 4:20 p.m. as their meeting time. The Waldos referred to this plan with the phrase "4:20 Louis". Multiple failed attempts to find the crop eventually shortened their phrase to simply "4:20", which ultimately evolved into a codeword the teens used to mean pot-smoking in general.

Some immediate physical effects of marijuana include a faster heartbeat and pulse rate, bloodshot eyes, and a dry mouth and throat. Studies of marijuana's mental effects show that the drug can impair or reduce short-term memory, alter sense of time, and reduce ability to do things which require concentration, swift reactions, and coordination, such as driving a car or operating machinery.

Scientists believe that marijuana can be especially harmful to the lungs because users often inhale the unfiltered smoke deeply and hold it in their lungs as long as possible. Therefore, the smoke is in contact with lung tissues for long periods of time, which irritates the lungs and damages the way they work. Marijuana smoke contains some of the same ingredients in tobacco smoke that can cause emphysema and cancer. In addition, many marijuana users also smoke cigarettes; the combined effects of smoking these two substances creates an increased health risk.

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Here is what the cheese market really looks like .......

Holland 

The Cheese Market

Alkmaar

This card is postmarked in 2011. 

Corinth Canal, Greece

Corinth Canal

Excavations of Corinth anal 1882 - 1893

Length 6.343 meters (3.9 miles)
Width 25 meters (79 feet)
Water depth 8 meters (26 feet)
Highest point from sea level 79 meters

unused, from 2011

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Several rulers in antiquity dreamed of cutting a canal through the Isthmus. The first to propose such an undertaking was the tyrant Periander in the 7th century BC. He abandoned the project due to technical difficulties, and instead constructed a simpler and less costly overland portage road, named Diolkos. According to another theory, Periander feared that a canal would have robbed Corinth of its dominating role as entrepôt for goods.

The Diadoch Demetrius (336–283 BC) planned to construct a canal as a means to improve his communication lines, but dropped the plan after his surveyors, miscalculating the levels of the adjacent seas, feared heavy floods.

The historian Suetonius tells us that the Roman Dictator Julius Caesar (r. 49-44 BC) projected, among other grandiose engineering schemes, a canal through the Isthmus. He was assassinated before he could bring the scheme to fruition.

The Roman Emperor Nero (r. 54–68 A.D.) launched an excavation, personally breaking the ground with a pickaxe and removing the first basket-load of soil, but the project was abandoned when he died shortly afterwards.

The modern attempt at construction began in the 1870s following the successful opening of the Suez Canal. A French company was hired to build it, but due to financial difficulties, the company ceased work after only the two ends had been dug. Finally, in 1881 the Hungarian architects István Türr and Béla Gerster, who had also been involved with early surveys for the Panama Canal, were hired to plan a new canal. A Greek company led by Andreas Syngros (the main contractor being Antonis Matsas) ultimately took over the project and completed it in 1893.

Sign - No Kangaroos

No Kangaroos in Austria

postmarked in 2011 from the Netherlands

So how many of you read 'No Kangaroos in Australia' then realized it was Austria  :D:D:D 

The Rose Valley in Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Land of Roses

The Rose Valley is one of the most famous Bulgarian Symbol.  There for centuries have been cultivated the Rose "Rosa damascene" from which is produced the rose oil.  The Rose growing industry in Bulgaria produces 70% of the World's rose oil.

This postcard is postmarked in 2011 with two Bulgaria stamps.

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The Rose Valley is a region in Bulgaria located just south of the Balkan Mountains.

The valley is famous for its rose-growing industry which have been cultivated there for centuries. The extracts are used by perfumeries all over the world.  Each year, festivals are held celebrating roses and rose oil.

The picking season lasts from May to June. During this period, the area gives off a pleasant scent and is covered with multi-coloured flowers. The gathering process requires great dexterity and patience. The flowers are carefully cut one by one and laid in willow-baskets which are then sent to the distilleries.

      

Charlie Chaplin - 'The Kid'

Charlie Chaplin

unused, bought in 2010

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The Kid is a 1921 silent dramedy Comedy film by Charlie Chaplin that featured Jackie Coogan, as his adopted son and sidekick. It was a huge success, and was the second-highest grossing film in 1921, behind The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

The Little Tramp (Chaplin) finds an abandoned baby in an alley and takes care of him. As the child gets older, he becomes the Tramp's partner in crime, scamming people in order to survive. Eventually, however, welfare services attempt to take the boy away, resulting in a desperate search and an emotional reunion.

The Kid is notable as being the first feature length comedy film to combine comedy and drama, as one of the opening titles says: "A picture with a smile, and perhaps a tear..."

The American Rose Center, Shreveport, Louisiana

The American Rose Center, Shreveport, Louisiana, home to 60 gardens and 20,000 rose bushes, contains 400 varieties of roses, grown from April 1 to October 31.  The 118 acre Rose Center is also the national head-quarters for the American Rose Society

Photo by Steve Gibson

postmarked in Feb 2007 with 24 cent Common Buckeye stamp 

Legend of the Myrtle Tree

Legend of the Myrtle Tree

"Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the Myrtle tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."

ISAIAH 55:13

America's most beautiful hardwood comes from the Myrtle tree. Rarest of all woods, the symmetrical, broadleaf, evergreen Myrtle grows only in south-western Oregon (Coos, Curry and Douglas counties). The coloring of the wood is unique, varying from a sedate, satiny gray to riotous, mulit-colored grains of red, yellow and brown, with many burls and shapes in its grain. It takes a century or more for the Myrtle to grow to commercial size. Green unseasoned logs will not float.

postmarked in 2010 with two 15 cent stamps, one of Frances Perkins and one Season's Greetings - both are from 1980.

Jerome, Arizona - Wild West Town

Jerome, Arizona

An old copper-mining town built right on the steep, rocky slope of Mingus Mountain.  Now nearly a ghost town, it was one of the early Arizona's wildest, toughest communities.

Ektachrome by R. M. Fronske

unused

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Jerome, Arizona

For over sixty years this famous little mining town with a rip-roaring post, has clung to the 33 degree slope of Cleopatra Mountain.  Gravity, erosion and jarring blasts of the big copper mine above threaten to drop the precariously situated buildings into the canyons below.

unused

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A mining town named Jerome was established on the side of Cleopatra Hill in 1883. It was named for Eugene Murray Jerome, a New York investor who owned the mineral rights and financed mining there. Eugene Jerome never visited his namesake town. Jerome was incorporated as a town on 8 March 1889.

The town housed the workers in the nearby United Verde Mine, which was to produce over 1 billion dollars in copper, gold and silver over the next 70 years.

Jerome became a notorious "wild west" town, a hotbed of prostitution, gambling, and more vices. On 5 February 1903, the New York Sun proclaimed Jerome to be "the wickedest town in the West".
In 1915 the population of Jerome was estimated at 2,500. Today it has a population of only around 350.

Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock
Blue Note Sessions

Photograph: Francis Wolff

unused, bought in 2010

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Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock (born April 12, 1940, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. He is regarded not only as one of the greatest living jazz musicians, but also as one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century. His music embraces elements of funk and soul while adopting freer stylistic elements from jazz.

Hancock's music is often melodic and accessible; he has had many songs "cross over" and achieved success among pop audiences.

Peacock Postcard with Real Feathers

I think the writing in the lower right hand means it was hand colored.  The back of this card has the word 'postcard' written in several languages.

This unused postcard has real peacock feathers attached to it.

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I found this on the web about the color of peacock feathers:

As with many birds, vibrant plumage colours are not primarily pigments, but optical interference Bragg reflections, based on regular, periodic nanostructures of the barbules (fiber-like components) of the feathers. Slight changes to the spacing result in different colours. Brown feathers are a mixture of red and blue: one colour is created by the periodic structure, and the other is a created by a Fabry–Pérot interference peak from reflections from the outer and inner boundaries. Such interference-based structural colour is important for the peacock's iridescent hues that change and shimmer with viewing angle, since unlike pigments, interference effects depend on light angle.

(I think this means in very simple terms is that the colors look different depending on the angle that the peacock holds the feathers, so then the light hits them at different angles, and how far apart he spaces them - that is why when they move, the colors seam to change)

The Legend of Spanish Moss

Legend of the Spanish Moss in Louisiana

Rough, old meanie that he was,

From Spain came Don Gorez Goz.

As he cast a wary eye about

A pretty lass espied this lout.

He bought her - this Indian maid - 

For a cake of soap, a year of braid.

The grieving beauty fled with cause

For tarnished braid indeed it was.

Gorez pursued both hard and fast

Until she climbed a tree at last.

As Gorez followed her he leered

How those branches caught his beard!

The beard remains, but Gorez has gone

And still the tale goes on and on.

What an ominous warning it should be

To see Spanish Moss hang from a tree.

A cake of soap and a yard of braid

May be enough to win some maid.

Look, though, swain, and make thou sure

The braid is clean, untarnished - pure!

-P. M. L.

unused 

Legend of the Spanish Moss

As the legend goes ....

A bearded brute, Gorez Goz, once purchased a beautiful Indian maiden for a bar of soap and a yard of braid.  She was so frightened by the sight of this Spaniard that when he arrived to claim his new purchase she ran away.  He chased after her and finally she was able to climb up a tree.  As Goz climbed up toward her, she dove into the water below and escaped from his grasp.  His gray beard became heavily entangled in the branches of the tree and he soon died.  To this day we can still see his gray beard as the Spanish Moss dangling from the trees.

from 2009 - a USA 44 cent Christmas stamp is attached

The Haunted Brookdale Lodge in California

Mountain Brook Through Dining Room
World Famous
Brookdale Lodge

In the Heart of the Giant Redwood Country
Santa Cruz Mountains

Come linger with us and listen to the brook singing merrily through our Dining Room.
"In All the World Nothing Like It"

Brookdale Lodge is on the No. 9 hiway 12 miles north of Santa Cruz and 70 miles south of San Francisco at Brookdale, California

unused

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The Brookdale Inn & Spa, formerly known as the Brookdale Lodge, is known for the stream running through its primary restaurant, the Brook Room. The original lodge was built in 1890 by Judge James Harvey Logan at the site of the Grover Lumber Mill.

The lodge is still in use and it is rumored to be haunted by Sarah Logan, a niece of the owner, who drowned in the creek within the lodge in 1912. The lodge was purchased by a new owner in 2007 and has undergone renovations.

Trans World Airlines Poster from 1956 on a Postcard

 New York
Fly TWA

The Museum of Modern Art
New York, New York

David Klein.  American. New York Fly TWA 1956.
Photolithograph, 40 x 25" (101.2 x 63.6 cm).
Gift of TWA

postmarked in 2011 with a USA Liberty Bell stamp

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Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major United States-based airline with hubs in St. Louis, New York City (JFK) and Atlanta, with focus cities in Kansas City; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Los Angeles. The airline operated from 1930 until it was acquired by American Airlines in 2001.