My Top 7 Favorite Memories

I have been very fortunate to have lived a life that has afforded me the ability to travel and experience many great and not so great things. Here is a partial list of my top favorite memories.

1. Transiting the Visayan Sea on navy ship with clear blue sky, water a hundred different shades of blue; volcano in the distance with palm tree lined beaches – magnifican beauty. Kicked back on the deck reading Thor Hyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki
2. While driving from California to Kentucky I got off the Interstate and took some of the secondary roads across New Mexico. I spent the first night in Alamagordo and got up early the next morning to head out on the next leg of my drive. I got to Roswell around 6.30 am and stopped and filled up with gas. Roswell was dead that time of Sunday morning. I headed out on RTE 70 for Portales and as I drove across the high plains the clouds were only about 20 feet off the ground. The elevation is high and the right combo of weather made for a very surreal drive; almost as if I was driving under a roof. Very few cars out that morning…. the road was very straight and it was very cool.
3. Swimming at the Marianas Trench - I was on a ship that crossed the Marianas Trench in the Pacific Ocean. The trench is almost 7 miles deep. We held a short swim call. We jumped in and swam for about 10 minutes. It was really kind of wierd knowing that there was seven miles of water below you. Swimming is the same if you are in a 12 foot deep pool or 35,000 deep ocean. It really screws with your head. Very cool
4.  I visited Singapore numerous times while in the navy. What a great city. Singapore is probably one of my favorite places in the world (except for the heat and humidity). My first time to Singapore I was a little naive and was taken for a ride; literally. I got into a cab at ships landing and told the cab driver that I wanted to go to a market area (cant remember the name after all these years) and he said in broken English that he knew where it was. He proceeded to drive around the city for about 20 minutes taking me to the market. Finally he stopped and said “here you are” and sure enough I was right in front of hundreds of market stalls. I paid my 40 Singapore dollar fare and got out ready to do some serious bartering. I looked at the cab as he pulled away and as I looked up I saw the ships landing about a hundred yards down the road across the street. Thats right, I rode for 20 minutes to go one hundred yards….. oh well.  I did get a quick tour of Singapore.
5. Have you seen the movie “The Fog”? Not the new one, but the original made in the 1980’s. It was a very cool movie. At the time I was stationed on a ship that was homeported on Coronado Island in San Diego. I was bored and out by myself one evening and decided to go to the movie. It was the 1000pm show and so I sat through The Fog and was fairly entertained. I decided to walk back to the ship and opted to walk back along the beach. To appreciate this you need to know I was 21 years old and in the Navy. Well as I walked along the waters edge the fog started to roll in and in the distance I could hear the horn from the Point Loma Lighthouse. It was all very spooky and there I was…… actually starting to get a little freaked out. I mean come on….. a 21 year old sailor walking on the beach at midnight and I actually started getting a little scared…… damned embarrasing if you know what I mean.
6. My first and only motorcyle ride was on the back of a Honda in Germany on the Autobahn. Damn……….  two sailors + beer + motorcyle + autobahn = potential for disaster. I had known Gerry for about 4 years already and we had been around the world together. I was stationed at the time in London and he was in Stuttgart and so I went for a visit. He said hop on and lets go out. Well……..  I had my arms wrapped around him so tight he had to tell me to let go. I mean darn, you don’ take a virgin motorcycle rider for his first ride on the autobahn. When we finally stopped I almost punched him.
7. Riding out a typhoon in the northern Pacific. Ever see The Perfect Storm? That shit’s real. 40-60 foot waves, 180 mile per hour winds and our ship like a cork in the water. Let me tell you something – You haven’t lived until you have been sitting on the commode and the ship is rocking and the water in the bowl is sloshing around and splashes up on your backside. Now that’s what I call an adventure……. haha.

When I Grow Up I Want To Be A …

I was surfing through some blogs tonite and just relaxing, going from blog to blog from the links on each. I ran across one that talked about what that person wanted to be when they grew up.  Well, it didn’t take but a flat second for my childhood dream job to pop back in my head.

Back in the 1960’s when air travel was still something special, and people dressed up to fly, I spent the night at the TWA terminal at JFK airport.  I was 5 years old and on my way to Germany with my mother to meet my father. (he was in the air force and went ahead to arrange housing)  That night turned into a magical event for me. My mother wanted me to try and get some sleep but that didn’t happen. All night I watched the people coming and going, the pilots in their sharp uniforms with golden bands on the cuffs, the flight attendants with their tailored suits (of course at five I didn’t know about tailoring….) and passengers coming and going.

Then it was our turn. It was early morning and the sun was shining through the windows of the terminal. I can remember to this day, almost 42 years later walking out the jetway to our TWA Boeing 707 jetliner. I just stopped and my mouth dropped open. At my young age I had never seen anything as beautiful as that gleaming white jet with the golden atlas globes on the tail and the bright red TWA. As we walked up the stairway to the door I can remember reaching my hand  out and running my fingers across the smooth skin of the planes fuselage right next to the door. We found our seats with the help of our flight attendant and sat down and buckled up. It was all so exciting; everyone stowing bags and sitting down and buckling up and listening to the muffled sounds of dozens of conversations. Then the engines started and soon we were ready. As we taxied out to the runway I had my nose to the window. I could feel the vibration of the plane through my body and my heart was pounding as I heard the engines go to full power and we lurched forward for our roll down the runway.  As soon as our majestic bird left the ground I knew from then on that I wanted to be an airline pilot. But not just any airline pilot. Over the years I had flown on many airlines and planes from Eastern to National to Alitalia and Pan Am. I had flown on DC-8’s and the new 747 and 727’s, but nothing ever matched the Boeing 707.  That was it. I was going to be a TWA airline pilot flying a Boeing 707 airliner and nothing else. I wouldn’t even consider thinking about anything else.

Well over the years I emersed myself in airline and airplane books and models and just about everything I could. At 16 I took my first intro flight for my pilots license. I had to wait another year though and at 17 I went to work at a small private airport washing planes, cutting grass and doing general line work. I took flying lessons in a Cessna 172XP Skyhawk.  While most of my friends in the 70’s had posters of Farah Fawcett in her red bathing suit (you know the one – it had sex airbrushed in her hair) I had a poster of the cockpit of a 707 and another framed picture of a TWA 707.

I solo’d after 27 hours and completed my ground school.  I went for my FAA physicial and it all ended in on brief moment. The doctor told me I had a blind spot in my eye and at that time the FAA nixed anything like that. My vision was not 20/20 and I had worn glasses all my life.  I could have gone on an gotten my private license but I just walked away from it all. I have flown a lot since then but never got back in the cockpit to finish my lessons, even though today’s regs say I can fly. I am 47 now and whenever I run across a photo of a TWA 707, I close my eyes and go back to that memorable day when I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up.

So what was your dream?

Wanting To Move to London, England

I want to move back to London, England.  For 2 years in the mid 1980’s I lived in London and I haven’t really been happy since I left. I actually lived in Swiss Cottage NW3 on Adamson Lane. What a great little community with superb culture and a very active social scene. My flat was directly across the street from the Swiss Cottage Hotel, a small but very nice hotel. If their service is like it was 20 years ago then I would highly recommend them. Swiss Cottage is part of the Camden Council area which is a vibrant and culturally diverse are of northwest London.

It is very difficult to move to London however. At least it is if you are an American. I did not realize how strict the British immigration policy was until I started looking into the prospect of moving there. Unless you have a job waiting with a sponser it is practically impossible to get more than a holiday visa.

So here is my plea………… haha.  If you have an opening for a well traveled, educated middle aged male in your company with the following diverse set of skills, please hire me and bring me back to London:   High speed internet data specialist for cable internet system, VOIP administrator for television cable system, website design and development, search engine optimisation, former navy cryptologist (communications traffic and signal analysis), office manager for financial services corporation, radio dj (hey Virgin Radio or Radio Jackie) and voice over artist. I know there is someone out there in London who can use my skill set…….  (would also consider Cornwall……..lol)

Cheers…………………   eric aka eeko

Welcome To My World

As the great Gentleman Jim Reeves sang “Welcome to my world. Won’t you come on in….”

This is a peek into my life and the things I like.  A little about me – I live in rural western Kentucky (Madisonville). I am a website designer and also do search engine optimization. I am a military brat and a navy veteran. I enjoy cooking, travel, photography, art and bbq.

You never know what you will find here. There could be rantings about things that bother me, praise about things I like, photos I have taken, experiences I have had – both good and bad, and sometimes just general rambling.

So with that said…….  here we go…….     Cheers  Eric