A Visit to the WWII Museum P2

He indicated that lodging was available toward the commerce part of town, pointing in that direction. I completed the three-point turn and we drove in that direction. Many of the hotels in down town New Orleans are well marked, others are not so well marked. The chain-hotels do a decent job of posting well-lit signs. However, many of the home-grown hotels announce themselves only with a small unlit sign on the building. They are there, if you know where to look. I asked Siri to map out hotels within a few blocks of our location. Amazingly, a map appeared on my phone showing a dozen nearby hotels. I use the word ‘amazingly’ because I grew up as an early teenage just about the time that Steve Jobs came out with the Apple computer. Sensing that computers might have some impact on the future, Dad and Mom bought one of the first Apple computers for the house, or I should say, for me. I spent hours upon hours typing in basic code to create a swirling pattern or create some other moving graphic on the pixilated green screen. 6-8 hours per day would not be an exaggeration, having to make myself step away from the computer, from time to time, due to neck aches. On one occasion, the discomfort was so great that I visited a Chiropractor. His advise… don’t sit in front of the computer so much. Even today as an adult and technologist working with cutting edge advancements resulting in many patents in many countries, I still find it amazing (from my teenage point-of-view) that I can speak to a hand-held device as if it might be a person and have that device understand my request and then provide a map so that Dad and I can find lodging nearby in New Orleans. We’ve come a long way from the early Apple computer. Thanks Steve Jobs – as well as many other pioneers. Dad and I ended up selecting a hotel, just a few blocks from the museum, which was in a converted cotton mill from the 1800’s. The room ceilings were about 25 feet tall, the room windows were about 12 feet tall, all brick walls and wooden floors. Clearly this was a building used for industry in a past era. A little searching revealed that its main function was a cotton mill, but that it served as a warehouse and office building too… but now a comfortable hotel. Dad and I checked in, valet parked the car (because there is no other viable option) and unpacked a few things in the room. One vital piece of equipment that Dad and I always take on trips, at least in recent years, is the portable DVD/television. Dad is a huge fan of Gun Smoke. On any weekday, from 4:00-6:00 pm, he can be found planted firmly in front of his television set at home watching Matt Dillon, Festus, Miss Kitty and others handle the challenges of living in the wild-west. So much does he enjoy it, that I bought the entire DVD collection for him. If Saint Peter told Dad that he could take one earthly-material possession with him to heaven, Dad would no doubt choose his DVD collection of Gun Smoke. On trips, I pack his Gun Smoke DVDs so that he can enjoy them. I too enjoy watching them, not only because many of the productions are entertaining, but mainly to watch the enjoyment and pleasure that Dad derives from them. I tell Dad that if he lived in the 1800’s, my guess is that he’d be the fair-but-firm Marshall of Dodge City.