Dear Friend,

   Like everyone else, we were painfully reminded, by the September 11^th attack, of how precious and fragile life is! We were heartbroken over the lost lives, but fortunate not to have lost close friends or family. We are very thankful for that. We saw patriotism and brotherhood take on new meaning as people united in their outrage over the attack on America. We are blessed with a loving family and good friends who have once again made our year a great one!

    On a lighter note, I had my first opportunity to sleep at a truck stop in January! Tony’s Christmas present last year was to have propane injection installed on the motorhome. Apparently, they only do this in North Carolina, so we drove to a truck stop near Winston-Salem on a Friday after work, spent the night and had the work done early Saturday morning. Sleeping between the 18 wheelers gave me a little insite into the trucking profession! Our exciting January continued with the Worldspan holiday party at the Egyptian Ballroom of the Fox Theatre. I wore my ball gown, tiara, and “Miss Behaving” sash to the event. One thrilling part of the evening was strolling down Peachtree Street to the parking lot in this attire! Later that month, we finally had a successful “walkabout” in Ireland. We walked about 10 miles/day for 4 days, carrying packs and staying at B&B’s along the way. Surprisingly, the weather was beautiful. And I don’t want to forget, I also managed to squeeze in two business trips to Kansas City in January.

   Since we didn’t do too much traveling in February, I was able to attend my clogging class faithfully. (Did I mention that I have taken up clogging? I started in October 2000.) Perhaps to get away from the noisy clogging practice,Tony and his friend, Billy, went to Shannon, Ireland, where they rented a car and drove around in the snow.

    Another business trip to Kansas City in mid-March was followed by a different walking adventure. This one took place in Germany. Nancy, Hilton, Tony and I flew to Frankfurt and walked on the bike paths along the Rhine. The river had overflowed its banks, causing the hotels we stayed in to be waterfront, even though they would normally have been across the street from the river. It was a beautiful walk!

   In April, we took a real backpacking trip to Ellicott Rock in Walhalla, SC with Bobby, Wendy, Billy, and Chris. We have almost pared our backpacking supplies down to a manageable weight. This was followed by a business conference in Toronto, and then Tony and I attended Kitsie’s fancy-schmancy wedding at St. Simon’s Island, Georgia. JeRie, Kristi, Nancy, Karla and I took Friday off in anticipation of the Saturday wedding, flew to Jacksonville, Florida to spend the day sunning by the pool. We picked Tony up at the Brunswick airport and he took his harem to dinner. The wedding was beautiful, and the reception was fabulous. The following Sunday, I had my first (of three) real clogging performances at the Smyrna Jonquil Festival.

    In May, Tony went on a scouting trip to Germany to look into bike rentals for our anticipated trip in June. The plan was to rent bikes in Trier and return them in Koblenz, biking about 60 miles down river. I had another trip to Kansas City for business. When we are in town, I always enjoy seeing my niece, Lauren, perform with her ballet troop in Gainesville. I started referring to it as the “Redneck Ballet” because the patrons at the ballet always treated it like a sporting event, yelling phrases like, “You Go Girl”, and whistling during the performance. This year, however, it was a much more refined event. I guess some of the offspring of the more vocal audience participants had graduated and moved on to greater things (like dancing for Hee Haw).

   In June, we were ready for our Germany bike trip. Hilton, Ed, Kristi, Nancy, Tony and I went to the airport and stood by for the first Frankfurt flight. Hilton got on. The rest of us stood by for the next Frankfurt flight, but were not able to get seats. We wandered down the concourse and found a flight leaving for Manchester, England that would hold us all. In Manchester, we left a message in Hilton’s airline reservation that we had diverted and he should meet us in Manchester. We waited at the airport while he flew from Frankfurt. Reunited, we took a train to Windermere and rented bikes.  Our downhill Germany biking trip became an uphill tour of the Lakes Region in England. We had a great time though! Finishing off June, Lauren came to spend the weekend with us. We went to a movie, out to dinner and then swam and picnicked at the Chattahoochee.

    Tony and I went our separate ways in July (in a manner of speaking). I went with the girls to Santiago, Chile, while he went fishing with the boys at Heckman Lake near Ketchikan, Alaska. Kitsie, Karla, Sue and I toured Santiago, Valparaiso, Vina Del Mar, Renaca, and the foothills of the Andes. Tony, Billy, Scott, and Bobby caught fish, fought off bears, shot their guns, peed off of the deck, and did general disgusting boy things.

    The Worldspan Golf Tournament was at Daufuskie Island, off the coast of Hilton Head this year. Tony used the RV as a bus to transport Scott, Angel, JeRie, himself and me to the ferry. The beach party with steamed oysters and lobster was the best part of the tournament. I won a Pocket PC as a doorprize!  Business-wise, I went to Kansas City twice in August. Eating-wise, we judged two BBQ Contests, the Ham Slam in Culloden, Georgia, and the 96Rock BBQ Contest at Stone Mountain, Georgia. Foolish-wise, Tony bought a used Harley Davidson and started fixing it up.

    We started thinking seriously about what we will do when we retire. We have really enjoyed vacationing in the Florida Keys, so we flew there September 1^st to look at property. We discovered that the building permit restrictions make the affordable lots impossible to build on. We decided to ponder on this subject some more. Then we took a short gambling trip with JeRie to Biloxi on September 8. The cab fare from the Gulfport Airport ate up most of our winnings. St. Louis is still the most convenient gambling destination with the $3 round trip train ride from the airport to the Casino boats. On September 11, we were both at work when we heard the devastating news of the two planes crashes into the World Trade Towers in New York. We were stunned. Worldspan took immediate action to preserve the computer data for flight reservations from all of the cancelled flights. Every day that the airlines were grounded complicated the work we had to do. Worldspan suffered significant losses and had to execute another layoff. Delta announced cuts of over 13,000 employees. Tony volunteered to take a leave of absence, but due to his current assignment at the Credit Union, his management would not release him. The Delta Women’s Golf Tournament was cancelled, but our foursome decided to have our own tournament at Hilton Head. Mary took first and JeRie took second in the Championship Flight. Cathy won the First Flight, I won the Second Flight and Angel, who said she would rather iron than play golf, was in charge of door prizes and announcements. I had my second clogging performance at the North Georgia State Fair. Mary Jane, Jared, and I went to Corporate Night at Six Flags! There were no lines, and we rode everything!

   October started with another backpacking trip out of Chattanooga, Tennessee. What was reported in the guide to be a moderate hike, turned out to be extremely strenuous, so Bobby, Wendy, Tony and I retraced our steps, shed our packs, and just did a day hike. I took a day trip Washington, DC to have lunch with Beth and Lisa and attend a wreath laying ceremony performed by the color guard from NGCSU at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Then Tony and I judged the Big Pig Jig BBQ Contest in Vienna, Georgia and later in the month we were surrogate parents at a North Georgia College function for a Beth’s daughter Brooke. Oh, and Tony dyed his hair white for Halloween.

   In November, we judged the Ham Jam BBQ Contest and were entertained by Charlie Daniels, Mark Chestnut, and Tracy Byrd. Tony bought me a Harley Davidson so I can become a Harley Chick. I went to New Smyrna Beach, Florida with Mary, JeRie and Frances for some quality visiting and girltalk. Our “kid trip” this year was with my nephew, Jared. What a difference four years makes! This can’t possibly be the same child that we took to Rome (The one who locked himself in the bathroom, stepped out into traffic, got sick, lost things, and had a nosebleed on the plane). This Jared was a great travel companion, a good sport, and a perfect gentleman! Sandy, Scott, McLean, Claire, Nancy, David, Jared, Tony and I saw Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus and Hampton Court Palace and had Indian food for Thanksgiving dinner.

   December is already filling up with activities. We have just returned from seeing Lauren perform in the Nutcracker. This weekend, we have Tony’s office party, a neighborhood party, and we will see Mary Jane in a Singing Christmas Tree. We are looking forward to spending time with our friends and family during the holiday season.

    We would love to see you in person so we could hug you and tell you how much you mean to us, but since that isn’t possible in every case, our letter will have to do the job for us. Please let us know how you are doing.  If you would like to hear more detail about our adventures, we invite you to visit our web page:  www.bjandtony.8k.com  Add it to your favorites so you can keep up with us throughout the year.  Our email addresses are  BJ:   bj.morris@worldspan.com  Tony:  tony.morris@delta.com

Our love,

BJ and Tony