Dear Friend,

   Once again, the holidays have snuck up on us. How does this happen? While we’re still eating the leftover Halloween candy, Santa’s elves are busy decorating the malls. It seems to start earlier every year. Thankfully, we have but to drag our already decorated   tree out of the closet and set it up and we’ll be ready! Pull up a chair and get out your reading glasses because this is probably going to be another long one! You will   probably want to take a break between June & July to get a snack and something to drink! The theme for this year’s activities seems to have been “Rain and more rain!”

    After a short business trip to Kansas City in January for me, Tony and I went with our friend Page to Ireland. From the Shannon airport, we caught a bus to Ennis, where we rented bicycles and rode around County Clare, stopping in Gort, Ballyvaughn, Doolin,   Lahinch and Miltown Malby. Our chosen bicycle route was not too strenuous (15 to 20 miles/day) and the scenery was beautiful, although rainfall during the trip ranged from a    pleasant drizzle to a deluge accompanied by high winds.

   In February, I had the pleasure of getting to see the snowy Salt Lake City mountains through the eyes of my nephew, Jared. It was so neat to see his reaction to so much snow! He took to skiing like a duck to water! We also toured the area where they were setting up for the winter Olympics. Tony was having so much fun being a blonde, I decided to try it, so I dyed my hair platinum. It is true! Blondes DO have more fun!

    Who knew it could be such fun to embarrass one’s relatives? I chased my niece, Lauren, around with the video camera at her Cotillion in March. She wore white gloves because she didn’t want to touch the boys’ sweaty palms. We had another European biking adventure. This time Tony & I flew to Brussells, took the train to Gent and rented bikes. We purchased a “FietsRoute” (paved bike paths!) map. We spent St. Patrick’s day in Brugge and then went on to Nieupoort, Ieper, and Kortrijk before returning to Gent. We had thought the rain in Ireland was unpleasant, but several times during our Belgium ride, we encountered 20 knot head or cross winds blowing dime sized raindrops.

It was actually enough to knock me off of my bike at one point. In fact, both Tony and I took spills during the trip. My fall was cushioned by some nice soft mud, but Tony, not so fortunate, fell onto concrete and cracked a rib. We got to spend an extra night in Brussels when the oversold airplane left without us.

    We stayed pretty close to home in April. My clogging team performed at Big Shanty Days in Kennesaw and at the Jonquil Festival in Smyrna.

In May, we took Tony’s mom with us in the RV to Biloxi to get some of that easy money from the Casinos. We picked up our friends Karla and JeRie at the Gulfport airport and spent the day with them at the $1 blackjack table at the President Casino. After dropping our traveling companions off at the Mobile airport, we spent the rest of the week exploring the Gulf Coast. We visited Gulf Shores, Pensacola (where we saw our friends Skip and Debbie and their adorable twin boys), St. George Island, Steinhatchie, and Crystal River. Tony opted out of our Spring Hiking trip this year, but I convinced my friend Stacy to go. We went somewhere in South Carolina with Bobby and Chris. We hiked about 5 miles Friday night in a light drizzle, but by the time we got to our campsite, the rain had stopped. After dinner, it started to rain in earnest, so we headed for our tents. Stacy and I had, not so cleverly, set our tent in a low-lying area that soon filled with water. It was a cold, miserable night followed by a cold, miserable hike out. Tony and I are officially rednecks now. We got a new washer-dryer and had the old one in the garage waiting to be picked up, so we pushed it out into the driveway, filled it with ice, and used it as a cooler during the neighborhood party we hosted in May.

   We wised up after two rainy bike trips and decided France in June might give us better weather. Right we were! Hilton, Ed, Kristi, Nancy, Tony and I flew to Paris and took a train to Amboise. We biked around the Loire Valley, touring several of the beautiful Chateaus. Full flights out of Paris made it a little hairy getting home, but we finally made it home through New York. Tony sold our Harleys this year and his toy money started eating a hole in his pocket about the time we got home from France.

He bought a BMW Convertible from the Ebay auction website. We flew down to Fort Lauderdale to pick it up. It’s a great fair weather car.  Unfortunately, on the drive back from Fort Lauderdale we didn’t encounter any fair weather. We were grateful we had brought beach towels with us for the wet ride! The next weekend, my sister’s children performed in a concert in Gaithersburg, Maryland. I flew up for the rehearsal and had dinner with my friend Beth and her family.

   Much to our surprise on our 4^th of July trip to San Juan, Sue, Kitsie, and I learned that Puerto Ricans celebrate the 4^th of July too. The beaches were very crowded, but we managed to enjoy the day in a cabana by the hotel pool. We went with our friends Sarah and Les to see Wynona perform at Chastain Park. Even though Wynona didn’t invite me up on stage, I sang backup from the audience.   

   The Worldspan Golf Tournament was at Sea Pines Resort on Hilton Head Island in August. JeRie, Tony, and I took the bicycles so that Tony and Zaine could ride while JeRie and I competed in the tournament. Tony and I celebrated our 15^th wedding anniversary by visiting our friend Kathy on the British Virgin Island of Tortola. Kathy left the corporate world behind and now runs a little gift shop at Prospect Reef resort. She showed us a wonderful time, taking us on an island tour, boat rides, picnics, and snorkeling.

    My clogging team performed at the Yellow Daisy Festival at Stone Mountain in September. It was very hot, but didn’t compare to that “dry” heat in Phoenix at the Delta Ladies’ Golf Tournament! My new cocktail party outfit was a set of surgical scrubs on which I had embroidered “Betty Ford Clinic, Golf Addiction Unit – BJ Morris, Therapist”. It was great to get back together after last year’s tournament was cancelled. Almost immediately after getting home from the Golf Tournament, we left for another bike trip. Tony, David, Melissa, Nancy, Kristi and I flew to Frankfurt, Germany, took a train to Trier and spent several days biking along the Mosel. It was a very adventuresome trip. Tony accidentally got locked in the hotel room while the rest of us were at breakfast. There was no phone and no window and the door had been locked from the outside with the key (No, I didn’t do it. Tony was rooming with David on this trip.) We got bumped from all four flights out of Frankfurt so we flew to London via Paris to get home.

    We got back on the BBQ Circuit in October. We flew to Nashville, Tennessee to judge the Goodlettsville BBQ Contest, and then took the motorhome down to Vienna, Georgia for the Big Pig Jig. During October, we were saddened by the death of our friend, Jennifer as well as Tony’s Aunt Betty.

    In November, we took our annual “Fall Hike” with Bobby. This time, Tony went along. Bobby always does a great job of planning our hikes, but lately he hasn’t been very lucky about predicting the weather. The hike Bobby selected in the Cohutta Wilderness involved 14 river crossings. Because of the recent rainfall, we couldn’t make the first crossing, so we had to turn back. We found a place to camp, but the rains came again, dampening our spirits. The next weekend, we judged the Veteran’s Day BBQ Contest in Grovetown, Georgia. I felt sorry for the BBQ teams who had to prepare their entries in the rain. We took our niece, Lauren to Ireland for Thanksgiving, along with our friends Nancy and David. We had planned to travel to Budapest, but our flight was cancelled, so we made a last minute destination change. Lauren and I kissed the Blarney stone so that we could receive the “gift of gab”, even though some might think we both already have it! As expected, it was rainy in Ireland, but the sun peeked out a few times. We never found a pot of gold, but we saw four rainbows during the trip!

   Right now we are having the entire inside of our house painted! We probably won’t be doing much of anything in December because all of our belongings are hidden under the painters’ drop cloths. If I actually get this letter mailed, it will be a miracle!

   Whew! It has been another wonderful busy year. Hope your year has been filled with wonderful memories and that you will build more in 2003! Let us hear from you! If you are not completely worn out from reading this letter and want to read more, 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