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Guestbook - Volume 20
April 2006 to September 2006
please add your comments by sending an email to: arnoldvb@islands.vi
To see what others have had to say, please read on . . . with one note of caution:
Date: Fri Aug 4, 2006 Greetings, We are planning a family Disney trip next spring and some of us have little kids. Before going further, thanks for a great site you put together and map! Anyway, I am trying to figure out a place to stay in the moderate range that we can get quickest access to the Magic Kingdom. I figure if we only have the bus option, it could take awhile to get around and pickup everyone at the other resorts and so we are sitting on the bus instead of in the park! I know the monorail deal, I used to work at Polynesian for one summer back in college. But we don't want to spend so much. I am wondering about the Fort Wilderness Cabins? Have you ever stayed and I believe there is a boat launch with access to the Magic Kingdom. It's really the Magic Kingdom we are first interested in. Thanks for any thoughts you might have. Ken and Laura [EDITOR'S NOTE: Hi Ken and Laura, and thanks for the comment on my Disney World web site. There are three "moderate" resorts at WDW -- Caribbean Beach, Coronado Springs, and Port Orleans. My wife and I have had the opportunity to stay at all three (Dec. 2003, 2004, and 2005) and would recommend any of them. FYI, each resort has its own bus service, and you do not have to stop at other resorts going to or returning from the parks. But within each resort, the bus will make a few stops going each way. Caribbean Beach is the largest and, therefore, often the most crowded. But it is popular with families with children. The resort is divided into five or six "villages" and each one has it's own bus stop. One advantage of Caribbean Beach is that it is centrally located and is very near to Epcot and Disney-MGM Studios, and not too far from Magic Kingdom. The resort is themed after Caribbean island villages and we have stayed there five times since 1989 with out daughter as she was growing up. We never regretted the choice. Coronado Springs is a convention resort and, therefore, usually has fewer families with children. Even so, it's a very nice place and we enjoyed our stay there. This resort has four "villages" located around a central lake. Again, each village has its own bus stop. The big disadvantage here is that Coronado Springs is located close to Animal Kingdom, but further away from Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Disney-MGM. My wife and I stayed there in 2004. Port Orleans is actually divided into two areas, French Quarter (themed after New Orleans) and Riverside (themed after southern plantation mansions). My wife and I stayed at French Quarter last December. French Quarter is the smallest resort and was very tranquil and relaxing. It has only one bus stop at the main building, but the bus also makes two or three stops in the Riverside section. Usually French Quarter was the first stop for pickups and dropoffs. Like Coronado Springs, location was a bit of an issue because it's located on the eastern side of WDW, nead Downtown Disney and further away from all the theme parks. Overall, I would recommend any of the three resorts. Buses usually ran on a 15-minute cycle and drive times varied from 15 to 30 minutes depending on distance and traffic. Overall, it's rare to spend more than 45 minutes on a commute to or from the farthest park, including stops within your own resort. As for Fort Wilderness, I've never stayed there, but I have read in WDW guidebooks that it has cabins that are fully equipped. I've also seen pictures of these cabins at www.mouseplanet.com, and the seen to be quite comfortable. However, the cabins MAY (I'm not positive) be more expensive than the moderate resorts. I suggest you check out the WDW section of MousePlanet, where you'll find detailed descriptions, maps, and photo tours of the resorts. I hope this info helps, and enjoy your WDW vacation. I'd love to hear back from you after the trip on how it went. Also you might think about submitting a trip report to MousePlanet. Best regards.
Date: Mon Jul 3, 2006 With great interest I read your web site's information on the role of HMS Enterprise in evacuating Haile Selassie from Ethiopia to England. Do you happen to have any more information about that trip or a contact for the person who provided the information to you? I met Haile Sellasie a couple of times in the 1960s and am interested in learning more about his travels while in exile.
Thank you for your assistance. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Bob, try contacting Mr. W. Steve Blower (email withheld). He was the person who provided me with the info on HMS Enterprise's evacuation of Haile Sellasie in 1936.]
Date: Tue Apr 25, 2006 Firstly, what a great information source you have created. You mention in your Enterprise website that you will possibly be creating a more detailed package of information concerning the vessels of the name Enterprise. Please let me know when this may be available and what it would take to get it.
Thanks a lot, [EDITOR'S NOTE: Bob, because I recently retired, I should finally have the time to finish putting together the enhanced version of my history of vessels named Enterprise. It will consist of the entire text in a printable PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format, plus larger versions of non-copyrighted images, ship comparison charts, ship timeline charts, and related maps. I'll keep your email address on record so that I can let you know when it's available.]
Date: Sat Apr 2, 2006 Just discovered your site through The Ventures...Am also a Babylon 5 and Isaac Asimov fan...I think it's a great site and will definitely recommend it to my friends...Just thought you'd like to know. Mitch [EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks for the comments, Mitch. Glad you liked the site.]
Date: Sat Apr 22, 2006 Mr. van Beverhoudt, I'm interested in where you located the drawing of the second schooner USS Enterprise that served on the Chesapeake Bay during the Revolutionary War. I've found many references to this ship, but yours is the first I've seen with a depiction of it. Is the drawing copyrighted? Is it an accurate representation of that vessel? One reason I'm asking is that I'm an active adult volunteer in scouting. My local scout district is now named the "Enterprise District" after a road in our city, which was named for the carrier USS Enterprise commanded by Captain Newton White. His mansion is a historic landmark here. We want to design a new patch for our district and have an "Enterprise" theme to it. I don't want to use any Star Trek pictures and, in researching early Enterprise, I came across your excellent drawing and research. The USS Enterprise II touched me because it served on the Chesapeake Bay that is so close to us. I'm designing a patch using a variation of your drawing. The patch design was designed by me, without pay, as a scout volunteer. The final patch (mine or someone else's) would not be used for profit, but only sold to support scouting in our district. Would you be willing to allow use of the design in this way?
Brian [EDITOR'S NOTE: Brian, the drawing I used for the second USS Enterprise isn't a completely authentic depiction because none is available. I took the liberty of using a sketch from one of Howard Chapelle's books on U.S. sailing ships based on his description, which seemed to fit the general configuration of the Chesapeake Bay schooner. The sketch isn't copyrighted because, after all, the USS Enterprise is a part of U.S. and naval history. I hope your scouting patch design is selected by your local scout district.]
Date: Sat Apr 22, 2006 Dear Mr. Van Beverhoudt, Please receive the heartiest regards from a fellow Ventures fan in sunny Costa Rica, that's right, mine is the lone vote from my country in your gallant crusade to make the R&R Hall of Fame right the terribly and totally unexplained wrong of not having inducted our brave guitar slingers yet. I discovered your Ventures website about two months ago and must confess was totally surprised for the wealth of information and evident devotion towards the band. My first taste of Ventures came some day in 1975 while visiting a classmate's house and finding the Golden Hits album (the one with the blonde and bikini) I was completely blown away by the music. Walk Don't Run, Pipeline, and Apache made me decide right then and there I had to learn to play the guitar. I started a hunt for old records all around our capital city of San Jose and discovered several forgotten albums like Let't Go, Underground Fire, and others, and then the well went dry sometime around 1977-78. Now Playing and Only Hits were the last albums ever reaching Costa Rica just before we were drowned in the disco music tsunami. I thought that was the end, but now I know the band is alive and well, having weathered the storm in Japan. I have just received the CD The Ventures Play the Greatest Surfing Hits from amazon.com and most tracks sound even better than the originals, which I consider to be a great feat indeed. I can only find fault with Let's Go, the sound feeling sort of compressed and the track with overall less vitality than the original on my old vinyl LP. At the grand old age of 44, I still play the guitar and still play with my band (not my day job, of course) and yes, we play Wipe Out full bore, not the Surfaris, but The Ventures' version. What really made me finally send you this email today was that this morning, while in my car and coming to my office, my favorite radio station played a commercial for a rent-a-car agency, and the chosen background music was Walk Don't Run in its original form. What do you think? Over 45 years old and still going strong. The Ventures represent a piece of Americana that is good and clean and fun. In these times of extremism, questionable wars, and strange fanatics, The Ventures are excellent Good Will ambassadors, I simply don't understand what accute attack of terminal snobism has caused the R&R Hall of Fame to not have recognized their place in the history of Western music. Okay, off the soap box. Thanks a lot for your excellent site, and for helping us to keep the raith and rekindle old fires, and yes, I dig Star Trek a lot too.
Very best regards, [EDITOR'S NOTE: Carlos, thank you so much for your excellent tribute to The Ventures. With your permission, I would like to send a copy of your letter to the R&R Hall of Fame. As you noted, after more than 45 years, The Ventures continue to survive the onslaught of disco (and heavy metal, alternative rock, hip hop, rap, etc.) to remain the most popular and influential instrumental band in the world.]
Date: Fri Apr 21, 2006 If you have an interest in Chaparral pictures, I have many......I live in Midland, Texas and am at the Chaparral shops often. Still in the same location as they were in the 60's. In fact, my stepson and I drove my car around the old test track just the other day. My website is: www.biggolddog.com/chaparral.htm.
Best.... [EDITOR'S NOTE: Wallace, thanks for the info. I took a quick look at your site and will have to spend some time exploring and viewing the many pictures and the "Last Run" video.]
Date: Mon Apr 17, 2006 It's a really picky detail, but the last track on Liberty LST-8060 (More Golden Greats) was not the theme from "A Summer Place," but was "Hawaii Five-0." At least on the LP. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Roman, thanks for the correction. You are correct. The U.S. version of the More Golden Greats LP has "Hawaii Five-0" as the last track. But on the U.K. version of the album, the last track was "A Summer Place."]
Date: Mon Apr 3, 2006 Arnold, I saw The Ventures March 15, 2006 here in Alexandria, Virginia, and have posted during and after photos at www.tunefan.com/birchmere.htm. Bob Bogle was missed, probably in large part because he was an original founding member, and of course a great guitar talent. That being said, Bob Spalding does a great job on bass. I think Bob Spalding can help carry forward the group into the future, and represent Bob Bogle in spirit. Leon Taylor did great drumming (a super drum solo on Caravan), and is such a nice guy. He gave away a couple drumsticks to two young boys who are learning guitar, and they were thrilled. Nokie Edwards is still very good on guitar, and also a nice guy. I thought he looked good, and seemed like he was actually getting around better than he was several years back, which was good to see. Don Wilson is still going strong at a "youthful" 73. I think in many ways Don has been the driver that has kept the group active, going, and commercially viable all of these years. Don has a positive outlook, a bit of a marketing/business mindset, and is so very nice. Fiona Taylor (wife of the late Mel Taylor), Judy Edwards (wife of Nokie Edwards), and Leon Taylor's wife were along for the ride. Jack DeFranco, who lives in Michigan and spearheaded the 2003 Surfin' to Baja cruise effort, gave me a card that indicates for this tour he was acting as Promotions Manager, Tour Manager, and Stage Manager. Jack is a nice guy, and really seems to have a great affection for The Ventures and what they stand for. The venue was, I would say, 1/2 to 3/4 full, which for a week night was pretty good. Although, personally I only learned of the show by noticing it on the venue website just a couple weeks before the play date. I think a bit more advance billing time would have meant a full house. But the fans that showed were hard core, some coming a couple of hours or more early to get the best seats. I was lucky to secure a seat right up front. After the show, the four members spent more than an hour signing items, saying "hi" to the fans, having photos made. I had them sign my Surfin' to Baja t-shirt from 2003 and a couple of 4-foot surfboard signs I have that contain other notable musician autographs. I think fans bought quite a bit of product that night, which included a black hat with neat looking guitar logo, t-shirts, CDs, and other items. So, I would think the merchandise take was pretty decent. In that you are a long-time fan, I thought you might be interested in my insights and performance photos.
Jim [EDITOR'S NOTE: Jim, thank you very much for The Ventures concert report and photos. I hope that I eventually have a chance to see them perform live, sometime in the near future.]
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