Eagle's Lair
Members Roster

November 20, 2008

Ladies & Gentlemen:

The following copy from a message received yesterday from one of our long-time 800 Club members, Mark Besso, illustrates well how those who know about our project and support it, go out of their way to help us promote it.

As you well know I'm a big fan of the NAE project and never pass up the chance to mention it around. I mean, you never know when the "right person" might hear about it and become the [monetary] savior of the whole
project.....right?

Bob--my faithful traveling companion and best friend--and I just got back from a whirlwind tour of the southeast. We were continuing on our quest to see every publicly displayed airframe in the Blackbird family and we managed to see 5 more. Of course, those were incidental things when compared to our main goal which was to see the last night-time Shuttle launch!

Yessiree, we were out on the Causeway this past Friday for the launch of Endeavour/STS-126. (Eventually I'll post links to the pictures & video I captured) The package we purchased incluced a couple of days passes to Kennedy Space Center as well as having lunch with an astronaut the day of the launch. We were lucky to have Mark Lee join us and answer a few questions after the meal. There was a large reception hall filled with a couple hundred other folks that had purchased the same package. As we filed out of the room we had the opportunity to have our picture taken with Mark.

I knew I'd be meeting an astronaut and walking around KSC for the entire day so I wore my NAE™ polo shirt.... with great pride, I must say. I watched Mark graciously shake the hand of each person and smile for every photograph. When I walked up he looked at my shirt and said "Well, what kind of project you got going on there?" I replied, "It's a group of the most enthusiastic folks you'll ever meet that have converted an F-104 into a legitimate contender for the land speed record!" Meanwhile, folks are starting to wonder why the line isn't moving. We had a couple more brief exchanges and I made sure he knew to check the website for more info before posing for my own picture.

One of my "must do" things from this trip is looking up a way of contacting Mark Lee through NASA. (I'm sure there's a way via their website, but I haven't looked yet) I want to thank him, again, for his hospitality and mention the website while I'm at it.

He tells a friend... the friend tells a friend... and the next thing you know someone with bundles of disposable cash and a vision of bringing the record back to the USA is calling you.

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