Unbuilding the Grace and Pearman Bridges


For Sparky and myself, curiosity drives passion which in turn fuels our life's engine. Our passion was capturing the story of both unbuilding the Grace (1929 - 2007) and Pearman (1966 - 2007) Bridges and discovering the unbuilders. It takes a lot of passion to track a project from July 2005 until April 2007 - rain, shine, hurricanes or moving to Singapore. We discovered the joy of discovery learning. Ken Canty opened the front door for us - then Steve Testa, Ponch Billingsley and Mickey Rogers opened many side doors. Below are the highlights of what we discovered, who we met and what we learned.

And a reminder from T.S. Eliot (East Coker from the Four Quartets)

Home is where one starts from. As we grow older
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated
Of dead and living. Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after,
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.

May 19, 2006:
Coming home for a visit / work

Edward and I took Singapore Airlines SQ-22 from Singapore to Newark. About 19 hours of flying. Here is the GPS track

From our wing at Changi airport

And our progress and listening to music

Progress

Progress

Progress

Almost there

New Jersey

We arrived at RDU about 1am May 20. May 21 was a treat. Since his graduate program does not keep him off the streets during the weekend, he is part of a musical group: Old Ceremony. They gave a concert Sunday afternoon at Forest Theater in Chapel Hill. The opportunity to hear real music instead of CDs via audio on demand - was irresistable.

The group

Josh and his cello

Tired of playing, Josh and Bibi dance

and with a flair

The crowd gets into the action

and Old Ceremony

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C. Frank Starmer

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