I travel a lot for work and take numerous weekend trips so I collect postcards as a slight hobby. But it's more than collecting.
I send out 1 to 2 per month, depending on the frequency of my trips, totaling about 20 postcards/year to various friends who've been along for the ride with me and are due for a thank you. But it's more than just sending postcards.
Years ago I started a detailed spreadsheet tabulating 1) postcard origin, 2) recipient, and 3) my personal note. Over the years my Postcards spreadsheet has turned into an appreciation of whom I've held long term friendships with, the various places I've traveled and lived, who's unfortunately passed away (i.e. stopped getting a postcard from me), and 4) lively reminders of times gone by.
Some examples:
January 2016 - Hawaii - To the Gallagher Family:
"Just returned from work at Pearl Harbor. The Navy Lodges were booked, so I ended up 4 nights at a Waikiki Hilton resort. Wonderful to be back in Hawaii, away from the East Coast winter, and giving a few afternoons to relive my long ago enlisted days. My old barracks were torn down so I made up for it by drinking at the enlisted club, where finally I was old enough to buy for myself."
January 2019 - Tucumcari NM - To Uncle B & Aunt A:
"Good visiting you & the boys again! After Indianapolis one of my overnight stays was Tucumcari NM, still boasting the colorful motels of its Route 66 yesteryears. Beyond Tucumcari begins the true West as far as the eye can see, the horizon extending from ten or twelve miles away to thirty or forty."
March 2019 - Vail CO - To Ben:
"Great to see our friend Myles off to a great career start! Visiting him in Colorado detoured us through Vail, priding itself on the global skiing and snowboarding destination its winter slopes afford the many Euro accents and ski-bumming seasonal workers happy and high on the lifts riding over its resort villages."
June 2021 - Landers CA - To Uncle K:
"Deep in the Mojave Desert is the unpaved town of Landers, home to the Integratron, a domed Sound Bath spa. Unfortunately closed, I drove several more dusty miles to visit Giant Rock, North America’s largest freestanding boulder, where Integratron’s founder once lived beneath and hosted UFO Conventions. California's deserts are full of entertaining Alien lore; leaving is a sad farewell to the weird, backcountry America that dissolves as soon as the Interstate looms ahead."
