The morning of day four found us gassing up for the drive to Georgia. We saw the sunrise from the interstate as we headed towards St. Louis. Crossing the Missouri River, we drove through the city, spotting the famous St. Louis Arch along the way. The road then took us over the Mississippi River and into Illinois.

It has been said that confession is good for the soul. (As to who said this and the context in which it was first delivered, I remain contentedly oblivious). It is quite likely we could debate at some length the veracity of the axiom itself, but regardless of the outcome of such a discussion, I have a confession to make...*clears throat..."My name is Derek...and I just started my third website of 2023!"

In order to explain myself, we need to go back two or three weeks to the days around Thanksgiving. No, no, that will never do...we need to go back further than that. Let me see, let me see. Let's go back to something which would be familiar to anyone who has followed our posts here on Puzzle Box Top this year...the topic of my watch collecting hobby.

The 21st century had barely passed the five-year mark when my Grandpa went to be with the Lord. One of his belongings that Grandma passed along to me was his wristwatch, a gold-tone Pulsar with a quartz movement and an expansion bracelet. The watch itself is neither expensive nor an heirloom, but it is special to me because it belonged to my Grandpa, and while I was not yet collecting watches, I did place this in with my keepsakes and other "treasures."

With that in mind, the next item of import is that my Dad has worn a wristwatch himself for as far back as I can remember. While my horological skills were, for all intents and purposes, non-existant in my growing up years, I do remember him always having that silver watch on his wrist and making sure it was kept to the right time. I believe he found great delight in not only giving the hours and minutes when asked about the time, but the very second as well! And what was the brand of said silver watch you might ask? It was a Pulsar with a quartz movement! Interestingly enough, like my Grandpa, Dad also preferred an expansion bracelet. The Pulsar I remember from those days has since been replaced by a newer model, but it still sports the expansion bracelet from the old watch!

Fast forward to this past November. I had been looking for a dress watch to add to my collection and to replace the vintage digital piece I had been wearing on Sundays. For the sake of brevity, I'll cut to the chase and simply inform you that decided on a Pulsar watch with a brown sunburst dial on a leather strap. I chose the brand in honor of Dad's and Grandpa's watches...the brown dial, for my love of coffee!

With that information as context, we come to the part of my narrative where I begin to explain the new website. My Pulsar was ordered and on its way, Thanksgiving was fast approaching, and I was beginning to think more and more about the Pulsar brand. After some rudimentary Internet searching, it seemed that Seiko, parent company to the Pulsar brand, had discontinued it in favor of a brand called ALBA.

Since I had some time off at Thanksgiving, I started researching the Pulsar brand and the watches...and promptly fell down the rabbit hole. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know. I finally decided to start a new blog, one in which I could jot down the notes and information as I discover them. The blog is called Pulsar Time Blog and is located at pulsartimeblog.neocities.org. For anyone interested, join me in exploring the fascinating world of Pulsar!

For those of you still reading AND have taken a look at Pulsar Time Blog, you will have noticed that I have shamelessly copied the format of this blog to the new one. I happen to quite like it, so I'm using it again!

The morning of day three found us starting off from Cheyenne, WY, heading east. Within an hour we had crossed the border into Nebraska. I had never been to Nebraska before, so it was interesting seeing the "lay of the land," at least what was visible from the freeway. Because of the time of year, it seemed that almost all of the trees that were there had lost all of their leaves and were just dark trunks and branches against the sky. The corn fields had already been harvested and added a stubbly texture to the fields we passed. Matt put on an audio book by Bonhoeffer and the miles rolled. By quarter past five that evening we had crossed the Missouri state line. We pulled over at a town called Craig...with a name like that, how could we not? Soon we were back on the road, pressing on towards Columbia, Missouri. It was after 10pm by the time we pulled into the hotel. All of the long spaces were already taken by fellow U-Haulers and Penskefolk. It also appeared that a school sports team was there as well. We threaded the U-Haul into a very narrow space between two minivans and called it a night!