Dust In The Wind

I close my eyes, only for a moment, and the package's gone
All my cards pass before my eyes, a curiosity
Dust in the wind
All they are is dust in the wind

 

Maybe I changed the words to the famous Kansas song Dust In The Wind, but essentially that's what happened.  I mentioned I had a missing package the last post, and I filed a report with the Post Office.  They quickly said they'd investigate, and if I chose to I could file a police report.  It wouldn't make a difference, so I decided whatever the Post Office concluded, I'd accept and move on.  Last night I got my response.  They conclude they delivered the package and essentially the case is closed and I should file a police report.  I'm not super mad to be honest.  I am upset somewhat and I still find it hard to believe that while my window is facing the mailbox, and almost know the timing each day the mail comes, that someone would open my mailbox and take a package out before I could get it.  Maybe it really did happen.  But like I said, I decided to accept it and move on.  What else can I do?  My local cop isn't going to do anything for $30 worth of baseball cards, and to be honest, could you blame him?  Yeah it stinks on my side of it, but I just figure I'm out of options.  What I was hoping for was a refund.  Then again, from the P.O. standpoint I could have made it up and got the cards the second they left but still acted like I didn't.  However in my defense, I think I would have filed a complaint a lot sooner than two weeks after the supposed delivery.  All I can say is in the future I will probably make sure if I get packages, I'll just sign for them so I know I can get them.  I'm out 228 cards, but on the bright side, I know what the cards were I was supposed to get, so maybe I might reorder them.  In the meantime though I won't.  I don't think I'll order anything online for a bit, unless its Listia and even then I'm not sure.  They just switched their currency system and I might spend what I have now (I haven't switched over yet) and call it a day.

 

So what can I show if I can't show those?  Well, let me look in my scan folder and see what I can dig up.

 

 

 Oh say can you see, whats this?  Lenscrafters trading cards?  Well, I never... until about 2-3 months ago when I first heard about them.  No these aren't eyeglasses trading cards, though I do have a card of that I'll show in a bit.  This is a set called Tall Stacks.  If you aren't on the Ohio River you might be confused, so how about more cards.

 Well, that didn't clear things up at all.

 See, I told you eye have... I mean.... See, I told you I have a trading card with a pair of glasses on them.  I doubt they were light as a feather, but I think I did have a similar pair once.  Alas, these are trading cards of boats.  Some pretty prominent ones at that.  Any boat with Belle or Queen in the title should be respected.  This is a pretty cool card set, with 20 cards, 24 I think including the earlier ones I showed and it features boats that competed in a competition in Cincinnati during some river festivals they had.  This one was from 1992, and I think it was when it was at the peak of the festival.  They don't have it anymore but it sounded really cool.  They had concerts on the river and included boat races between some pretty famous riverboats.  These were just a few.

The backs of the cards are very descriptive too.  They have a lot more details than most current trading cards have.  I wasn't really sure what category to list them as on Trading Card Database, should they be in transportation, or should they be in historical.  I posed the question on the site and I forgot what was decided, but its under the 1992 section of non-sports.  I used the same scans as the cards posted here though, so not much difference.

 I love the names of these, and while I don't think I read the current status of all of these, it would have been fun to been on some that are no longer in service.

 However, I can say I have seen one of these and it was the main reason I wanted this set.  I went to Louisville in 1996 and I have a couple pictures standing in front of the Belle of Louisville.  It was probably one of the favorite things I saw in the city and I'd love to go back there one day.

 

 

 I think these cards prove you don't need a photo on the back as long as all the space is utilized.

 

 

 I remember once on a school trip there was a boat similar to these that came to Boonville and we got to explore it.  I wish I remembered more about it, but oh well.

 

 

 When I saw these cards, I already I wanted them because of the Belle of Louisville, but then I saw the Belle of St. Louis and I knew that I wanted them more.  It would fit well into my history of Missouri collection, and besides, these are cool.  It was tough to find out what happened to some of these, but the Belle of St. Louis became a riverboat casino in Iowa called Diamond Jo, where its docked today (as best I could tell).  In fact it didn't stay long in St. Louis, less than 5 years.

I had to search some history looking at these cards, and the Tall Stacks festival sounded awesome.  However when I bought these and got them, when I finally saw the Belle of St. Louis card it reminded me of another boat I went on once.  I don't go on the water much as the opportunity doesn't present itself too often, and plus I never learned to swim, so I do get nervous when out on the water.  I honestly only remember being on a boat maybe 5 times ever, once I remember driving a boat on the Lake of the Ozarks.  It was after a group of us was on this pontoon boat as part of a church trip.  A lot of them crowded the front of the pontoon and it started to take on water.  Everyone freaked and we headed back to our slip.  The pastor in charge asked a couple of us if we wanted to drive it, and I knew there was no danger, so heck yeah!

However another time I was on a boat I don't have much details on, but I remember I was on it.  In St. Louis, they had a riverboat that was a McDonald's.  This was in the 90's, and it had to be some sort of school trip to the Arch or something, but I can't remember.  Anyways I remember getting on the boat but not if I ordered anything.  It was actually a barge that looked like a riverboat, but it closed in 2000.  I heard there was also once a floating Burger King as well but the Flood of 1993 took care of that.

So this is the Tall Stacks set I bought off Ebay back in November I believe.  It was a cheap fun set to get and I'm pretty happy I got it.  While I'm not history buff, its odd things like this that makes me interested in history at times.

That wraps things up for today, I hope you enjoyed the cards, and I hope to write more soon, unless I get caught up in some basketball tournament that starts soon.  That reminds me, if you fill out brackets, I hope you have fun doing it, but once the games begin, just sit back and watch the games.  #W4TG was a hashtag I used on Twitter a few years back and it stands for Watch For The Game.  It means enjoy the games and don't think about who you picked in the brackets.  Watch the games especially the close ones because they are great games, not because you picked the 10 seed to upset the 7 seed.  While I haven't completely stopped filling out brackets, I have much more fun now watching the games knowing my mind is free of thinking about how one team can help or hurt my bracket.  I can sit back watch the games and see a buzzer beater 3 pointer for the 11 seed to make a miraculous 17 point comeback and win by 1 and just be excited, not caring it messed up my chances.  WATCH FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME, not some bracket.  Anyways, thanks for reading and have a great day.