Pink Elephant at Diamond Inn Motel

Outgoing postcard US-3841683 traveling to Czech Republic, shows a pink elephant in front of the Diamond Inn Motel on the Las Vegas Strip across from Mandalay Bay Hotel. Built in 1940s, the motel was originally called the Desert Isle. The ceramic elephant came from Disney World in the 1950s. The courtyard style motor lodge offers older rooms but one of the least expensive room rates on the Las Vegas Strip.

I took this photo on October 14, 2015 when I got myself familiar with the Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon routes. The starting line was less than 100 feet or 30 meters away to the south.

There is a Pink Elephant Car Wash in Seattle.

Here are several phases relating to "elephant:"

• "The elephant in the room" is a problem that everyone knows about but refuse to acknowledge;
• A "white elephant" is a trouble that's difficult or expensive to get rid of;
• A "pink elephant" is a hallucination seen by drunk people.

United States Post Office at Phoenix, Arizona

Postcard US-3372307 to Poland was a 1950s vintage card of a street view looking north on 1st Avenue past the west entrance to the U.S. Post Office in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. Just North is the Hotel Westward Ho.

Also known as Federal Building-U.S. Post Office, it opened on September 29, 1936 and operated as the main post office of Phoenix for over thirty years, A landmark in downtown Phoenix, the Federal Building-Post Office was symbolic of the federal presence as it also hosted several other Federal agencies.

It is currently part of Arizona State University at the Downtown Phoenix campus. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 10, 1983, the Post Office features Spanish Colonial Revival architectural design.

I Left my Heart {at Hyde and Lombard Street} in San Francisco

As a captured audience inside the Terminal 2 at the SFO International Airport waiting for my return flight to Las Vegas, I found a rack full of "I left my heart in San Francisco" postcards. Outgoing postcard US-3373240 to Ukraine was one of those that I obligatorily purchased.

The card shows a section of Lombard Street in the Russian Hill neighborhood, a one-way block between Hyde Street and Leavenworth Street, known as the crookedest street in the world with eight sharp turns.

That section of Lombard Street used to be a straight, cobblestone street with a 27% grade which was too steep for most cars. The turns were built in 1922 so that people could drive up and down the hill, until the street was made one-way downhill in 1939. The street was paved with red bricks and about 250 steps were built on each side of the street to accommodate pedestrians.

Now, during the peak tourist season in summer, there are as many as 350 cars driving down the street each hour. However, it was not a popular tourist destination until the late 1950s. I drove down the street twice during my previous visit to San Francisco in 1999. This time, I took the Powell-Hyde cable car to the top of this block earlier today, and took the steps down to Leavenworth Street.

Me and Jim Found Tonopah

Postcard US-3100087 to Ukraine was purportedly from "me", the mule on the top-right insert, and my owner Jim after we found Tonopah at the junction of U.S. Routes 6 and 95, about half-way between Las Vegas and Reno in Nevada in the 1950s.

"Here we are in Tonopah, Nevada, that great silver mining camp that for a generation was the nation's greatest producer of silver. A beautiful, modern little city, but DIFFERENT. Fine highways leading everywhere; finest of hotels and torist accommodations; unexcelled climate; good stores, schools, theatres. Best of hunting and fishing in season. Noted gaming palaces. You only live once - be sure and visit Tonopah. It IS different."

Tonopah is a the county seat of Nye County, Nevada with a population of 2,478 in 2010 census and a total area of 16.2 square miles or 42 square kilometers.

Behalte stets im Herzen

Postcard DE-2794333 from Germany shows a Volkswagen Minibus with the split windshield. Starting from Hanover, Germany from the 1950s to 1979 and then continuing in Brazil until the end of 2013, its production had been the longest in automotive history.

"Always keep in mind,
what you have encountered on your way,
every joy, every smile,
every preserved moment!"