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From Heather Grace, Senior Software Engineer:

Oh, the places the Grace-mobile has been: Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia, and parts of Pennsylvania! This past year has truly been an adventure. We have put many miles on the mobile, as well as turned many heads — affectionately referred to as "rubber necks." What is the big deal about the Grace-mobile? It's a '95 red Nissan Quest which has been nothing special, until last summer — it was Lycosized. Now it has big white stickers that say "lycos.com," and "Get Lycos or Get Lost," as well as the Lycos logo on the hood. It has been an exciting venture, and an impetus for striking up conversations with people wanting to know what this "Lycos stuff" is all about.

It has been a huge hit with my kids. They enjoy standing out in a crowd (i.e. traffic) and being noticed. They think it's great that everybody looks at us when we drive by. They know when Mom is there to pick them up. You can see the van from a looonnnnggg way off. One of the best things about it is that I never forget where I parked. When I come out of the store, and I am looking at a vast sea of cars in the parking lot, the van is like a neon sign flashing "Here I am!" I am always so grateful.

Last week, my kids had spring break so we took off for Washington, D.C. for vacation. Of course, we drove the Grace-mobile. My husband struck up a conversation with an owner of a Mobil gas station. The owner got his stock information from AOL. My husband informed him that he could get the same information from Lycos. The owner said he was going to check it out. Even my husband advertises for Lycos.

Besides touring around Washington, we did wind up in Dulles, VA at the AOL headquarters. Since I didn't have a meeting set up with anyone, I couldn't actually get on the property, but I did manage to shoot a few pictures from the road for the photo album.

When people who know me see the van, they know it's me, and they aren't afraid to beep or wave. I think we should all have wacky stickers on our cars so that we can recognize each other. Then we won't have to be afraid that we are waving at someone we don't know. You can always wave to me, even if you don't know me. I'll wave back. I'm from Ohio.

—Heather Grace

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Read more "Letters from Tripod" in the archive.