Hiya, test pilots, potential Oscar nominees, and those who've got a real serious issue about being seen in public, and welcome today to Houston, Texas! The beans have played in this part of the world before, but today? They're out to meet a guy who really didn't enjoy having company over for tea (or beans) in his final years. So I'm going to let BATW Ambassador Geowyz take the story from here -- and we'll keep those tissue-box shoes handy, just in case.

With the new movie "The Aviator" up for an Academy Award this year the beans decided it was time to pay their respects to the subject of that movie, Howard Hughes. Turns out the eccentric billionaire is as elusive in death as he was reclusive in life. His un-ostentatious gravesite in Houston is surrounded by a steel fence and padlocked gate with very little ornamentation and no prominent marker indicating the significance of the occupant. The Hughes name can only barely be seen on the recumbent gravestones from the gate. As a matter of fact the beans had to go around to the back side of the plot to get a good look at the marker and even then they could just barely get to peek over the wall; not an easy thing for a can of frijoles!

Hughes shares the space with his father Howard Sr. from whom he inherited the Hughes Tool Company, and his mother Allene who died when he was 16. He inherited his dad's business at age 18 and turned it into a billion dollar empire. At various points in his life he owned a drilling tool company, an international airline, an aircraft company, a major motion picture studio, mining properties, gambling casinos and hotels, a medical research institute, and a vast amount of real estate. He built the worlds largest airplane, at one point held most of the major air speed records, directed the classic movie "Hell's Angels", and created the half-cup bra.

He died in 1976, a hypochondriacal recluse, not having been seen publicly or photographed for twenty years. He is buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Houston Texas.

So there you have it - another fun date with the dearly departed. The beans were hoping that some of Mr. Hughes' good (financial) fortunes would rub off on them, but they were afraid of what other germs might be lurking around a 30-year old corpse, so instead they hightailed it to Vegas, where they locked themselves in a penthouse suite and enjoyed endless days of B movies and room service. Hey, it's a vacation...