There are several things that I love about this postcard. To begin with, and probably least important, I live about an hour away from Grand Forks, North Dakota. I'm reasonably familiar with the city, although I not with this Holiday Inn (which might be because it either no longer exists, or is no longer in this form due to remodeling). Another is just the sheer mundaneness of a postcard with a generic Holiday Inn on it--apparently there was no better postcard image for Jim to send to his parents in Memphis.
Which leads to another thing I love about it: how it represents a form of communication that is now nearly defunct, yet once was a vital method of relaying information. Jim didn't send this postcard because he was on vacation in Grand Forks; he sent it because he had just arrived in GF for school at UND and wanted to tell his parents (I presume that is who "M & D" are). Today, we would send a text message via cell phone, or maybe an e-mail, or just make a phone call (via cell or landline) to relay such information.
In 1971, though, a postcard probably was the most efficient and logical way of relaying this information. Cell phones, of course, were not even a glimmer in Nokia's eye. Long distance phone calls were expensive and were reserved for truly special occasions, or emergencies. Likewise for telegrams. (Talk about defunct forms of communication.) And Jim's message didn't require sending an entire letter--his brief bit of information and new campus address fit quite nicely on the back of the postcard he found in the hotel room he stayed in before moving into his dorm room, thank you very much.
