Vacation at Warp Speed...

Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner. We just got back from a little 4 day/3 night vacation. On the ‘vacation’, we went through Yellowstone Park and Mt. Rushmore. Since funds were short and hotels were very expensive, we wanted to keep it short, but still see both of the attractions.

Close to Mt. Rushmore, we stopped at Sturgis, since they are having the annual motorcycle rally. I was completely stunned by the size of it. It took up all of the hotels, gas stations and restaurants for about a 100 mile radius. Bikes were everywhere and took up all available space. At ground zero, people were selling spots on their lawns for tents and lawns were full, stake to stake with tents. It was probably 10 times the size I thought it would be and I thought it was large.

We saw a documentary on TV about it some weeks ago, but it didn’t give you the idea of how large it really was. And, I understand there are some permanent campgrounds out of town that also hold many thousands more of people and bikes. One campground has a permanent stage and was having big name bands/attractions such as ZZ Top, Bob Dylan, etc., etc. Thousands and thousands of Harley's everywhere. We also saw many bikes with Chevrolet small block V8s in them. Crazy stuff…

While we were in Yellowstone Park we saw Old Faithful blow her cork and checked out some of Yellowstone's geothermal displays. And while waiting for some road work close to dark, we saw this very large herd of buffalo migrating from a feeding area and across a river. We were able to watch them for quite a while as we followed the pilot car.

Besides Harley's, the other thing that was everywhere was pilot cars. We must have seen 100 of them throughout the trip as they were working on the mostly mountainous roads that we went on. So, we just about saw all of the things that Yellowstone is famous for - geothermal displays, beautiful forests and Arctic plateaus, and wild animals. We didn't see much of each category, but we did see a little of each one...

We were pretty worn out by the end of the vacation, but it was great fun. Storm and Jenny and their 4 kids were great during the whole trip and there was a lot of stressful events that happened because of the time an all the bikers. We had 2 kids in our rooms most of the time.

Pam was also great during the whole trip. She was having trouble with her hands, but didn't let that stop our plans. I drove most of the time and she was very helpful in tracking down trip details and variations because of the road work, bikers, and minimal planning. At the end of the trip, when I ran out of gas, she took over and got us home while also picking up the doggies that were staying with Aunt Robertta.

I didn't realize that Yellowstone Park was so close to DaHo, being only about 4 hours away. We plan on going there again often to see its beauty when we have more time to enjoy it. This trip was fast, but we saw it all and more - real fast. It was a lot faster than stuff usually happens here in DaHo...

Summertime Blues...

It is full on summer time here. The temps are usually in the 90ies and we are having mostly clear days. We have had a couple of storms that can get pretty nasty, but they have been short lived.

In the last blog entry, I mentioned the Lincoln having air conditioning problems and then it was the house. It kept freezing up and was a real PITA for a couple of weeks. We tried to fix it by cleaning out the coils outside and changing the filters and all the usual stuff, but nothing seemed to fix it. So, we called in the experts and after a 2.5 hr visit and a charge, it seems to all be fixed and working properly again.

I have been very busy working on a new product for the business. It is going to be a complete kit of tools for working on the hollow spectra lines that our other products work on. There are a few other such products out there, but they are all created and offered by dealers, and none of them are available through a distribution channel as ours will be. We shall have to see how it goes with our dealer network. It should be available next month.

This will be the first product that we have to deal with a lot of suppliers to get all the bits in place. Its been pretty crazy for the past 2-3 weeks, but is pretty much in the bag at this point. We plan on offering it in a number for forms as we will be offering to create custom ones for our dealers. We will be co-branding them and adding new or replacing parts of our basic kits as desired by our dealers to support their customer base and/or fishery.

We are also planning on taking a short trip with Storm and his family at the end of next week. We are taking a 3-4 day trip to visit Yellowstone Park and probably Mount Rushmore. I have seen Yellowstone Park many times as a kid and with my kids, but its been many years since my last time. I didn't realize that it is only about 4 hours from here. I have never been to Mt. Rushmore that I am aware of, but probably have when I was very young. The Sturgis motorcycle rally is also going on so we will probably stop past there since we are going right past it. \

The trip should be big fun. The summer just seems to be going past so fast. The business keeps me busy all the time and the weeks fly by.

Last week I got another back shot. This one was higher up than the others. The doctor showed me an X-ray of the joint and it was really squeezed on one side. I have had a lot of shots, and none of them ever hurt much. But, this one is horribly painful. I cannot remember ever having that much pain before and hope that I don't again. It seems to be much better, but I have not tested it with any long walks so I guess the trip to Yellowstone will do that for us. I just hope that it works well enough that I am not too much of a bother to everybody else...

Well, that is all I can think of to say at this point. I will be writing back after the vacation to let you know how that all went...