What MotorSilkMan did this Summer

Well, as you can see it has been awhile since I posted on the blog. It is funny how being on the road takes its toll on time. So, what I have I been up to?

Since I last posted I headed to Michigan to meet with Rick Dragos for a customer visit at a prominent auto industry/NASCAR supplier. They are interested in the MotorSilk product for horsepower advantages and reducing wear. It was a team of young and very smart individuals who were impressed by the technology and are always looking for the next best advantage.

From there I headed to the Chicago area with Rick visiting a few potential customers and staying at a nice out of the way RV park in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. After a week of bouncing around in the Chicago area, and a little fishing on Geneva Lake, I said farewell to Rick and headed back towards Detroit, stopping along the way to visit my nephew and his family. It is nice that I can plan my trips around catching up with family and friends.

I have an old friend, Mike, that lives close to Michigan Speedway. He lives on a lake and he and his wife were great hosts while I visited. We visited the Speedway where there was a wine festival (which was all I needed to hear to be all in) but the Speedway was also hosting one of the phases of the Progressive Automotive X Prize where contestants from all over the world build vehicles and compete for best mileage and low emmissions. There were some very interesting vehicles.

After a weekend on the lake I headed back to Detroit and had the privilege to watch the 4^th of July Fireworks while sitting on a very nice boat owned by a friend of my brothers. It was a large festival and it was great to see all the patriotism.

It was time to start the trek south when I ran into maintenance issues with the RV. I had a rear axle seal go out and ended up replacing most of the rear end including rotors and brakes. I did the work at my brother Gary's house in Ohio. Let's just say his wife inquired often of the repair status since for some reason she wasn't pleased with the big RV parked in the driveway up on blocks. Something about "redneck" came up a few times. The good news is that slowly but surely I am becoming very intimate with the mechanics of the RV.

Once that was fixed, I met some friends at Lake Cumberland Kentucky for a weekend at the lake. It was an interesting time for a visit since they were attempting to set the Guinness Record for the most boats rafted together on the water. They set the record with over 1,600 boats all rafted together.

From there I headed to Bristol Tennessee for the NASCAR race. I was parked across the street from the Speedway and had the opportunity to talk to a lot of people about MotorSilk. I’ve been to a lot of NASCAR races but never stayed that close. Let’s just say that it was a week of late nights and great racing.

It has been an interesting summer/fall on the road and the MotorSilk RV always draws attention where ever I go. It is great meeting people and talking to them about the product. Until the next posting, enjoy the Holidays!

Interesting Companies in the Detroit Area

Geneva Lake

Rick fishing on Geneva Lake

My nephew's Alex & Zach and my neice Kaitlyn

X Prize Competitor

This was fun to watch run

4th of July Weekend with the boys

Brother Roger, niece Maggie and her son Luke in Detroit

RV on the Blocks

Boats starting to Raft up at Lake Cumberland

One of my favorites

Made it to Bristol

Getting ready for Racing

Bristol is great Racing

Hot Summer

As the summer began I spent a lot of time traveling and advertising MotorSilk.

I spent a nice time in Key West and met with David Zevetchin with Evergreen America to discuss a few MotorSilk sales strategies. After Key West, I took a break and flew back to Portland to see my new granddaughter, Ruby Jane. She is so cute and it was good to see the family.

I spent a month in the Tampa area going to various car shows and events. Unfortunately, I missed the car show at the Caliente Clothing Optional Resort. My friend Tom took his car to the show and found that a lot of the crowd was showing everything. It was a tiring event since he needed to stand most of the time due to the conversations with men, while sitting in a chair, was awkward at best. I have that show marked on my calendar for next year.

I wrapped up things in Florida and headed to South Carolina to visit a childhood friend. He lived in Beaufort and he was the ultimate tour guide. Beaufort is basically on the Atlantic coast and he showed me a great RV park right on the Ocean. It was beautiful. I plan to spend a few weeks there in the fall. I spent several days there meeting a few of his connections that were interested in MotorSilk. I treated a few vehicles and have received positive feedback and additional orders. I became a big fan of Beaufort.

From South Carolina I headed to Ohio only to have a brake issue on the RV. When something is this big and this heavy, brakes are a key component. Luckily I had a friend in Ohio that was an excellent mechanic and we rebuilt the master cylinder and I could brake once again.

With summer half way through, I decided to head north for a couple of very interesting customer visits and other fun. More about those adventures in the next posting.

Hanging out in Florida

The friendly neighborhood Gator

Parked in Beaufort, SC

Lot's of Beaches and beautiful views

I hate it when this happens

Nice view for an RV park

More Key Learnings and Rat Rods

Making my way back to the east side of Florida, I decided to spend the weekend at an RV park where I could be fully hooked up, just like home. I got a spot at the Quail Run RV park. It was a very nice place.

I pulled into my spot and while walking around the RV to make sure I was placed correctly, I noticed liquid dripping from the side. Curious, I opened up the door to where the waste storage is located and noticed one of the valves was open.

Luckily it was the waste water valve and not the waste sewage valve! I figured out that I taken a few showers and used the sink several times and all that water had been going right out the hose that wasn’t connected to anything but the road. Oops! Note to self, always double check the valves. The learning never stops.

My next stop was a car show at the Don Garlits Museum. I joined my friend Tom who took his 1962 Ford Starlifter NASCAR replica, which I have mentioned before. The show had a lot of cars, probably close to 200, from all years, makes and customs.

I was impressed with the Rat Rods, trying to talk several of the owners into using MotorSilk for it’s anti-corrosion qualities, but in their world, rust is cool.

I walked around with my MotorSilk shirt on handing out flyers and having some really interesting conversations. No direct sales at the time, but once again, a lot more people have now heard of MotorSilk. A good weekend all in all!

Quail Run

Lot's of Spanish Moss

Rat Rod Interior

Rat Rod portable grill

Hot Rods, Hot Bodies

Need I say more

What a Deal

With the advice from the police officers, my brother and I walk across the street to the beach front Tiki Bar. We order a drink and tell the bartender about our fun night with the police officers. She explained that their special drink deal is just what we need. Curious, we asked what the deal was.

Well, it seems this particular bar is very much about customer service since their late night deal, from 9pm to close was $12.00 for all the well drinks you want. What a deal, sort of. It didn’t feel like such a good deal the next morning.

The bar got busy, as you may expect, and with that much alcohol flowing so near the beach, let’s just say several patrons decided to take a late night run through the ocean in their birthday suits. Not bad entertainment for $12.00.

The next day the weather was changing for the worse and I had enough of befriending the local police force, so we decided to head back to Tampa. I wanted to get back and continue to work on the prospects for MotorSilk sales. I stayed in Tampa while Roger returned to Ft. Lauderdale for a rainy St. Patrick’s day.

The trips back and forth across Florida did generate a few internet MotorSilk sales. It seems the moving billboard does have a positive effect. The manufacture of MotorSilk is going to start a large TV ad campaign soon. I'm hoping to be really busy in the near future!

Lubricants, Police and Beach Front Bars

With St. Patrick day right around the corner, my brother and I concentrated on finding a prime spot to park the RV. We wanted to be close to the beach and close to the bars. We returned to the hotel that previously allowed me to park in their lot. Unfortunately, with St. Patrick day and spring break, they declined our request. What do we do now?

Roger had his car so we set out to find the local Wall-Mart which was way too far away. We found a listing for an RV park that was a bit far, but we were desperate. Just our luck, they were full.

We get back to the RV and decide to drive north and worse case stay in a rest area, and as we were leaving, the manager of the hotel came out and recognized the RV. She stopped me and said she didn’t realize who it was and she said we could stay the night in their lot. Stress relief feels so good!

We get parked in the lot with great exposure and was getting ready to do some partying when a police officer stopped and wondered why we were parked there. I let my brother deal with the police, if you recall he is retired DEA. He explained we had permission from the hotel and the officer said that was good enough for him. (Police visit #1)

We get ready to go get a bite to eat and another officer drives up saying he had a complaint about the noise of my generator. Keep in mind we are next to several beach bars that have bands most every night. When they are playing you can’t hear my generator standing next to it. Regardless, we agreed to be a good neighbor and I shut it off. (Police visit #2)

We went to get something to eat and upon returning, two more officers were at the RV. I’m thinking Gun Oil sales, but they had another agenda. Supposedly a person in a condo close to the parking lot had a personal agenda against us and had repeatedly called the police quoting ordinances that even if the RV is on private property; no one can stay in it. (The damm internet lets anyone look up laws. That should be illegal)

It was clear these officers thought all of this was ridiculous, but they had to do their job. The officer told me he was going to ask me a question and I knew the answer he wanted. He asked if we had a room in the hotel and we were not staying in the RV. I started to ramble and he stopped me and said, just say yes or no. I said yes. He suggested we go have a few drinks and let it all calm down. Well, it's not like me to disobey an officer of the law, so off to the bar we went. (Double Police visit #3)

After all the drama I realized I missed an opportunity to give half of their police force samples of my MotorSilk products. Oh well, off to the beach front bar which is a great story for my next blog. The night gets better, well, sort of.

MotorSilk Manufacturer Visit

My brother Roger and I met Tom, who drove over from Tampa, to see and learn more about the MotorSilk manufacturing process at the Advanced Lubrication Technologies facility. We met with Bill who works the magic behind developing the MotorSilk products. We toured the facility and gained an understanding of how the products are mixed, tested and bottled.

We had a lot of questions for Bill and I personally was amazed at the technology and the on-going research on the formulas to ensure their effectiveness and continuous improvement. It was also nice to see a product that was developed and produced in the United States.

I wanted to thank Brenda for setting up the visit and Bill for being so informative. I’ll look forward to additional visits in the future.


Roger and I headed back south to Ft. Lauderdale for a little R&R. More on that later.

Me and the ALT group

Back to Business - Sort Of

My few days with Kim came to a close when I dropped her off at the airport. We had a great time and now I needed to get ready for my next ride along.

My brother Roger is retired from the DEA. He has been meeting his various law enforcement buddies in Ft. Lauderdale on Saint Patrick’s Day going on 20 years. Since he was coming south anyhow, he came a week early and went with me to visit the MotorSilk manufacturing facility which is located in Palm City Florida.

Roger met me at an RV Park just north of Ft. Lauderdale. Since I hadn’t been hooked up to facilities in more than a week, I was out of water and full of sewage. I’ve been told that more than once in my life. I did learn another RV lesson in that always fill the RV with the good stuff and get rid of the bad, at every opportunity, even if you just did it. You never know how long it will be to the next opportunity. Let’s just say it isn’t fun having the bad tanks full, and it seems other motorist find leakage a bit annoying. Enough said.

I got the RV situated at the park and Roger and I went in to Ft. Lauderdale to meet a couple of his friends. We made it a short night and returned to the RV so we could get headed out for our trip in the morning. We hit the road headed north after a short detour to drop Roger’s car at his buddies’ house.

We were scheduled to visit the facility the next day so we had plenty of time. We reached our destination and after driving through a few strip malls, (BTW – I am now pretty proficient at getting this big bus in and out of anywhere with minimal damage!) we found a nice place to have dinner. There were no RV parks in the area, so after talking to a few people about where to park and telling them what MotorSilk is, we were told there was a Wall-Mart down the road.

I have to admit that this was on the higher end of the Wall-Mart stores. We had our cameras ready in case we saw any candidates for the people of Wall-Mart, but no one stood out. It reminded me of the joke about 1 out of every 4 people is an idiot and if your three friends seem okay, it’s probably you. Luckily I didn’t notice anyone taking pictures of us. Anyhow, thank you Wall-Mart for your hospitality and we headed out to the manufacturer the next morning.

Pelican's on the Pier

Ft. Lauderdale - Day 2

We headed out of the French Canadian RV park on a mission to get to the beach. After driving around a while trying to figure it out, I found a parking spot on the street, right at the beach in Lauderdale by the Sea. I took up two spaces, fed the meters for a 4 hour period, and we headed to the beach.

It was a warm day and the beach in Lauderdale is beautiful. After a day in the sun, we were faced with the fact of what do we do now? I contemplated staying there and waking up every 4 hours to feed the meter. Not my favorite plan. By chance a Parking Authority person came driving by and I flagged them down. I asked him if he knew where I could park overnight and he explained that in reality, RV’s aren’t allowed to park on the streets due to a past mayor who didn’t like RV’s in his town. He told me he didn’t ticket me because I fed the meters and was a business bus. As you will read in future blogs, the RV being business wrapped can be a great asset.

The parking authority did mention that a hotel just up the street sometimes allowed RVs to park in their lot, and since it is private property, the parking laws against RVs don’t apply. After talking to the manager of the hotel, he allowed us to park there for several days at no charge. So here we were, parked right next to the ocean, but also the RV had great visibility to A1A, the main beach street there.

During the time there I talked to several people about MotorSilk. It was nice to sit in the beach bar with my MotorSilk shirt on and have people keep asking me if that was my RV and what was MotorSilk. Those of you in sales know any lead is good, but when they come to you it is great!

More adventures in Ft. Lauderdale to come.

Sunrise on the beach

Have you gotten MotorSilk yet?

On the Road Again

I decided it was time to explore more of Florida and with the company of a very cute friend from my past; we headed to Ft. Lauderdale for some fun and sun. Kim is a sun and ocean lover and so the plan was to get somewhere as close to the beach as possible.

I had a reservation at an RV park in Ft. Lauderdale, but upon arrival they informed me that business RV’s were not allowed. Okay, now what. I found another RV park in the area and they had an opening.

Keep in mind this is prime Snow Bird time in Florida. Most RV parks are full. Checking in at this RV park, I quickly felt I was in another country. I’m not sure if it is designed this way or just happens, but this RV park was the southern version of French Canada. It was like a small town in Canada moved south for several months and if you’ve ever been in northeast Canada in the winter, it is no surprise. I'm still trying to figure out how to say MotorSilk in French. I tried explaining it was about lubrication, but that took an interesting language barrier turn that I can't really talk about on this blog.

We ended up paying a lot of money for one night in a grass field with a 110 volt connection only. Not the best deal I have experienced on the road.

So we made it to Ft. Lauderdale, but still no beach. The story will continue!

Driving across Alligator Alley

Getting close to the beach

Zephryhills

Gary, Tom and I purchased a large vendor area at the Zephyrhills Florida auto auction and swap meet. I was impressed how large this event was.

I was selling MotorSilk and Gary and Tom were selling auto parts. Tom was also showing off the 1962 Ford Starlifter replica he built. An interesting piece of NASCAR history you should Google. We were next to a few other car part vendors, an area for people to sell cars, and right across the aisle was Big “E”s BBQ. The good news is that the BBQ was really good. The bad news is I smelled BBQ smoke in the RV for weeks later. Oh well, the good and the bad.

This was another time of being totally self contained in the RV with my brother Gary staying with me. You may consider this a strange comment, but most of you have no idea how much you take sewage for granted. I wouldn’t have thought this a year ago, but I spend a lot of time worrying about the bad tanks getting full and the good tanks getting empty. Life is certainly full of change.

I spent 4 days at the show and saw a lot of really interesting cars and car parts. I sold a little MotorSilk and talked to several people about it. Gary headed back to Ohio on the last day and I went on to my next adventure, right after emptying the bad tanks and filling the good. I guess we all need to do that sometimes.

Bentley kit car made from a Lincoln???

Smokey and the Bandit. My son's dream car!

Do you need a Mustang Pool Table?

He takes her everywhere he goes!

Time Off

After watching a long Daytona race I had an opportunity to stay at a friend’s condo on Madeira Beach. Thanks to Doug and Sherry!

It was the first time not staying in the RV and it took me a while to get my land legs back… The water was cold but the sun was shining. I went with my friend Tom and my brother Gary who was here for an auto swap meet. More about that later.

We had a nice relaxing time and headed back to Tampa to set up at the swap meet. It was nice to get back to the RV. After several months on the road it has become home. Now back to selling MotorSilk!

Me on the beach

Daytona with Rick

Rick Dragos, President of Evergreen America, flew into Tampa to meet with me and to visit some of the customers I have been working with. He also wanted to go with me to Daytona.

We spent a few days in Tampa and then headed east to Daytona. It wasn’t the best of weather when we arrived. We drove by the track a few times and decided it wasn’t going to be easy to find a place to park the RV. It was interesting that the MotorSilk RV did not get as much attention there since there we so many wrapped vehicles advertising everything you can imagine.

We ended up going south and found a nice RV park to spend the night and finally met some people interested in MotorSilk. Having not reserved a spot in the speedway infield due to the high costs, we thought we would see if we could find a place to park near the speedway. Turns out it was pouring rain the next day and the parking situation didn’t get any better.

Even without going to the race, Rick got excellent exposure to the race environment. He was amazed at all the trailers selling race team clothing and collectibles. We did finally get a chance to hear the cars going around the track which is impressive even on the outside.

Rick had a flight back to Connecticut on Sunday, so we headed back to Tampa in time to watch the Nationwide race on TV. If nothing else, NASCAR now has one more fan.

Thanks to Rick for being my co-pilot and as usual sharing his vast technical knowledge about MotorSilk. You have to trust him, he’s a Tribologist!

Welcome to the Speedway

Lot's of ways to spend money

Sunshine would have been nicer

Randy and Rick

Equipment Everywhere

Turns out, the biggest issue was the torrential rain storms that turned the sand I was parked in, to many little sand/water rivers all around and under the RV.

I forged the rivers and watched the auction for a while under an umbrella. The bad news was the weather, the good news was that if I was in the market for a backhoe or scissor lift, they were selling cheap. I did see an engine for sale (picture below) and thought I could upgrade the power in the RV, but decided against it.

Having only talked to a few people about MotorSilk and the continuous rain, I decided to try to drive out of the soaked sand pit for higher ground. On the road again!

Heavy Equipment

My next adventure took me to Kissimmee Florida which is right next door to the happiest place in the world, Disney World. It is also a place that has some of the biggest heavy equipment auctions I have ever seen.

My partners at Evergreen America got me a spot at the Lyon’s auction. Not having a lot of ties into that industry made it a little difficult to make connections, but where ever I go in the RV; I always gain some MotorSilk brand awareness. I was to be at this auction for several days and I had no hookups, so it was my first time I was completely self contained.

I made friends with the vendor next to me, Al Diamond of Herndon Brothers who move the very large equipment and machinery that no one else moves. Al gave me advice I consider the best advice of that show. He was staying in an RV also and advised me not to walk around at night. My curiosity was satisfied quickly when he said the guard dogs are let loose at night. Enough said. I didn’t want a confrontation with the junk yard dogs, ever. Little did I know the guard dogs weren’t the only interesting thing of this show? To be continued.

Even though I was in Florida, my distributor in Boulder Colorado, Green Garage has been doing very well with their green approach to car repairs and they have been a great distributor of MotorSilk products. If you're in the Boulder area, check out Green Garage and their green approach to car mechanics. You can learn more at http://www.greengarage.com/. Great job guys!

Naples

Tom and I went to visit a friend of his just North of Naples, Florida. Steve is a sales person for a large company that sells landscaping equipment to the many golf courses and country clubs in Florida.

We parked the RV at Steve’s friend’s house, Angelo. Angelo has a very interesting home. His home is really nice, but the great part is he bought the lot next door to him and built what looks like a home but is really a very large garage.

Steve and Angelo are car guys, and they both are connected to industries that are perfect for MotorSilk and LubriSilk applications. I gave them product to use in their test vehicles and look forward to seeing their results when we talk again in the next month or so. It was nice to grill out by the pool and finally start enjoying some of the warm weather I expected from Florida. Here's a few pictures of the RV parked in front of the Garage/house and a picture of the beautiful 427 engine in Steve's 1964 Ford. Thanks to Steve and Angelo for their hospitality.