MotorSilk RV Adventure

What MotorSilkMan did this Summer

2010-12-12T06:39:00.000-08:00

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

2010-08-27T11:28:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-19T09:23:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-01T09:24:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-24T06:26:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-04T09:58:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-28T09:16:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-20T09:16:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-27T17:02:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-24T12:30:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-19T09:51:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-12T06:49:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-03T17:09:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-27T12:33:00.000-08:00

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.

I've Struck Water

2010-02-24T16:41:00.000-08:00

Pump #2 now purchased and installed, I had running water again. Yea!
I put everything back together and finally organized all the lower storage bins. It was a good feeling. Okay, now I am mobile again. I went to a local RV park and emptied everything I needed to empty and filled up on everything I needed to fill. (I use generalities since the actual details are still a little scary to me!)

Next stop, Naples, to visit another potential MotorSilk and LubriSilk customer. I love being back on the road!

This Maintenance Work Sucks!

2010-02-22T04:02:00.000-08:00

I started out Saturday morning ready to replace the water pump. My first realization is that I should have practiced a few contortionist moves before taking on this job. The pump is located in the lower storage area so I was basically half way in the storage bin and bending in some strange ways. I have the bruises to prove it.

Eventually I got the old pump out and developed the plan to install the new one. Well, I learned that plastic connectors can be tightened too much. Unfortunately, I realized this only after installing the new pump and realizing it doesn’t work. I cracked the inlet tube so it was sucking air instead of water. Sigh.. Oh well, I need another pump. Luckily I called Lazy Days before driving the 35 minutes and the parts department closed 15 minutes earlier. I did end up treating the storage door hinges with MotorSilk and they are already working smoother.

I closed everything up and with my head held low I went into Tom's house to take a shower.

Maintenance

2010-02-14T12:48:00.000-08:00

Let’s see, I can hear the water pump running and there is no water, but where is the pump? This activity reminded me of driving around Portland, being able to see where I need to be, but not being able to get there.

With the help of Tom B. we located the water pump, but more importantly saw all the other partitions, shelves and basically a whole lot of hardware that needed to be removed before you could get to the pump. After a day of reaching, cussing and various knuckle busting cuts, we exposed the pump. It was clear it needed to be replaced, so now I hit the trusty internet to find a pump.

It turns out just outside of Tampa is the largest RV sales, service and everything to do with RV’s store, Lazy Days. I went there on a Friday and purchased a new pump. Saturday would be install day. I was excited I was going to have running water again. BTW – thanks to Tom and his wife Janet for allowing me, well insisting I use their shower while I couldn’t use mine. Let’s just say I pushed the “I don’t need a shower” envelope a bit too long!

Connections

2010-02-09T11:14:00.000-08:00

Tampa has been fruitful so far on making connections for potential MotorSilk customers with fleets and landscaping companies. In between meeting with potential customers, I had to deal with the water pump problem. Luckily Tom did know a very talented guy who helped me with several RV issues.

Ted Kempgens and Tom Bambard of Creative Motion Concepts have a great shop and have their talented hands into all sorts of automotive activities from racing to auto related motion filming. Ted was very interested in MotorSilk and once he understood it used Boron he knew it wasn’t like other additives. Our initial meeting went well and they were more than willing to help me with the water pump problem. I would bring the RV back the next day to start working a a fw issues.

Headed to Tampa

2010-02-06T06:52:00.000-08:00

Now having learned the art of putting out the awning in Daytona, it took a little time figuring out how to put it back in. This learning about the RV stuff never seems to end!

I finally left Daytona Beach and headed to Tampa. I have a great contact in Tampa, Tom, and he has set up some meetings to discuss MotorSilk. Tom has a lot of connections in the car world and my plan is to get him trained on all the benefits of the products and have him be my contact in the Tampa Bay area.

The drive was nice, but I started to have water pump problems when I left Daytona. Not the engine water pump, the water pump for sinks, shower and yes, flushing. I was also driving with the driver’s window open for the first time and the air felt great. That’s the good news. The bad news was I heard a strange noise of something rubbing. Well, after over 4 thousand miles so far, I should expect some maintenance. I hope Tom has a mechanic contact also.

Daytona Beach

2010-02-02T13:24:00.000-08:00

I pulled into Daytona Beach and drove directly towards the Atlantic. I needed to see the waves. I decided to stay there a few days and see if I could scope out a place to park during speed week, that starts early February, and a place to be prominently parked for the Daytona 500. I had planned to park in the infield, but thought I may get more exposure for MotorSilk outside the track as opposed to being sandwiched between two other RV’s.

I parked and checked out the Atlantic for awhile (forgot the camera, oh well) got out my handy RV park guide and decided to spend a few nights at the Daytona Speedway RV Park. I got parked in my spot and hooked up and noticed the two 5th wheels close to me were washing their campers. After a month of snow, salt and road grime, the MotorSilk RV needed a bath.

Of course half way through the washing, the maintenance man told me I had to purchase a permit for washing. It was a great deal at $5.00. I got pricing on RV parks and the infield for the weekend of the Daytona 500 and it is a fortune. The lowest I found was $700.00 and going all the way up to $2,000.00.In talking to a few people I have another possibility that I’ll talk about later. In the mean time I was finally in warm weather, in my shorts and able to give some care to my living quarters. I’m not missing the cold!

Back on the Road

2010-01-31T15:03:00.000-08:00

After a very nice time in Ohio visiting friends and family I finally saw a window in the weather that was worthy of the trip south. I got the RV into road mode and set out from my brother’s house and stopped at my local propane dealer that is now following my adventure, Collett Propane, and hit I71 south.

With the new tire investment; didn’t want any more flats, the RV handled better and it was only a few miles before I felt like I was back into the adventure. I anxiously awaited the moment that there wasn’t snow on the ground, and unfortunately that took two states. After driving 6 hours I stopped at a Love’s truck stop and filled up with diesel. I’d been getting around 10 to 10.5 mpg and after 67gallons I averaged 9.62mpg this tank. I haven’t treated the RV with MotorSilk yet since I am still getting a base line for the fuel consumption.

I was getting tired so I pulled out my trusty KOA book and found a nice RV park just outside of the Georgia state line. It was 44 degrees here and I felt like putting my shorts on. I’ll save that until tomorrow when I get to Florida. One side note, as I hooked up the RV in its spot a guy walked around to the side I was on and said he had heard of MotorSilk but didn’t know it did all the things he was reading on the RV. He had a piece of paper in his hand it had the web site written on it. It’s great to be back on the road!

First Trip and Still Alive

2010-01-30T13:17:00.000-08:00

I woke up around 7am and started to get ready to go. I wasn’t in a big hurry since I knew I was close to my goal. I listened to the radio and heard a semi truck was pushed over last night in the wind. I felt better about the defeat. After drinking some coffee and getting everything stowed for the ride, I looked out the window and it was snowing heavily.

The snow was wet and only sticking a little, but the panic in me put me into overdrive as I quickly got unhooked and headed out. Of course at this point I was trying to figure out how I had offended Mother Nature.

As it turns out the snow was local and as I hit the road north there was no snow and the wind had died down tremendously. I had a somewhat leisurely drive to Ohio and planned to enjoy the holidays with family and friends.

Mother Nature Wins

2010-01-29T07:42:00.000-08:00

I drove on for awhile and stopped at a rest area for the night not too far inside Tennessee. Ear plugs ready, it was a fairly peaceful night. The next morning I got moving with a goal to make it to Louisville Kentucky. It was getting colder and the winds began to pick up. At first it was at my back and pushed me along nicely with only the occasional buffering. I came into Nashville and took I65 north towards Louisville and then the fun began.

As I headed north the wind at my back became the wind at my side. Hearing later that the gust were hitting 60mph did not surprise me. I fought the wind for a few hours. Slowing down to 55mph in a 70mph zone did help a bit, but my hands continued to sweat as I gripped the steering wheel with all my strength. Finally I decide this was insane since a few times I was almost blown off the road. I stopped at a truck stop and looked at my RV park directory and found one very close to my location. I went there mid afternoon and checked in. I got the RV all connected and settled in with my defeat. Only a few hours away from my goal. Oh well. Better to arrive safe.

Silver Linings

2010-01-26T16:49:00.000-08:00

I left the KOA Campground after a long discussion about MotorSilk with the owner. It was rainy and as I found out once hitting the Interstate, a bit windy. Remember when I said before that wind is the enemy of RV’s. Well Mother Nature showed me that she can mix it up even worse with downpours mixed with high winds. In this case I was heading straight into the wind blowing the rain so hard into my windshield the bugs quickly disappeared. A Silver Lining.

I kept cruising east and eventually got used to the pounding. By that I mean I quit squeezing the steering wheel so hard I left my fingerprints. I made my way out of Oklahoma and into Arkansas. Filled up with diesel at my favorite chain of truck stops, Love’s, and pushed my way through the wind and rain, making fairly good time to Little Rock, Arkansas.

50 miles out of Little Rock, driving along in less rain and feeling good about the time I was making, I suddenly heard a loud BANG and after a moment of what the heck, I realized my front driver’s side tire had blown out. When I started this trip I had always wondered in the back of my mind about the potential of having a blowout sometime and would the RV suddenly lose control and I would make the National News. As it turns out, the steering stayed perfectly straight and I braked slowly and limped to the side of the road.

Of course this was a section with a guard rail that I barely fit between the rail and the right lane of the interstate. I sat there a minute and gathered my thoughts, grateful I hadn’t made the National News. I was smart enough to get AAA with RV coverage, so I went to call them only to think, huh, where am I? There were no markers, no close exits, nothing to tell me my exact location. I was guessing that saying I was somewhere between Little Rock and Tennessee wasn’t going to be enough.

I looked at a map and thought I had narrowed it down a bit and made the call. AAA is great and they said they would get someone there, but it may take an hour. Oh well, an advantage to living in the RV is all your stuff is there, so I thought, Email Time… Remarkably I received a call from the service people and they said they would be there in 20 minutes. They called again in about 30 minutes saying they couldn’t find me where I said I was.

It suddenly dawned on me I have a GPS unit so I turned it on and after zooming out to the 80 mile view, I realized I told them I was about 30 miles east of where I really was. Oops! About an hour later, the guys show up.

In the mean time I turn on the radio and my CB comes on also and I start listening to all the truckers talking about the RV, the MotorSilk RV on the side of the road. Sympathizing for me because of the driver’s side blowout and being so close to the right lane. Free advertising! I heard speculation that I was with a race team, but they were talking about MotorSilk. The AAA guys showed up. Two older guys who were great.

As they were working I walked a ways behind the RV and signaled the oncoming traffic to move left in my safety vest I bought for the trip and my son thought was stupid. Ha ha..

Anyhow, after a three hour delay, I was back on the road headed for Tennessee. All in all, a good day. I know now the RV won’t crash violently with a blown tire and even delays can be good for business. Always look for the Silver Linings!

Motoring

2010-01-25T12:54:00.000-08:00

Got up feeling good, got ready to leave, had my coffee in my hand and set off for the Texas pan handle. Although I had lived in Houston for a few years in the mid 90’s, I had never been through the pan-handle. Wasn’t a lot to see but did make a few friends talking about MotorSilk and giving them a sample at a truck stop called Love’s. Love’s has the best diesel fuel price and the places are really clean. Next time you are on the highway and are in need of fuel, I recommend them highly.

Went through Amarillo, which was much larger than I thought, and then made my way to Oklahoma fairly easily. Oklahoma went fast and I was impressed to see their large quantity of wind veins on one of their high points off I40. Similar to a scene I saw in California. There had to be well over a hundred wind veins churning out electricity on top of the high peak. Getting low on water and propane, I decided to stop at a KOA campground that I saw the billboard for. I checked into the Checotah/Lake Eufaula West KOA Campground. The gentleman that checked me in was very curious about MotorSilk and so I gave him a brochure and a sample. If you ever get a chance to go there, make sure you have the Cole slaw they make. It was great.

Wind

2010-01-24T07:45:00.000-08:00

It seems learning something everyday is the common thing. Did you know that I40 going across Arizona through Flagstaff has a high altitude of well over 7,000 ft. I was thinking flat lands, warm Arizona sun… I guess I spent too much time in Phoenix.

There is a lot of wind in the high dessert. I plan to send a letter to the Arizona Department of Transportation strongly suggesting to widen the lanes to maybe 20 to 30 feet each. I want to apologize now to the small RV I was passing when the wind put me into their lane. Sorry! After several hours of white knuckle driving, I again was on the quest for a rest area to calm down a bit. Guess what, every rest area on I40 East in Arizona is closed. I looked at these places going by and could not see a physical reason for the closing. My guess is a cost saving issue, but it really sucks. And they are saving money on fixing roads also. Not having spent much time in an RV before, I was sure the body was eventually going to fly off the chassis as I watched the chassis drive on down the highway.

I made it to New Mexico, still fighting the wind, but not quite as bad. I talked to a few people who were curious about MotorSilk as I was refueling. I have not treated the RV with MotorSilk yet, since I am getting a baseline without the treatment for comparison. Currently I’m averaging around 10.5 mpg. Another 1-2mpgs will help the refueling bill greatly. I made it through Albuquerque, big cities are hard to maneuver in the RV, and kept driving east hoping to stay way ahead of the bad weather that was following me. It’s getting late and I’m on the search for a New Mexico rest area. After going by two that were closed I finally found one open and settled in for the night. This time I strategically placed myself out of the path of the main drag and decided I could avoid the farm animal alarm clock with ear plugs. At last, a good night’s sleep.

2010-01-22T19:22:00.000-08:00

Mother Nature Lessons

My plan was to head south to get on a less likely to snow route to Ohio. I wanted to spend the holidays with my siblings, which hasn’t happened in, I have no idea, many years. So leaving Sacramento I headed to Bakersfield and the plan was to take I40 across the southern states and then get to Ohio. Keep in mind that bad weather could change my plans in an instant.

I learned a few things on this day. The first is that high winds and RV’s are enemies. The second is that rough roads, no matter how good you pack, will result in things hitting you in the head when you open the cabinets. The third is, never depend on rest areas, being open. It certainly seemed that in California there was a plan to close most of the rest areas I went by. Okay, yes I was not good at rest areas yet, but I had a plan and wanted to execute it. Executing a plan is very difficult when the state won’t cooperate. Since it was early in the day and Arizona was close, I couldn’t wait to test my new ideas in their rest areas. More on that later.

So around Edwards Air Force base, I noticed a sign that stated high winds and gust the next 10 miles. Well, high winds were the case and the 10 miles turned into what seemed to be a thousand miles. Have you ever leaned back in a chair and almost fell over but saved it. I felt that way for about three hours. I’m hoping in time that I will get over the fear of the RV tumbling over and over on its side like a bad NASCAR crash, but for now, let’s just say I’m a bit overly cautious. I know this from the encouragement from other drivers behind me. I did receive a few thumbs up from passing cars and trucks. Not sure if it was for MotorSilk or just the fact I hadn’t killed anyone or myself, but I’m going to take it as a good sign.

It was late in the day, dark, I was tired and as I crossed over into Arizona, I saw the sign for Lake Havasu and an RV park there. I’ve never been there and did see some interesting spring break video from there once, or was it girls gone wild, anyhow, I took the exit and went looking for the RV park. As it turns out I found the RV park and it was full, but I did see a Wal-Mart store and decided to do a little shopping and test their policy on overnight stays. Turns out the shopping went well, but the overnight stay was cancelled by a local law forbidding it. Still tired but happy to have spent some time outside of the RV, I headed back to I40 confident a rest area would be close.

Well, after going by the first one that was closed, I sought out every sign in the dark that mentioned RV Park. Turns out I found a nice little place called the Blake Ranch RV Park and Horse Motel East of Kingman. I got a well deserved night of rest and headed out the next morning ready for the adventure to continue.

Do I hear Cows?

2010-01-21T18:02:00.000-08:00

Said my goodbyes to family and friends, which was hard and sad, and then headed out of Portland. My goal was to head south with my first stop Las Vegas. No, not for gambling or the other things you may have been thinking, but to visit one of our customers there. Turns out, they couldn’t get in on Saturday, so I proceeded down I5 ready to replace the jeans with shorts as soon as I got into California. As it turns out, I left at the beginning of a low jet stream that brought cold weather to what seems to be everywhere. I was pleased with the drive noticing several people reading my RV. (At least on the first day there were a lot more people who had heard of MotorSilk than the day before.) I gave a brochure to the inspection officer at the border of California who was curious what the heck MotorSilk was. I had a great drive and decided to settle in that night at a rest area outside of Sacramento. Lesson one, rest areas are more like a spot for people to make a lot of noise all night. Okay, yes I should have known that, but I guess I had previously led a sheltered life. When I finally fell asleep after several hours of guessing what kind of semi just pulled up, I was awakened by the mooing of a cow. Put yourself in my position, restless sleep so far, wakening not really knowing where I was and hearing farm animals. After coming out of my slumber I peeked out the window and right next to the RV was a livestock hauler full of cows. One particular cow was eyeing me through the little hole in the side. As he continued to Moo, and I started to realize where he was most likely headed, I decided to get up and continue my adventure, hoping I may have a better long term fate.

The Adventure Begins - Early December, 2009

2010-01-21T17:52:00.000-08:00

What am I doing? Being the US Distributor for MotorSilk products is fun for two reasons. One is that the product really works and two is that it is great for the environment. I’ll admit I haven’t always been as “Environmentally Conscious” as I could have been, and I’m sure I could do better now, but at least I am trying in the areas I can make a difference. Okay, back to selling MotorSilk. Almost three years ago I retired from Intel after 28 years. I still needed to work to keep my sanity and through a separate business adventure, which I lost my shirt in the economic downturn, I became the US distributor for MotorSilk products. Hey, great product, really works, how hard could it be? Well, very hard. Even when you have a great product, people need to know that. I tried advertising which was very expensive and turns out to have a low ROI, unless you have very deep pockets and a lot of patience. I found myself at a cross roads in life on a personal and business level. I am very close to my son, Brandon, and one evening of trying to figure out what the best way to get the word out on MotorSilk, we thought hey, why not buy an RV, wrap it with all the logos and drive around the US for a few years, go to trade shows, car shows, races and anything else that gives exposure to the product. A grass roots approach. Well, after selling the home, storing all the belongings, I am now on the road with the RV. I have to admit this is somewhat a trial and error effort since I’m not sure what is the best exposure and what is a waste of my time, but by keeping track of where I go and who I talk to, I’m hoping in a few months I will get a feel for what works and what doesn’t. This isn’t all about selling. This is also a personal quest for me to do something that can really help people and our environment. I know it may sound corny, but I really do want to make a difference and I’m willing to give all my time to make a difference with this product. Okay, I did have another personal agenda in there also in that I wanted to be in warm weather all the time. Work the southern US in the winter and the northern US in the summer