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!