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