Tales of a Road Trip (Travelogue)

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Hey, all...well, I just got back today from the epic mondo cross-country and back trip, fabled in an earlier thread.

Two weeks ago today, I left Phoenix to set up a booth (that we had made from scratch, right here, with our own hands), for our first-ever showing at a major pet-industry trade show (the World's largest show, Global Pet Expo, was being held in Orlando).

Since the display was completely custom, I didn't want to entrust it to a common carrier freight company, and decided to take it there personally. We are very proud of our booth...it is completely our design and construction, so we want it to look as stellar as possible.

My colleague, Paul, and I shared the driving and made good time getting there. Having left rather early Sunday morning, we arrived there mid-afternoon, Tuesday.

Here's a pic of the rig just before we left; followed by a pic of Sunrise in Floriday the day we arrived.

 

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We had most of the structure of the booth set up Tuesday by end of day, and put the finishing touches on it Wednesday morning. The show ran Thursday-Saturday...

Here are a few pix of the booth...1st just as we were finishing it; and then a couple from after the show opened...

 

[B@DA$$08BUS@]

WHERE in gods name is the pics of the booth and other parts of the ride?!?!?!? you know the OK, disregard as we were posting at same time.

 

[B@DA$$08BUS@]

That is very cool.

 

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Apparently, the show promoter (American Pet Products Association (APPA)) liked our booth very well, also...as they awarded us "Best Booth in Show" 1st Place...

Needless to say, I was pretty stoked...

 

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Congrats on the award and for your dedication!!

 

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Here's a pic of my staff...

Theresa, Paul, Julia...and yours truly...

Kudos to the crew. They were 'happenin'!

The three of them flew back to Phoenix on Sunday, and I stayed a day extra to process the show orders and to socialize with the Orlando Hoons...

It was the plan that I would bring the booth back to Phoenix, so I made a .oRg "Road Trip" out of it...

 

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Thanks, all...

So...on Sunday, RusherIV came to my hotel in Orlando and we had lunch...

Here are a couple of pix from that.

Thanks, Ralph...it was great to meet you and to get to spend some time chatting about all things 'busa.

 

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While we were dining, one of the hotel staff decided to ensure we were fully enjoying our meal.

The bird was sitting less than 5 feet from us...

It seemed perfectly content to watch us consume our meal...

 

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Monday morning I got up in the deluge rain and headed off to have lunch with Jet Li, up in Pensacola.

The ride out of the rain was uneventful...

I arrived right on schedule at his house and off we went to Pensacola Beach for a great seafood lunch and chatting about all things 'busa (are you sensing a theme here, folks?)

Tom: It was great to meet you also and to get to spend some time together.

 

[Kento-Moto]

Oh yea!

 

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After lunching w/Jet Li, I headed further northwest and went to Blonde on a Busa & LA Busa's (Dawn & Randy) in Lower Alabama...for a great dinner and to spend the first night of my trip home.

It took us a bit to figure out what to do with the 28' trailer and the attached truck, , so Randy called up a friend of his who has a deep driveway, and we shuttled the rig over there and backed her up and tucked her in for the night.

Randy: Be sure to thank your friends again for me, will ya?

The dinner at Ed's was awesome. We all had Crab Bisque to start, and I enjoyed pepper crusted seared ahi...my favorite. :love:

To you both...thank you so much for your warm hospitality. Tell Colt again that I'm really grateful to him for forfeiting his bedroom to an unknown out-of-towner.



Deeply obliged.

 

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Dawn made me breakfast as Randy was out the door for work...then took me over to their friends house to pick up the rig and hit the highway.

It was to be my longest single-day drive...from there to Dallas to meet up with Lavinrac and Warp10.

What a day. Someone needs to get Louisiana some new freeway pavement. That stuff was brutal!

The rig came in at 17,500 lbs when we had had her weighed in Orlando, so imagine pulling that across all those miles of brutality.

Cruel!

Anyway, I made it to Lavinrac's (Joseph's) house a little later than originally projected, but not too late to head out for dinner.

Here are a couple of pix from that (Warp10 (Ken) had posted a couple of these pix previously)

Good to meet you Joseph, and to see you again, Ken. Your 'bus looks as good as ever, bro.

Look forward to seeing you both at the Stampede...

 

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After a good night's sleep at Joseph's place, I once again headed out.

It's now Wednesday, and was scheduled to be my shortest day on the road, as I was traveling a mere 3.5 hours north to meet up with CAp and as much of the OKC crew as we could muster.

I left Joseph's place by 8a, and was in OKC in time for lunch (and you KNOW how I am about my food; this is just the beginning)...

Here's a pic of my hostess and host, Mrs. Captain and CAp. (Please thank Tristan for forfeiting his bedroom for me, and Evan for letting me borrow his boots...)

 

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That afternoon and evening was spent relaxing and regaining some energy.

I hadn't had a day off (at this time) in over two weeks, so I was really feeling the effects of the travel.

The next morning we were scheduled to go for a day-ride. UncleSteve was coming over, CAP and I (once again on Mojo's (Mark's) phenomenal '08 Charcoal/Black); so I sent Twotonevert (James) a text and asked if he wanted to join us. What luck!

So, the four of us set out to go for food at Meer's and to ride Mt. Scott.

First pix are of the three others getting ready to roll out...

 

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Here're a bunch of random pix from the remainder of the ride.

CAp's tank bra and shiney new GPR! Woo-hoo! What a difference those things make.

Highly recommend the GPR, ya'llz.

 

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From atop Mt. Scott...

 

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A couple of pix from our first stop...

 

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Lunch at Meer's proved to be the stuff of legends...

Waitress: "What would you like to drink?"
Scar: "I'll have an Arnold Palmer"

Little did I know, this was Arnold.

Needless to say, we got a lot of laughs about that...Arnold, on the other hand failed to see the humor...

 

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Aaaanyway...

Here are a couple of pix from the restaurant.