My web site gives you a pretty good idea about who I am and what interests me. If you're reading this, odds are you're interested in some of the same things. In general, my blog will share lots of thoughts about entrepreneurism, writing, travel, western history, inspiration and the secrets of life. Oh, and Border Collies.
But enough about me. Let's start talking about what I think. :)
I will return with regular blog entries again after trolley season is behind us at the end of September.
For those of you following our lives, here's a few short updates.
We received the DEQ permit to construct the lift station and 1,500 foot run under the river and uphill to hook our trailer park to city sewer. We have failed to find any public funding source for it however, so plan on just biting the bullet and paying for it ourselves. We are getting bids now and plan to build this winter while water levels are lowest in the river.
Cody has had a tremendous summer season this year and our trolley tours are having the best year ever. Big sales and customer count increases. We hired a second tour team and they have performed wonderfully this summer. Not running the tours everyday has improved our lives in 50 different ways. We severely abused ourselves for years to build that business and we greatly appreciate knowing those years of hard work have paid off. Be thankful for your hardships because they give you eternal appreciation for your many blessings.
No new businesses on the horizon but I want to do more with EverythingCody.com once I gain the extra time when trolley season is over.
The family is doing well and we plan some travel in October.
Thanks for tuning in and I'll post more here regularly in October.
We picked up our youngest daughter as tour guide for 2 days since she lives near Vail. The terrain and scenery is pretty spectacular out here. Lots of 14,000+ mountains. We traveled Indepence Pass last night which gets your car 12,095 feet high. Just made it too, because the road closes in the winter and we encountered snow flurries. It is snowing now in Aspen but not sticking, so it is more like rain.
We spent the day at Leadville yesterday which is the highest incorporated city in the USA at 10,200 feet. The train tour we wanted to take was closed for the season which is our karma for closing our trolley tours by October too. We had lunch in a historic old restaurant and wonder why Cody doesn't have a similar restaurant. We have a million great ideas for a restaurant but don't want to run one. Maybe we should just build one and lease it out.
Last week we visited the new Craig Thomas Visitor Center at Grand Teton National Park. They did a wonderful job with it and it was designed with huge 4-story windows facing the Teton range. Along the way we saw deer, elk, antelope, buffalo, coyotes, moose and a running black bear cub.
Trolley season was very good this summer and we had record paid attendance. This was after taking a $2 per ticket price increase too. Our tour team did great this summer which got us through the season without being exhausted. Which really improved our quality of life. We've invited them back next year and hope to have an even better summer in 2008.
The trailer park received a permit from DEQ to build a lift station and bury a sewer pipe under the river to connect to city sewer. The city is giving us an easement and the Corp of Engineers has approved the river crossing. Now we are waiting for the contractor's bid, which will be very expensive. Once we have the numbers we approach the banks and hopefully build in November-December while the river is low.
EverythingCody.com is getting 700-1,100 visitors per day. Weekends are slowest, weekdays are busiest. We get compliments about the site every day so lots of people are enjoying it. We'll add more advertisers during the next month to make it a bigger income stream for us.
Lots of scary things happening in the world lately. It is hard to avoid fearing the worst when I'm reading so much bad news every day. The dollar is about to collapse, we're about to bomb Iran, China is about to attack Taiwan, Hillary continues to fool half the country and the park service is about to close the east gate of Yellowstone during the winter. Or none of that will happen. But the trends sure look bad. So we'll see.
But I have an overall positive belief that everything works for our greater good. So I keep bouncing between positive and negative thoughts. Some days I'm positive that we can't avoid these negative outcomes. Then I get away from the computer and all that bad news just falls away. In many ways, ignorance IS bliss.