February 24th, 2005: WOW HAS IT BEEN BUSY!! We got back from the sportshow circuit late last week and have been running around like crazy to get the supplies for the winter road. On top on that, Brian has sold his air service business including the 5 wheeled planes and the hanger so we’re moving to a new home. We will be in the new building next week, and the new guys operating the air service have allowed us to stay as long as we need. The new location is only 5 minutes down the road, and we’re really looking forward to getting into our brand new offices and shop. The shop will serve to repair equipment and prepare the outboards for sale. We sell off all our outboards every 2 years and that takes up a lot of time and effort as well, so it will be nice to have our own shop where we’re not getting in the way of the airplanes and engineers working on them.
I just got off the phone from ordering the supplies for the Joint Lake cabin. The interior will all be brand new and there will be dividing walls for the bedrooms so that there’s a bit more privacy. It’s really going to make the cabin look great. I also ordered a new hot water tank, a new high efficiency refrigerator and a new solar system to run it. I’ll be happy to try out a new refrigeration system to see if I can eliminate those *&!**# propane fridges, if the salesman is right, the new system should pay for itself and work better than the old style. It’s going to be an all new camp there this year…now if I can just figure out how to set up a hot tub!
The sportshows were very productive for us again this year. We had great opportunities to see many of our old guests and we met some new people who want to give us a shot this year. It’s getting harder to sell at the shows since there are new operators every year coming into the mix, but I know we do better than average because of a few simply reasons. We’re a family owned and operated business and not salespeople. We have been doing this since 1988. We have a great lake that produces trophies in Pike, Walleye and Lake Trout and we can fly out for trophy Brook Trout. It’s a well organized trip that does not allow for much confusion. We use the best equipment from boats and motors to the Dash 7 aircraft we charter out of Winnipeg. I guess the biggest difference that separates us from the rest is that we care about our guests from the minute they book with us when we book hotels and put them in contact with a travel agent for flights to the day they leave and we make sure they leave satisfied.
Our need to constantly improve our camps and services continues again this year. Stay tuned for our next set of ideas to make your trips with us more enjoyable than the last.