It has been a while since I’ve written my travel notes…
I’ve been extremely busy. Other than a few trips to Southeast Asia, I’ve stayed at home this winter in Cedar Key, Florida.
Trisha and I are still rebuilding parts of our house from Hurricane Idalia flood damage, and I’ve tried to keep myself as local as possible, while we fast-track repairs. Even working at speed, I didn’t finish my reconstruction on the house, and the remaining tasks will have to wait till next season.
Currently, we’re back at our headquarters.
We will be in Salt Lake City, Utah for the summer. I’ve been scheduled on a few tours this fall but kept my summer schedule clear for finishing construction on our Salt Lake City renovation. That’s what I’m working on now, along with programming new software for our marketing and reservations systems.
My brother Eric lives in Salt Lake City and is fabulous with construction. He and I decided to trade labor with each other for our individual projects this summer. He helped me first on my place in Florida, so last week I went to his house to help him.
What was his chosen task for me?
To help him unload 4,500 lbs. of construction equipment from a box truck. No Big Deal, he says. Yeah… It was 4 days of grueling work in over 100-degree, dry weather, and he then informed me that 3,000 pounds of the weight alone was a mini-excavator which he had ordered to be manufactured and shipped from China. 4500 lbs.?!? That is a lot of weight. I started to suspect my brother was trying to kill me.
The excavator was lost in transit and didn’t arrive until the following day. It was a good thing that they were delayed. They were delivering the load to a residence, and seemed shocked when we said we didn’t have a loading bay. We had to erect several scaffolds to create a loading deck to unload the crates onto.
We then set up additional scaffolds with 4 heavy duty electric hoists to lower the crates to the ground. This allowed us to do trial and error with the Rube Goldberg Machine we had invented, before tackling the excavator the following day.
In springtime, this would have been no big deal.
However, in the heat of late June and early July in the Utah desert, we found ourselves suffering from overwork, and heat cramps. I kept imagining what the narrator would be saying if this was an episode of, I Shouldn’t Be Alive.
Narrator: “What Zach and Eric don’t know, is that they are already suffering from the heat and have entered the first stages of dehydration. They must stop NOW!”
Regardless of our troubles, and dumb ideas…
We managed to get the excavator, and other construction equipment to the ground in one piece. He’s now going to help me with construction at our headquarters. I’m considering making the work extra hard to get back at him for almost killing me to save $600 in delivery fees. HA!
Of course…now that my brother has an excavator, maybe it’s time to get a little more creative with my construction projects?
My next upcoming international trip is Okinawa, Japan
I’m searching for vendors to help me create Blue Zone Tours. Blue Zones are places on Earth where, for whatever reason, an unusually high number of people live well past 100 years old. There’s a great series on Netflix about Secrets of The Blue Zones. After I watched it, I decided that Visiting Blue Zones was tip-top on my bucket list. Maybe learn some tricks and keep myself adventuring for longer?
Soon after I return from Japan, I’ll board a plane for Cairo, Egypt to lead HE Travel’s Nile in Style Tour. If you’re interested in joining me for this Egyptian adventure, we just had 3 cabins open up on the previously sold-out cruise and tour. It runs from November 23 to December 4. There is also a 3-night extension to Jordan for those with more time.
Speaking of last-minute tour availability, here are our upcoming trips that have very little inventory:
Our August Splash Grand Canyon rafting trip only has 2 spots left.
The Lake Como adventure departing in September only has 1 spot in a room share, or a one spot in a private room.
Our Greek Classics tour departing in October only has 1 room left.
If you’re considering one of these trips, I suggest you act quickly.
I hope to see you on tour!
Warmly,
Zachary Moses – CXO