This is the fifth part in a five part series written by assistant editor Katie Burke.
Well, peeps. We're at the end of the road in our Indiana adventure.
Actually, it ended last week, but once I got back in the office, I was consumed with boring everyday work. But I didn't want you to think that I had forgotten. Plus, there was some important stuff that happened on Friday.
First and foremost, the wonderful Brunswick team had the same catering company from the Harris Flotebote meeting do breakfast for the Cypress Cay meeting on Friday.
And Terri and I got lost, ended up being a little late and missed it.
It was tragic.
The fruit looked like it had been flown in from straight from the tropics. The eggs and bacon were produced locally. The entire thing looked amazing. Plus, because we had eaten the same thing on Tuesday, we knew it was freaking fantastic. (Side note. Sometimes I write the word freaking in my column that runs in the magazine and Brady always takes it out. He, sadly, thinks that AP Style applies to me.)
We had to sit through the meeting smelling the remnants and ended up eating breakfast at IHOP.
Double tragic.
Back to the dealer meeting. Once again, Nick Stickler vamped the dealers up by talking about the future of Cypress Cay and what a successful year 2013 was.
He does a great job rallying the troops because at the end I wanted to be a Cypress Cay dealer. His talk was seriously that good.
Terri reminded me that I don't have the attention span to run a dealership. She's probably right. But I left feeling inspired.
After that (and our averagely okay breakfast) we headed back out to the manufacturing facility, where they had all the Cypress Cay's set up in the parking lot. Terri and I examined each one. The company has really updated the fishing package among other things.
They had their full enclosure out for examining.
Which made me think, "Man, I could camp out in that" for about two seconds.
Trust me, for it to enter my mind for even that long, means that it was extremely nice and cozy. I would recommend it if camping on your boat is your cup of tea.
Then we headed up stairs to the breakout meeting, where the company engineers went over everything that was updated for the 2014 model year.
And I learned that Cypress Cay is the only manufacturer to offer a 20 foot boat with a dual lounger and center walk through. Seriously one of my favorite layouts on a boat that's a little smaller and, therefore, a little cheaper. Woot woot!
I had no idea. But now we all know!
They had to cancel the on water testing because of thunderstorms, which was the third tragic event of the day. As a by product of this, Terri and I were left with an open afternoon.
Now, we had to figure out something to do. And since we love pontoon people, we decided to spend some time with others like us.
Which meant we stopped into JC Manufacturing. Completely unannounced.
We are super cool like that. Don't you wish we were in your neighborhood?
Luckily, the owner of the company Kim Cripe and the rest of his team seemed excited to see us. They are so gracious.
Kim stopped what he was doing and gave us a plant tour.
Peeps, if you ever read anything in PDB Magazine that says JC Manufacturing does almost everything in-house, you can believe it.
We met the team that cuts the upholstery, sews it together and builds the furniture. We met the people that cut the wood for the flooring. We met the people that weld the tubes. We met the people that bend the rails into the correct layout.
It was cray cray.
As we walked by, Kim completely immersed himself into the building process. You could tell he was more than just an owner of a company. He wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty on the front lines. And his employees showed a great fondness for him.
This was the second time of the day where I felt genuinely inspired by pontoon people.
Halfway through the tour, I realized I was without my iPhone. Which meant there would be no selfie at the end of the day with Kim Cripe.
Completely unacceptable. I excused myself and ran to our car. All so that I could take the above featured photograph.
It's all about priorities, peeps.
As we were driving back to the hotel, I spoke with Brady on the phone. For those of you who don't remember, Brady still thought we had a Mercedes as our rental car at this point.
But ironically, he didn't mention the rental car. He went right for the jugular.
Brady: What airport did you fly into? Chicago?
Katie: Oh no. We flew right into Fort Wayne. The tickets were a little more expensive but we didn't want to drive that far.
Brady: Oh good. I just wanted to make sure you got the best airport to go along with the luxury rental.
Silence.
Katie: Dude. I walked right into that one.
Brady: See what I did there?
Katie: Well, dang it. Now it's just awkward.
At this point, I came clean even though Terri was telling me not to. My guilty conscience was too much.
Well, peeps, it was time to head home and just in the nick of time. My hubby called to say my kids were threatening mutiny and he was in way over his head. When he arrived at the airport to pick me up, my four-year-old was sans shoes.
What the what?
Who takes their kid out in public WITHOUT SHOES? My man.
As soon as he walked away to pick up my luggage, I grabbed my little Cambri and asked her if Daddy had at least attempted doing her hair for school while I was away.
He hadn't.
It's so good to be needed.
Thanks for reading about our adventure. We appreciate all of you!
Day one: http://pdbmagazine.com/2013/09/pdb-in-indiana-day-one/
Day two: http://pdbmagazine.com/2013/09/day-two-in-indiana/
Day three: http://pdbmagazine.com/2013/09/indiana-day-three/
Day four: http://pdbmagazine.com/2013/09/indiana-day-four/
