| Some of you know that Scott Roberts - the Founder and President of Explore Scientific - and me, Greg Bragg - Director of Specialty Sales have been traveling across the country this year doing dealer events, trade shows and star parties. We are traveling to almost all of these events in Scott's Dodge Ram Turbo Diesel pickup pulling his Classic 1968 Airstream trailer. I've posted a bunch of pictures of that combo in various locations around the US. Thus far, we have traveled about 15,000 miles to these events. That's a lot of seat time, but we believe it's absolutely worth it!
I'd have to say that the best part of my job is attending and showing our products at these types of events. It allows us to meet the people that use our products and it allows us to show off our products to people who aren't that familiar with our products. We have made tons of friends attending these types of venues displaying our products.
So far this year, we've been to the Winter Star Party in the Florida Keys in Feb; the NEAF trade show in Suffern NY in April; the Texas Star Party in Ft Davis TX in May; AstroCats trade show in London Ontario Canada and RTMC Star Party Big Bear CA in May; the OPT SCAE dealer event in Oceanside CA and we just returned from the Golden State Star Party in Adin CA in early June. We still have the Table Mountain Star Party in Washington in July; the DayStar Solar and Night Star Party in Warrensburg MO in August; the Okie-Tex Star Party in Kenton OK in Sept; and the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta and the Eldorado Star Party in Oct to attend.
Our typical daily activity at every star party includes 10-15 hours (really) showing off our telescopes, our mounts and our eyepieces during the day and into the wee hours of the night. We also loan our excellent eyepieces to interested individuals so they can look at dark sky objects, comparing ours with what they already own or even against other brands which helps them figure out what they might need or want. Consistently, the comments come back about how great our's are and how they compare favorably with others on the market. Borrowing frequently results in sales!
Some of my friends think that business travel is glamorous. Sometimes it is. They often say they wish they could travel and see the country like I do. I admit I do my best to make it glamorous when I describe my great job selling telescopes with Explore Scientific, but I really wouldn't call it glamorous. It is hard work, long hours and now that we are traveling by highway pulling the Airstream, it's a ton of miles and many challenges. I just wanted those friends and those of you that think it's glamorous to travel as part of your job to see what I mean. Here are a handful of details of a couple of our trips this year. By the way, the first recap is the longest single trip I have EVER been on in all my years of traveling. To Canada for AstroCats and then to RTMC...
I left home at 5:10am on Wednesday, May 18th. I caught a flight to Buffalo NY and jumped in a rental car. Over the next 3 days I drove over 1100 miles through eastern Canada in a rental car. I got to stay overnight in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. I didn't see any of it – really – except out the window. Just hotels and a few dealer visits I hadn't been able to meet until now. Between 10-12 hours a day in a car with the occasional stop. Then off to Kitchener, then London, Ontario for a 2-day trade show called AstroCats, plus a couple of dealer dinners and a few more hotel nights. Enjoyable (sure), but not your typical fun. Monday morning, May 23rd, I flew from Buffalo NY to our offices in Springdale Arkansas with a connection in Atlanta. I expected to arrive into XNA at 12:30. The plane in Atlanta had mechanical issues so we were forced back to the gate to change planes and 3 hours later, I was off to the office. This kinda stuff adds to the stress and frustration of travel, but you have no control over these things so I just tend to let them roll off my back. I landed in Arkansas at 5:40pm and Scott, my boss, met me at the airport curbside and we headed directly west for the RTMC Star Party in Big Bear, CA. Scott picked me up in his 2015 Dodge Ram 1500 Turbo Diesel pulling his classic 1968 Airstream.
Fifteen hundred and eighty miles later with a stop at Meteor Crater near Flagstaff; a quick but very cool drive along old Route 66 in NM and AZ; driving through a massive 30-minute storm that produced snow cone sized slush balls (scary) in the Mojave Desert; and 2 more hotel nights later, we parked ourselves on a dirt patch inside Camp Oakes YMCA.
We setup our display of telescopes, eyepieces and mounts for 4 days and 3 nights of demonstration and star-gazing at RTMC. We had great weather, terrific dark skies, a resurgence in the event attendance, and saw many of our old friends. A SPECIAL NOTE TO MY VENDOR FRIENDS: you gotta show up next year! IT WAS THE BEST IT'S BEEN IN YEARS! Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and the Milky Way were special. However, when you work from around 10am until midnight or later every day, its exhausting. And oh yea, 4 more hotel nights. Despite the hours, all these things made for a positive experience I won't forget for a while. And, I am already looking forward to next year. On Monday, May 30th, we spent several hours making promotional videos and worked on the documentary about our hobby "StarChasers", by Jon Baker. Here's a link to the trailer. If you follow us on Facebook, you'll see more of our videos. I got a one-hour nap, then a once in a lifetime experience.
There is a historical observatory in the Los Angeles area called Mt Wilson. George Ritchey developed optics for what would be the largest telescope in the world. It was installed in 1904 using mules and tractors to get it to the peak of Mt Wilson at 5000+ ft. Harlow Shapley used this newly developed 60" telescope to determine the distance of globular clusters and helped us understand that we are not in the center of our galaxy along plus countless other discoveries. This telescope encouraged George Ellory Hale to build the 100" telescope in 1917 just a few hundred yards away and to establish the phrase "Astro Physics". Edwin Hubble (Hubble Telescope) discovered Cepheid variable stars in the Andromeda Galaxy with this scope and what originally were thought to be nebula were then determined to be other galaxies. Albert Einstein spent time here attempting to validate his theory of relativity and his theories of the workings of the universe. I didn't get to sit in a chair claimed to be his in the Monastery, but I heard its there. I can't express the joy, excitement and goose bumps I experienced when viewing Jupiter through one of our eyepieces attached to this very important historical telescope. We got back to the hotel around 12:30am then up at 5:00am to head to the airport to drop off our videographer. We're on the road back to Arkansas and logged about 460 miles Tuesday. We have about 1070 miles to go. Hope to be there by Thursday night late. Then a flight back to Atlanta on Friday. Just a few more hotel nights and a thousand or so miles and I'll be home. This doesn't count the 1815 miles by air thus far and the 525 air miles to get me home. All in, I will have spent 16 nights away from home in 11 different hotels, together, we will have logged around 4,500 road miles plus 15+ hours on an airplane and in airports. Yea, I am lucky to get to travel and do the things I do. I am blessed to get paid to sell a fun product and work for a company I really love, to enjoy the night sky, travel, and see our amazing continent, but earning all the frequent flyer miles and hotel points isn't all it's cracked up to be. A million miles on one airline is a whole bunch too many, but I wouldn't consider myself a REAL road warrior just yet. I know others that have many more miles and hotel points than me. Recap of the Golden State Star Party... On our way home from the Golden State Star Party. It has been an incredible trip. We have driven over 3,500 miles thus far. The total trip will encompass 3900+ miles and touch 12 states not counting the 1000+ miles by air from Atlanta to Fayetteville, AR and back to Atlanta.
On Wed June 22, I flew to Arkansas to our corporate offices for a few days to catch up on some misc loose ends. On Friday 6/24, Scott and I left for northern CA around 3pm in the Dodge Ram and Classic 1968 Airstream for a small little town called Adin CA. Adin hosted the 9th annual star party on the Albaugh's Frosty Acres Ranch. The night sky and the views are incredible. About 5 hours in, just west of Oklahoma City in Yukon, OK, we narrowly avoided a serious accident. About 1/3 of one of the Airstream's tire tread separated. Luckily, it has 3 others, so we were "spared". After a lengthy delay and 4 new tires, we were on our way again the next morning. On Saturday, we stopped in Winslow AZ and saw the touristy shops and the statue of Glen Fry. You know, the Eagles song: "standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona..." It was pretty cool. The city has a population of about 9,000 people plus over 100,000 visiting tourists from all over the world each year. The next stop was Santa Fe, NM to meet and visit with a famous photographer Scott has communicated with over the last few years. William Clift is a very successful landscape photographer. We got a tour of his gallery and had dinner with him and his wife. It was an evening I will never forget. He's a really nice guy. His prints are amazing. Take a look: http://www.williamclift.com/. A single print of his most popular image is about $16,000 for an 11x14 framed print. An iPhone image in 4x5 size is around $500. On Sunday, from Santa Fe to Las Vegas, I don't think I've ever seen so little in so many hours on the road. We did go through Flagstaff and cross some pretty beautiful mountains, but after that each exit was spaced 40-50 miles apart. At one point, we went 67 miles without an exit. We made it to Las Vegas in time for a cocktail and a few hands of blackjack. The next morning, it turned out I was wrong about seeing so little. From Las Vegas to Reno, I have now seen what I believe to be the longest stretch of road without an exit EVER. There was very little except sand, rocks, dust and scrub brush for hours. Oddly, the only gas station for about 100 miles either way had a Brothel called the "The Famous Alien CatHouse" strategically positioned right beside the pumps. I know what you thinking, but the answer is no. A few hours later, we made a stop to stretch our legs in a small town called Goldfield NV. Goldfield is a small mining town. I meet the owner of several local silver mines and a gift shop in town with his personal collection of "toys". Motorcycles, mining antiques, gems, guitars, and remote control airplanes. All his own stuff he was trying to sell. That evening, we made it to Reno. Reno is a cool city - like Vegas but with less glitz. We stayed near the old town section and got in a few more hands of blackjack. On Tuesday afternoon, we arrived into Bieber, CA. We will bunk in the Bieber motel. Nothing fancy. Not much of a motel actually. 17 rooms with a few without air conditioning. Bieber is about 12 miles from the star party site. It's a small - really small town - with a population of 312. Most of this area is very large ranches supporting cattle and hay. Bieber includes the Bieber motel, a grocery store, a hardware store with gas, a bar and a newly reopened restaurant. I've seen the same familiar faces working in these places for the last few years. The remodeled restaurant turned out to be a diamond in the rough. It was amazing and we meet the new owner and her staff. We ate there 6 times over 5 days. The owner and some of the staff even joined us at the star party a couple of nights. The star party started on Wednesday and it couldn't have been better. The sky was incredible all four nights and the weather was perfect as well. That Milky Way image above with the Airstream was shot here. Over the last few star parties, we continue with field testing on our software and electronics for the new Losmandy ES-G11 mount with PMC-8 and it is working out really nice. I am confident we will be ready to ship pretty soon. Another aspect of our work is to show our appreciation for the astronomers by donating product as a door prize to the organization that puts on the party to help support the community that supports us. This door prize drawing turned out to be way more exciting than we could have ever expected. Our 102mm Carbon Fiber Triplet ED APO was the grand prize and a guy from a local group called Mountain Jewels Home had the winning ticket. This home is for developmentally disabled adults. My oldest son, Tyler and I met most of these guys a few years ago and they are so incredible. Ryan was the ticket holder and the whole group went crazy about their new scope. Check out our Facebook video of the winners at ExploreScientificUSA and on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Mountain-Jewels-Home-127669237286…/. It really warmed our heart that these folks won our prize. On Saturday morning 7/2, I got a tour of the surrounding area in hopes of shooting some photos of Golden Eagles, Bald Eagles and Hawks. It couldn't have been much more successful! Incredibly awesome! On the last night of the event, Saturday, we had some of our new friends from the Old Mill Grill join us for some star gazing. We decided early on that we would try to stay up to watch the sun rise. That isn't something we do often, but it was so beautiful and so nice out. After we made it, to celebrate we had pancakes, bacon, eggs and OJ back at the restaurant around 6:00am. I helped cook eggs. It was so much fun. What a wonderful way to cap off a great star party. We look forward to seeing all of our friends again next year. We spent 3 days on the road headed home since Sunday morning. We took the northeastern route to see a different part of the country. We traveled through Reno again, Salt Lake City and Cheyenne WO. We even got a glimpse of the Bonneville Salt Flats. Did you know the race track is 10 miles long and due to the curvature of the earth, you can't see the finish line from the starting line? We crossed the Wasatch and Rocky Mountains reaching almost 9,000 feet of elevation. On our next to last day, we hit some major thunderstorms and I swear one was near producing a tornado right outside the passenger window. We missed the worst of it, thank goodness. We arrived back in Arkansas late Wednesday afternoon. I was hoping we'd be back by late Tuesday night, but it didn't happen the way I planned. I had to change my previously scheduled flight and wether delayed it. i was lucky enough to get on another flight that was delayed and get home a decent hour - if you call midnight a decent hour. Oh, the joys of traveling....
As I mentioned early in the article, we will be headed to Table Mountain for our next event. It's in Oroville, WA on a ranch about 10 miles outside of Oroville with great dark skies. We will be about 6 miles from the Canadian border and plan to go see one of our old friends Jack Newton while we are there. We leave on July 29th and have over 4000 miles to cover on this trip. We will take a different route and will see country I haven't seen yet. I'm really excited.
I know this was long winded, but people ask us all the time how it is on the road. I thought giving you the ins and outs of what we do might be interesting to you. I appreciate you reading all the way to this point.
You can keep up with both Scott and I on our Facebook pages - if you are interested:
https://www.facebook.com/gregbbragg
https://www.facebook.com/scottwroberts
https://www.facebook.com/explorescientificusa | 
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