Getting Ready for Heartland and Lunch with Dale Davis

Jenni, Marlies, who has been way under the weather, Vince, and Jeff, are pulling together the elements that will make our selling booth at Heartland Travel Showcase in Buffalo, New York. Marlies boards a Cardinal motorcoach tomorrow and sets up on arrival for the Saturday and Sunday show. We will be joining the Amish Country of Northern Indiana CVB, and several other area attractions. We all have separate booths side by side. We will have 50 appointments out of the 112 registered tour operators. Many of the others will stop by and discuss how Amish Acres, The Inn at Amish Acres, and The Nappanee Inn, can benefit their customers and company.

These travel trade shows are a primary resource for us to match up with our loyal and new customers.

I had lunch with Dale Davis of Aluminum Trailer Corporation at his request. He is a member of the 2006 Nappanee Leadership Academy. He was interested in my advice to a person who wants to start a business. As a romantic entrepreneur I hesitate to give advice to others who should be more deliberative about such decisions.

I remembered when Amish Acres came into being I called the owner of the Amish Farm and House, a tourist attraction in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I naively asked what advice he had for me! The answer was, "Make sure you have a good accountant and attorney." As I look back and realize that my attorney is a fraternity brother, my accountant a best college friend, my architect a friend since Soap Box Derby days, my insurance agent a fraternity brother classmate, my family doctor my college roommate, my theatre mentor another roommate from Indiana University-Bloomington, my banker a thirty year friend who as president Bank One Elkhart, retained me as one of two clients. I have been surrounded and blessed by not only competent, but personal and caring friends. So. I guess I did have some good advice for Dale after all.