Thursday, October 25, 2012

The Cherry's will beat ALS and keep warm this winter.
Of all the photos we have taken in our travels, this one is the most unique.  Note the pumpjacks (or nodding donkeys) in the background.  This is just out our back window of our motor home.  We didn't say we were looking for the most beautiful places, mainly the warm places.
Welcome to our blog

Our purpose is to share with family and friends our travels and experiences through the South this winter.  Also, we wish to share with you and any other interested parties, especially any PALS (a well known acronym for those of us so inflicted, “People with ALS”), our ongoing battle with the dreaded disease.

As many of you know, we listed our business, Extendo Bed Company, in November, 2011, as we were told we should get our affairs in order.  With the prognosis of ALS came not only the prediction of a short life expectancy, but also the expectation that Kim’s ability to physically run the Company would be months, if not weeks.

The doctors had nothing to offer, and were not even inclined to schedule follow-up visits until we requested hospice care.  So we excluded all the traditional medicine, and any doctors unwilling or unable to “think outside the box”, and decided to take control of our own destiny.

And now, almost year later, through faith, prayers, priesthood blessings, and a vigorous research and application into “non-traditional” answers to our challenges, we are opening a new and exciting chapter to our lives.  Using those professionals that are indeed willing to “think outside the box”, we have turned our fate around. 

Extendo Bed Company sold in May, but due to our miraculous change in fate, Kim accepted a position with the new owners to continue working as a national sales rep, expanding sales in the Southern States. We chose the South because a lingering affect of the ALS is Kim’s inability to be able to breath in cooler weather.

Thus Chapter One begins:

Our first destination was Odessa, TX to attend the Permian Basin International Oil Show.  Our journey to that destination was not quite as smooth as we anticipated.  We couldn’t get into the RV Park in Salt Lake City as anticipated so parked in front of some friends home on 6th North.  We thought we could get into a park in Cortez, CO, but couldn’t find it.  So we parked in a Wal Mart parking lot for the night.  Finally we connected with an RV park in Clovis, NM, but that night the electric in motor home did not work.  The next day we arrived in Odessa.  Guess what?  We had a reservation there and the electric worked again.  It was a good thing we had a reservation because the demand for RV park space is very heavy in this oil country.  After a couple of days with electric, the power in the motor home again went out.  So we made a “quick?” run to Denton, TX to get it fixed. 

Back in Odessa/Midland area, Kim has been working to promote Extendo Bed in the area.  He will be working on leads all over the southern states, in addition to expanding sales in our traditional markets.   We will probably head toward Lubbock and Amarillo on Oct 29 or 30. 

We will try to do an update every couple of weeks.  And remember to use the camera, more photos, fewer words.