Hello to all dear Bosbok followers.

Well, here we are in the US of A once again, doing our usual annual marketing trip. As always, we have been met by nothing other than pure kindness and hospitality by old friends (past clients!) wherever we have been. This fact makes these long trips so much more bearable, since we are away from home for a good 6 weeks at a time.

Denver and Sacramento were rather slow, but we are slowly getting responses from some of the people we met there and are hoping for some confirmed bookings in due course. We had great fun spending time with Scarlet and Bill Pfeifer after the Denver Show and were thoroughly spoiled by friends who took us to Vail for 2 days.....probably the highlight of our trip so far! Bill also treated us to tickets to the Rodeo show, which was in incredible experience! Sacramento was wet, wet, wet, but the crowds and the general interest were better than last year. It was fun to catch up with Mike and Howard Gold again and to see Craig Davis, however briefly! We spent more time with our friend Chris Crabtree, from Crabtree Taxidermy, who kindly stores our booth for us and he introduced us to Serge, who will hopefully be able to send some clients our way.

After Sacramento we spent some much needed down time with our good friends, the Fetterolf family, from Franklin PA. Mike, Barb and Anna feel like family by now and it is always a treat to be able to spend a few days in their lovely home, eating their superb meals and meeting their great friends. Barb and Kate got to do a 2 hour hike on snow shoes, which was a huge treat for Kate!

Mike Bethel and Jim Hetrick never fail to step up to the plate and we were met by them after Franklin and taken to stay with our new friends from New Holland, Larry and Sally Martin. Larry and Sally were kind enough to host a fabulous dinner party to introduce us to more prospective clients and it was a real privelege to spend time in their gorgeous setting and to be driven around and shown the interesting farmland and way of life in their area.

Then our dear South African friend Rowan Dickerson, who now lives in Harrisburg, came to the fore. Rowan spent a lot of time and energy helping Phil to fix up our booth and just play the perfect host. He and his lovely wife Borka made us feel so at home that we were loathe to move into our hotel in New Cumberland! The Harrisburg show did not start off too well, what with a bad snow storm on the night before the show and a good 22 inches of snow in our particular area! The Thursday before the show started, Mike Bethel had a arranged a presentation for outfitters at the Bass Pro, but much to everyones disappointment, things did not pan out as expected, due to the inclement weather! Thanks Mike, for trying so very hard!

Now we are into the last stretch, and looking very much forward to meeting up with so many of our past clients. Thanks to all of you for making the time and effort to come and see us every year. Thanks for all the dinner dates and for bringing gifts and snacks to the booth. Jim, we enjoyed sharing Sue's birthday dinner with you guys (thank you!) and look forward to seeing your new home next year. Good luck for the move and the next medical procedure.

I will write again as soon as time allows, but have a feeling that the faithful attendants will see the sun shining today and come to the show in droves, so it might be a while before I have the chance. Take care all and drop us a line whenever you have the chance.

Phil and Kate