I'm Back! But I'm lost for words...

It's been three plus weeks and I am still in shock over the party. Thank every one of you who came, sent cards, or called with regrets - and a VERY BIG thank you to those who helped put it together.

Now back to 1975/76: Regal 8 Inns are mushromming up everywhere, we needed help. Margaret and I could not promote it, built it and control operations without help. So we set up our better managing couples as area supervisors with 10 to 14 motels under them. They were to control the operation and do monthly inspections. This was proving out well. In addition, I needed help in the promotion and development end of the business. I was doing some limited flying on my own, but most of it was commercial airline which didn't always go where we wanted to go and not when we wanted to go. So the solution boiled down to another 'Dick Topper' or move him faster. The decision was to move me faster with a company plane and a professional pilot.

On a few occasions in the past I had used a young man named Roy Holtshauser on trips to Ohio, Connecticult and he was with us on our infamous flight across the Northwest where we were flying 'blind' through the mountains with instructions being relayed to us from commercial airlines flying above. This was when we made the decision to get a bigger plane that could go above the weather. Ray himself was based in Centralia, Illinois and gave flying lessions there and flew charter flights. This is where we parked our twin Commanche .His father flew professionaly for the State of Illinois and Ray needed experience to join him. (This is what he did after leaving us). So we hired Ray as our company pilot and he was also made supervisor or three motels to fill in his time when not flying me around.

We first purchased the Cessna 421 twin engine 375 HP, pressurized,with a ceiling limit of 24,000 feet and this put us above most of the bad weather. Later we bought a new 336 push/pull pressurized 1976 Cessna. A little slower (about 210 knots to 240 knots).

We usually held a supervisor meeting once a month which would start about midday on a Friday. Would you believe they usually ended up about 4am the next morning, and were known to keep going through the Saturday late into the night with just a few hours of quick sleep for everyone. We would go through every motel, discussing managers and specific problems. They were long sessions but they were also my training sessions for the supervisors.

Margaret mentioned that we had contructed a new office and warehouse and that is a story on its own. It was summertime in Illinois - and it always rained about every 6th or 7th day. I called out all the building contractors and gave them the plans and told them that I wanted it finished in four weeks. (We had to vacate the building we were in at that time). They took the plans, got together and came back admitting that it MIGHT be possible if it wasn't for the weather. I had not put in any rain days. I asked "can you do it if it doesn't rain?" and they answered yes. So I told them it would NOT rain during that period of time and if it did, it would only be during the night so there would be no lost labor. I got lucky! It rained three times during that four weeks (each time during the night) and we were in our new offices in four weeks. They couldn't believe it. Neither could I!!! (I quietly said thank you to above).

There came a time during our expansion when everything seemed to go sour. The inspections were not up to par, costs were rising, profits were starting to fall and the percentage of occupancy was slipping. I always did my best thinking while driving (Margaret hated for me to drive long distances, I always came back full of ideas and changes that she implimented!). So about this time I took off one day and visited about five or six motels, spoke little but observed a lot. I decided that the problem was attitude of everyone from the manager down. I wrote a memo and sent a copy to every employee and made them sign that they had read it. The subject was "have pride" and what it meant was for them to have pride in themselves, their family, their friends, their job and their future and self esteem. Where would they be without pride. All employees were required to write on any paperwork they submitted the words "I Have Pride". The effect was almost spontaneous and within a few weeks, things were humming and back on course.

My next offering will cover (1) Regal 8 Inns of California, how we got it and where it went and (2) internal problems and our decision on where we were going and how to get there.

See you soon, and have a good one...........