#2 Catching up

Its a new year. Exactly 3 years since the last blog post, to be exact. I didn't mean to neglect the blog like I did, but what can I say....I was "busy". A lot has changed in the past 3 years since I started this website. Its undergone a few facelifts, as my preferences have changed, and my knowledge in web design has grown. We completely redesigned our shop, with a whole new website, supplier, payment system etc.. and I'm pretty proud of it. But lets catch up on the past 3 years, and our plans for the future of this website.

The Gear - We've made some changes to our set ups over the past few years. In '21 we decided we'd like a bit more room than the teardrop provided. More so, Wifey wanted a bathroom and shower, so we found a purchased a brand new 21ft Zinger Lite RV. We enjoyed the trailer, and took it on many trips through the Texas Hill Country, and some of our favorite state parks. After a couple years, I decided that it was alil longer than I wanted to tow, and was more of a pavement princess; so in spring of '23, we traded it in for 18ft Mallard pathfinder. Single Axle, off road suspension, winter package, and solar panels and inverter on board, made this a much better option for us. We've spent many nights in it, and enjoy it quite a bit. Of course, we still have the teardrop for those quick weekend, and overland trips. 

The business - OutdoorTxs_Apparel has made some big strides over the past couple years. Our original supplier went through a buy out, and as expected, the services and quality suffered. Shipments were taking 2-4 weeks longer to arrive, and the printing was outsourced to cheaper facilities, which resulted in a big drop in quality. I made the decision to move the entire operation to a new printer, and completely  rebuilt the store website from scratch. It was a big investment in both time and money, but in the end, well worth the effort. I now have much more control over the quality of materials, printing, and order fulfillment. We've updated the payment system to accept cards, apple pay, and also in person transactions. We were recently invited to San Antonio Tx to attend a shop and swap at Base Camp Provisions, which was amazing. We took a small selection of t-shirts, hoodies, caps and beanies and sold a lot. We also struck a deal with Baker outdoors, in Lubbock tx, to stock some of our caps on their shelves. Its been a great deal working with those guys, and we look forward to continued partnership. If you'd like to check out our shop, or support our small business, you can do so here - www.ShopOutdoorTxs.com 

Dad - In sept '23, we lost my dad to cancer. He fought for years, and at some points, made a lot of progress. He was so strong, and fought so hard, as long as he could. He was, and always will be my hero. He had things his way, as he didn't want to be in a hospital, and was released on hospice care. He passed peacefully in the night, in his home. The wounds are still fresh, as we just had our first Thanksgiving, and Christmas without him. Though it still hurts, I do find peace knowing he is in paradise, and that i will see him again. We spent a lot of time together in his final weeks. talking, praying, and reminiscing. Mom tells me how proud he was of me. He would boast to his friends about our truck and trailer set up, and our small business, proudly sporting our sticker on his truck. Making him proud was all I ever wanted to do, and so I so happy that i can feel like I did. Making him a grandpa, was probably the best thing I ever did for him. He loved his grand daughter so much, and Ill make sure she always remembers that. I miss him so much its crazy, but I know he is still with us. When a light flickers while I'm working in the shop, or putting something together for Lucy, I look up and smile, and acknowledge him. Before he got sick, we had been planning on taking a fishing trip, catching some crappie and having a fish fry there at the lake. I'm still going to take that trip. Ill pull up an extra seat, and set out a plate for him, cause i know he'll be there with me. 

Goals - Going forward, I plan to be more active in the blog. One of the main reason we started this website, was to document memories for our daughter, and a blog is probably one of the best ways to do that. With my wife's budding photography skills, we plan to make a new blog post with photos on all our of trips, just to remember the times we had, and serve as a digital memory of those moments. as time goes on, and we improve in our abilities, I hope this part of the website continues to evolve. I regret that we've missed the last 3yrs, but live and learn. 

So there it is. A quick recap of the time we've missed, and our goals going forward. Thank you to anyone who found this interesting enough to make it this far. If you'd like to follow along on our adventures, consider following our socials, and check back here often for the latest blog post. I wish you all an amazing 2024.