NEW BEGINNINGS!
First of all, I am proud and honoured to be selected the Zone 6 Rep. Hopefully I can do as good a job as my predecessor John Sommerwerk. I think he and his wife Nancy did a wonderful job. Over the past couple of years we got to know them and have become great friends.
As I began my journey January first, I found out that easing into the position was not in the cards. The year started off with Kelly and I flying out to Fort Meyers to attend the National Staff Assembly. My head was completely full to overflowing with information fed to us from many of the national staff over two full days of meetings. On Saturday night we were all taken to The Revs Institute for a private tour of some of the rarest and most exotic of cars from the history of the automobile. It also houses the largest collection of Porsche race cars outside of the museum in Stuttgart.
After that, we returned to Phoenix, our snowbird home, and prepared ourselves for the journey back to Canada. We left Phoenix January 31 and travelled to Las Vegas where we visited the Grand Prix experience centre located in the paddock club of the Las Vegas Grand Prix. It was a great display of historic items and experiences. I also had a go at the go cart track which was also great fun.
We departed Vegas and went up the Great Basin Highway which has to be the longest, straightest, loneliest highway on the planet. After reaching Boise, we had a great Italian dinner with Anthony Vera, Vicki and Bob Pentecost from the Silver Sage Region.
We arrived back in West Kelowna after an overnight stop at Moses Lake in Washington. The drive back was uneventful as the entire area has been experiencing unseasonably warm weather so, no snow anywhere.
The rest of February looks pretty quiet although we may try to make a local event or two.
Stay healthy and we will see you in the Zone!
Brad Pape
