International Motorcycle Show - Phoenix - November 9, 2014

Last day of the show.  After a good, long sleep (I begged off dinner with the crew again last night, I'm a party pooper!) I felt pretty good.  My feet had the rest they needed and I was ready for the day. The team met up around 9:00 am and we headed over to the event center.

I hadn't really been through the entire show so I took a few minutes to grab some photos of something other than the BMW booth.  At the far back corner was a booth of vintage bikes.  Of course, these pics don't even begin to to it justice but I snapped a few anyway.

 Along all the aisles were custom bikes that were entered into a "Best of Show" contest with various categories.  I managed to get a few photos.

 Then it was time to get to our booth and set everything up for the event.  After Friday and Saturday, I felt a bit more confident on what to do and jumped right in getting things set up.  Each group of bikes has an I-Pad station giving specs and details on that group of bikes.  So, my first task was to get the I-Pad stations set up and running.  (Hahahahaha, I am so not a techie!)  All went smoothly and then off to check the static displays, set out catalogs and brochures and put on my smile :-)  Fortunately, last night I had polished the bikes so I didn't have to do that this morning.  Lessons learned :-)

The doors opened promptly at 10:00 am and the crowd rushed in.   It wasn't too long after opening that I had a visitor!  The lovely Karen Van Santen :-)  I got her to pose on that sexy R Nine T, retro cafe racer style bike that everyone loves to throw a leg over.  I think Karen looks awesome on this bike!

 And then, while I was showing Karen the great BMW Scooter options, who should appear but Marc Beaulac.  Hahaha, see that I-Pad in my arm?  First time EVER I've touched an I-Pad.  This is my new work tool and after an hour or so I was hooked!

 Roger Van Santen was kind enough to snap a pic of Karen, Marc and me checking out the scooter.  Which, by the way, is a very fine machine!

 It was a busy day and time flew by.  I was using the I-Pad to pull up the specs on whatever bike I was showcasing at the time and that worked wonderfully!  Before long, I was an I-Pad addict :-)  One of our goals was to obtain contact information on potential buyers for follow-up by the dealers.  Yesterday, my first day with the I-Pad, I didn't get a single lead but today, oh boy, I rocked it!!!  Thanks to Roger and Karen and Marc who broke the ice and gave me some leads I then felt comfortable approaching folks and getting them signed up!  Yippee!

I was constantly busy, talking to folks, showcasing bikes and generating leads I didn't realize it was way past lunch time.  I took a break around 2:00 pm for some much needed food.  Here are some of the choices.

I decided to go for a slice of pizza.  Yesterday's burger was AWFUL.  I got a slice of pepperoni pizza and a bottle of water and sought a quiet place to sit down and eat (and give my poor tootsies a rest).  Fortunately I found just the spot and sat opposite a fellow from the Arizona Rides program, the AZ motorcycle training program.  I visited with Vic while I chowed down and had a delightful lunch and swapped good riding stories.  Surprisingly, the pizza was pretty good, or maybe it was just the fact that I hadn't had any food but a muffin since 7:00 am :-)

The afternoon was pretty much a repeat of the morning.  Lots of folks stopping by to check out the bikes.  I actually spent some time on the other side of the booth and showed off the R1200RT and the K1600GT series.  The more I look at and show off the R1200RT, the more I'm liking that bike!

So, I had some good learning experiences, made a few mistakes and had a lot of fun with the peeps checking out the bikes.  What's not to like?  I'm surrounded by motorcycles and people who love motorcycles.  It's all good :-)  Yup, it's really good (except for my feet, hahahahha!).

No poopy issues today.  Actually, nothing bad or icky today at all.  I had a few rather strange folks but heck, that just makes life a little more interesting.  Before I knew it, the show was over.  Well, it was over for the visitors but it wasn't over for the crew.  Now it was tear down time.

My first task was to take down the I-Pad stations and then the static displays and pack up all that stuff.  While the team was busy doing that, the union folks came in and started taking down the booth.  It came down quickly!  The whole area was a bustle of activity.  Lots of forklifts beeping and stuff being moved around.

 Then it was time to move the bikes off the floor and onto the semi trailer.  I wasn't real comfortable with that so the guys mostly took care of moving the motorcycles.

I was amazed at how quickly and efficiently everything went for the tear down.  Almost like a ballet.  Dang, Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen would have been the perfect music as the tear down show progressed!

Yeah, I know, lousy pictures but here is a shot of loading the semi trailer.  It has two stories and the order of loading the bikes is very important so they all fit without rubbing against each other.  Our truck driver, Mike, knows what he is doing and he conducted the loading while our stronger teammates provided the muscle to run the bikes up the ramp and into the trailer.

It took a bit of time to get everything loaded.  Meanwhile, back at the booth which was quickly being dismantled, I took on the task of gathering the odd bits and pieces and packing them up.  The show ended at 5:00 pm and we were finished with the tear down and packing by 7:30 pm.  Ooohhhh, I was tired :-)

Finally, back to the hotel and into my room where I immediately took off those damn shoes and socks and slipped into my flip flops.  I LOVE my flip flops :-)

It was a good day for me.  I was much more confident (even if I told folks the K1600GTL Exclusive had reverse when it doesn't (hahahahahahahaha - I'll laugh about that for a LONG time!).

I ventured out of my comfort zone and showcased some bikes I knew nothing about - but I learned a lot.  I had fun meeting folks and encouraging them to throw a leg over a bike.  I'm still a GS girl but appreciate the Sport, Roadster and Touring bikes.

So, that's pretty much it folks.  I fly home tomorrow and have two days off before heading to Long Beach, CA for another show.  I'm told that the Long Beach show is one of the bigger shows with a ton more people.  I'm glad I had the Phoenix show to dip my toe in the water, get some training and gain a bit of confidence.

I want to give a big shout out of thanks to you peeps who gave me advice and insight on dealing with some of my issues.  You've been a great source of information and support and that means a lot to me.  Sincere thanks.

I also want to tell you all how much I appreciate that you bother to read my silliness :-)  That makes it fun for me to write this blog.

Off to bed for me.  I'll be home tomorrow evening and am so looking forward to seeing my honey and spending some quality time together.  This has been a great adventure and we'll see what next week brings!

Cheers to all,
Cletha