Lori and I were both born and raised in Southern California. We spent our entire childhood and adult years there. Lori was born in Corona CA., and I was born at UCLA. We both grew up in the California lifestyle. I was raised by a mother of Columbian decent who immigrated to the US at the age of 16 with her sister to flee the issues going on in her country at the time. My father was from Boston Massachusetts and moved to California to seek a better life.

Lori was raised by parents who were both born and raised in the Buffalo area of New York and then relocated to Southern California.

At the age of 16 I took the proficiency exam and exited high school just into the 11^th grade and went to work in the family boiler business. My father worked in the boiler business and had his own company and as was traditional back in those days, you grew up expecting to go to work in the business. I started community college classes at the same time with a focus on learning business to help understand how a business worked.

Lori and I met at the age of 15 and 16 on a camping trip to Doheney State Beach in our teens. After that trip we began dating and ended up getting married at the ages of 17. Shortly thereafter our daughter (Rachelle) was born, and we were two young kids raising a family.

Life began early for Lori and I and we focused on making a living and raising a baby. Working in the family business proved to have it challenges so I ended up going to work for a company in Los Angeles called “Quality Boiler”. They were the local Cleaver Brooks Service Representative in the area and were also an ASME Code shop. I gained very valuable experience there learning new equipment and refining my skills. I also made many friendships that to this day are still going strong.

After about 5 years, I was introduced to R.F. MacDonald Co. in the Bay area to assist in a new start up. I was impressed with the people in the company, so Lori and decided to try something different and we relocated to Pleasanton CA and I went to work for R.F. MacDonald Co (RFMCO). Again, I met and worked with great people and continued to learn and refine my skills. We were only there for about a year when my father and I decided to give it another try so we moved back to Southern California to work together.

Shortly thereafter and quite suddenly and unexpectedly my father passed away. Lori and I contemplated moving back up to Northern CA but decided to give the business a try. We worked hard at it and pretty much depleted everything we had trying to make it work. We were down to our last few dollars and had a large bill due from a customer. We said if the check is not in the mailbox today, we will close it down and head back up North. Luckily it was there, and we kept going for another 5 years.

I had always stayed in touch with Jim MacDonald and we worked together on some local projects in the LA area. One day the opportunity came for R.F. MacDonald Company (Jim’s company) to acquire the representation agreement of Cleaver Brooks for all of California. This involved RFMCO purchasing Quality Boiler and Lori and I agreed to also have our company purchased by RFMCO. That was in November of 1994 when we put these three companies together and off, we went.

I started as General Manager – Los Angeles and over time worked my way up to V.P of Sales, V.P of Operations, Chief Operating Officer and finally President and Chief Operating Officer.

In 1995 we had our second child, Keegan. We decided that it was time for Lori to focus on raising the kids and not work in the business. I am so glad we were able to do this because it helped our kids become who they are today.

After 28 years of working at RFMCO and at the beginning of 2022, I had a sudden and unexpected medical event that changed the course of our future. We decided I needed to retire at the end of 2022 and live out our promise we made to each other at a very early age. Our promise was to work very hard as young adults so we could go see the world when we retired. Now was that time.

We sold our home and bought our RV with the intention of becoming full time RVers at the end of 2022. I did retire from RFMCO at the end of 2022 and the company gave us (me and two other employees) a great send off in Las Vegas, NV.

Lori and agreed that we were going to need a place to call ‘home base” so we got a home in Henderson Nevada where we go back to during trips to catch a break.

As of this time, we are living up to our commitments to see the country and are documenting our travels here so others can see what it is like and maybe pique some interest to see some of the sites we have been lucky enough to experience.