Well if I was really trying to be accurate, I would've titled the article two months from Tuesday instead of two weeks. The two weeks joke still plays though, so I figured I'd start my triumphant return to writing articles with a little humor. So previous to the Stoker retiring article, that Nordic outboard article had been up for quite awhile. Point in fact it had been up so long, that I got an e-mail from Speed on the Water asking if I was ok, and an e-mail from a competitor asking what was going on. It's good to know I'm not the only guy that checks out all the other sites as well to see what else is going on out there. So not to make excuses for that, but a little over two months ago I came down with what I thought was a cold, and it just got worse and worse. It ended up lasting a little over two months, and I can say that was about as sick as I had ever been. If you saw me at any of the shows, or at the Enduro, green around the gills is was an understatement. My advice is someone so much as even sniffles around you run because there is something nasty going around right now.

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Which brings us to where we have been, and what we have been doing! People tend to believe that all things boating stop after Labor Day. In our world of RDP, we get a short break after Laborday, and then once October hits it is one of the busiest times of the year! We start by covering the "Hotboats on the Strip" show put on by the Pirates Den. Then we move onto Monster Bash 10 days later. Then we move onto the Parker Enduro eight days after that (which is a selling event for us), then we move onto the Sand and Water show (which is another selling event), then immediately after the Sand and Water Show is over we packed our bags and drove to Parker for three eight hour days of boat testing! As written above pretty much all of those events, I was so sick that I was in and out of the Urgent Care, and looped out of my ghord on this crazy Narcotic cough syrup, and other meds.

I managed to cover the Hotboat show at the Pirate myself and on this particular article decided to make a change on how we present articles on events to our members. Now we will be placing an article on the front page for content, but as well placing a more in depth article with more pictures etc.. In a thread in the actual lounge itself. This was done at the request of several members, and tapatalk users.

I was too sick to go to Monster Bash unfortunately, but Jay Nichols was in town so he did an awesome job of covering Monster Bash for RDP in my absence. While there isn't a write up, you guys know the saying "A Picture is worth a thousand words." The pics in his thread are absolutely unbelievable.

http://www.riverdavesplace.com/foru...er-Lining-Shoot-Monster-Bash-2014-P-H-O-T-O-S

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Which takes us to the Parker Enduro, the event that we actually put on and exhibit at. It's a bit ironic that we put the event on, and I wasn't able to put up front page coverage, and behind the scenes action. The main thread with coverage is here, with professional pics by Pink Taco starting on Page 13 The first 13 pages are real time cell phone pics by Hammer, and videos by Hallett21 which came out amazingly well for being done on the fly!

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Racing Action by Pink Taco starts on page 16
http://www.riverdavesplace.com/foru...rker-Enduro-Thread/page16&highlight=Pink+Taco


The Sand And Water Show we just exhibited, and unfortunately I was unable to get any pics that are worth posting. We ended up breaking down early and ending up over at Urgent care. We would like to say it was nice seeing the members that came out to the show, and thank you all for supporting the site by buying T-shirts etc..

This followed with our Boat Trials, as discussed on the forums already they will be released in a few months. There is a lot of people asking "Why" with regard to why I can't put up all of the tests right now. There is a couple of answers to that. First being that I wanted the tests to be "objective" and unaffected by advertising dollars. We brought in a third party (Bob Brown and team) to run the tests for RDP. I have to pay the third party to compile all the information, and write the articles etc. I'm not going to get into how much it costs, but by the time a boat gets fully evaluated, and into an article it isn't cheap by any means. The second and most important part of that is how to deliver the tests themselves. I could put them up front page style, but then the tests will get blown off the front page by other content, same as in the lounge. We can make them indexable to refer to them later, but for something of this magnitude I think the delivery is almost as important as the content itself. I would like the manufacturers (if they are happy) to have the tests professionally printed and on hand at boatshows etc.. That means that they will either need to be downloadable in pdf format, or delivered in a print format, etc.. We are sorting all of that out right now. The upside is our first articles are already underway, so the timeline will be in fact shorter then previously expected! That should make the members a little happier.

Lastly, even though I have been pretty out of commission I have been working behind the scenes on a lot of different fronts! We are changing and improving a lot of things on just about every front of RDP. From coming out with a Free DVD that goes out with SWAG orders, to even the way we bill our advertisers and rate cards. The website, and business model needed a major overhaul, and we are on the tail end of finishing all of that right now. As I said in one of the threads, we are looking to take this website to the next level in early 2015.

In the meantime, if you haven't been on the front page lately, CHECK IT OUT! We now have Instagram photos integrated onto the site via a snapwidget. If you post something on Instagram and hashtag riverdavesplace, it will automatically appear on RDP!

RD