Well, it is groundhog day and also the first 'official' day of my road repping career. So, after much planning and setting of appointments, I headed for Warrenton in north central Virginia. I had booked an early afternoon visit with one of our current customers who has grown her business over the last couple of years. My hope is that she can grow it even further. We had a good meeting with me showing the new products from January 2008 through January 2009, and she taking copious notes. I really wanted to leave there with an order in hand, but that was not to happen. She is going to put something together and fax it to me - later. After that appointment, I did some prospecting coming upon a garden center/gift shop with the cool barn wall of windows and doors - so inviting I had to take a peek. Being the off season, the owner/buyer was not in, so I left a card and some info and kept on going (of course, after jotting down the name and address of the store for later). I paid a call on another very small customer, but the buyer again was not in, but I did speak with the manager (who appears to have some influence) and suggested some products to try making some notes in a catalog to leave with her. I went on to Culpeper, VA, a town of special significance, since my mom spent some of her early teen years growing up on a dairy farm there. The church you see pictured, is Saint Stephen's Episcopal Church and it is significant because my mother played the organ there - and not always such holy music - she was caught playing the boogie woogie on the big organ once!! It was close to 5pm when I was roaming around the main downtown area, but I was able to make note of a few shops to follow up with at a later time. The Frost Cafe caught my eye - I thought I saw Edward Hopper sitting in the window. And fitting is the name, as a snow storm is on the way tonight. Tomorrow should be an interesting day, trying to keep appointments with customers in the foothills and mountains with ice and snow on the ground! Wish me luck!