Well, it's Saturday and I am glad to be home. Left early Monday morning headed for an appointment on the eastern shore of Maryland. I spent the week in Maryland and Delaware seeking out our customers and prospecting and picking up leads in areas where we have no customers. It was a great week in terms of seeing folks who have done business over the years, but have seen no salesperson in years and in some instances ever. I showed the line over and over again but no one was ordering - yet. They seemed to know what they like and what they will order when they can or must, but this week was not the week for orders, again. Finally, on Thursday in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, after being completely stood up by my first appointment (arghh) I got an order! The shop is the classic shell shop just like I remember from growing up in Florida. It really took me back to trips to Venice and Nokomis Florida and Vero Beach Florida - the old Florida of the early to mid 60's. If anything has a shell, a flamingo, a lobster or crab, a palm tree, about drinking or it being 5pm somewhere, is a boat motif, a nautical decor theme or has to do with hermit crabs it is in this store. I could imagine on a hot July day in this store, folks are packed in like sardines! Every possible Rehoboth Beach souvenir resides here too. The buyer was a very fun, upbeat lady and she bought many of our new coastal items and I came away with my only order of the week, but it was a decent one and more than I have come away with on other weeks with multiple orders. My last appointment of the week was in the very northern part of the eastern shore of Virginia, near the Maryland line. From the little information that I had about what she had ordered, I figured she was a dabbler, and not a serious Heritage customer. I was wrong. I met her at the store at 9am and when I walked in I was blown away by her Heritage display right in the front of the store! It was huge and it was beautiful. She had at one time been a showcase store and one of our better dealers. She shared with me some of her history and her love of our line. Her husband passed away with cancer and she was left with piles of bills that she is still working to pay down. Times have been hard and she has taken a job at Lowe's to keep her store open. She hired a seamstress to run the store and this lady makes window treatments and any other thing they can sell made from fabric. But she is a true optimist and fell in love with lots of our new products. We had a great 2 hour meeting and could have met longer, but she had to be to work at Lowe's by 11 am...