Travel Tracks: *The 1st 16 YEARS*

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It started out as a casual conversation while booking a trip to Mexico.
“Let me know if you ever decide to retire,” I said to the founder of Pace Setter Travel & Tours, “I might be interested in buying the company.”
Faster than the flap of a hummingbird's wingtip came the response, “let me know when you're ready to cut the cheque and I'll retire.”
In the weeks that followed I was to gain a new appreciation of the saying “be careful what you ask for in the event you get it.”
Trial by fire would be an understatement in describing the first sixteen years.
On the first day of the new ownership, the landlord at the time introduced herself to advise that the old company was on a month to month lease and that effective immediately the rent was going up by 50%.
I thanked her and advised that under the terms and conditions of the month to month agreement, we'd be vacating the premises within 30 days.
Just perfect – in less time than it takes to watch the morning news, I'd bought a business that I knew very little about and was on the verge of plunging it into homelessness.
Within a week we'd managed to sublet space in our current location, the size of which was about the size of two phone booths interconnected by a trap door.
A couple of weeks after taking possession, burglars entered in the middle of the night, peeled the door off a nine hundred pound safe and made off with that day's receipts which if memory serves correct was about twelve dollars.
A couple of months later after returning from having escorted a group to Cuba, I discovered the office had been vacated and the two former employees had opened a competing office down the street having told all that would listen that we'd filed for bankruptcy and fled the country.
Blood pressure went up a bit at that point however when THEIR new digs shut their doors in the middle of the night a few weeks later – it went back down again.
Time to surge forward with a move into larger premises in the same mall, and in the years that followed there was never a shortage of adventure punctuated by the odd heart stopper.
The group to Fiji, which on the last day got nailed by a cyclone and had to be evacuated by helicopter in the dark. forty-eight passengers. One - four passenger helicopter. Lotta trips in the midst of a storm.
The group to Venezuela which included a wild ride in a tour bus – on a sidewalk.
Holding a tiger cub in Thailand.
Hiking in Antarctica.
Diving the coral reefs in the South China seas.
Finding ourselves in Hong Kong three days before SARS hit.
Exploring the Galapagos on a chartered private yacht.
Playing with baby Orangutans in Borneo.
Photographing prides of lions from a distance of three meters in Tanzania.
And far more than anyone really deserves to experience in 1 lifetime.
So much for the 1st sixteen years.
August 29th, 2011 marks the beginning of a new chapter as we say goodbye to the old home with a move into our new headquarters in the Olde Town area of Okotoks.
To all of you who have played a significant role in allowing us to thrive over the past sixteen years, a thank you that words alone cannot adequately express.
And to those who will join us for the ride over the next sixteen years – *buckle up*.
It promises to be a hell of a ride.

Adios until next time
Dave Heron

Dave Heron is the owner and operator of: Pace Setter Travel & Tours (1995) Inc
Box 612, 49 Elizabeth Street
Okotoks, Alberta
T1S 1A7
Tel:  403.938.5454
Fax:  403.938.5568
Toll Free:  1.800.206.7223
pacesetter@nucleus.com
www.pacesettertravel.ca