#hotel utah motor lodge
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ARIZONA
5-7 May 2019 – Boy! We have been so busy with the caravan. On top of just coordinating activities, I have been writing the memory book and Paul has been managing routing. At any rate, the group took a jet boat tour on Lake Havasu with a stop at the Pirate Cove in the middle of the ride. The restaurant had undergone major personnel changes and things were a little screwy but we were able to work out all the details. The waitresses were all dressed pretty scantily. The guys enjoyed the meal very much.
On May 6, we cooked breakfast for the caravan. Jon & Nancy and Paul & I cooked pancakes and sausage. The rest of the day was free time until the Travel Meeting at 4 p.m. It went well. One person started the meeting with a joke followed by a weather report then a report on fuel prices and stations. Jon and Paul advised everyone about the route and order of march; I described the activities that are scheduled at our next stop. At 7 p.m., the Game Masters ran a bingo game for about 15 to 20 folks.
We leave Arizona on May 7 headed to Boulder City in Nevada.
4 May 2019 (Sat) – We took a motor coach to Oatman today. Oatman is an old mining town that was prosperous at one time but the mines played out. As they closed, the miners released their burros into the wild. Today, Oatman is a tourist attraction as an old west town with the burros roaming the streets at will. The tourists feed them oat and alfalfa cakes. Gun slingers have shoot outs in the street.
When we pulled into town, two cowboys were standing in the road. They fired a shotgun in the air and pulled us over. They got on the bus and walked up and down the aisle talking about kidnapping all the pretty women and robbing the men. Then the sheriff came on the bus and demanded that one of our passengers give himself up. He was wanted for pretending to be a good Cajun chef. We had pre-arranged the “arrest” and everyone was quite entertained by it. Afterward, everyone got off the bus and the town did a special shoot-out show for us. It was very nice.
Everyone got three hours to roam the town. There were souvenir shops and two restaurants to look at. The hotel where Carole Lombard and Clark Gable spent their honeymoon gave tours of their suite. Paul and I ate in the hotel café. The food was pretty good. The place was papered in dollar bills. They were everywhere – on the walls, on the columns, on the ceiling, on the windows, on the doors, everywhere! There must have been thousands of dollars tacked up in that place. There were dollars on dollars on dollars. Some of it was foreign currency, too.
At 2:00 p.m., we all got back on the bus and rode an hour back to the campground. Jon awarded the bus driver with a caravan pin. At 4:00 p.m., we gathered in the clubhouse for social hour. Later, Paul and I went around to the RVs to collect paperwork and make sure their radios worked. We didn’t quite get it all done and will have to try to finish up tomorrow.
3 May 2019 (Fri) – I went out this morning to get a haircut. When I called, I was told they don’t make appointments. Just walk in. So I went in this morning to find two people in front of me. As the stylist was finishing up with the second person, she told me she had an appointment to take care of ahead of me. I waited for her to finish with that one. While I was in the chair, she got a phone call and made an appointment for that person for tomorrow. I asked why I wasn’t allowed to make an appointment and she said they don’t make appointments for haircuts – just more time consuming stuff. WTH?? I was in that hair salon for over two hours. My hairdresser back home would have had me in and out in ten minutes. This gal was sooooo slooooow.
Paul and I were very hungry when I finished. We didn’t have breakfast because of the early time we wanted to get to the hairdresser. We stopped at a place called Rusty’s. It kind of resembled an old garage and we weren’t expecting anything special. Boy, were we surprised! It was a modern diner inside. The food was scrumptious and plentiful. It was a good stop.
Today was the kick-off for the Utah’s Mighty 5 Caravan. Finally! Seems like it’s been so long coming and now it’s here. Yay!
We had an orientation meeting with everyone at 3 p.m. Jon, Paul, and I all talked about different aspects of the caravan. At 4 p.m. we finished up and everyone drove over to Shugrue’s Restaurant Makai Room on the Bridgewater Channel overlooking the London Bridge. The room was perfect. We had an outdoor patio where we had a social hour from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. At 5:15 p.m. we got everyone together and took a group picture with the London Bridge in the background. Unfortunately, the sun was behind the group and the London Bridge was washed out in the picture. Oh, well. There will be other photo opportunities.
At 5:30, we went into the dining room for a delightful Hawaiian buffet dinner. The food was excellent and the two servers were very attentive. Jon awarded them caravan pins he had made up special for this trip.
It was a good start to our adventure. Everyone seemed to be satisfied.
2 May 2019 (Thu) – We ran some errands during the day. Paul and Jon put the ladder plates on the RVs that are in so far (seven more are expected tomorrow). Nancy collected menu choices for our first dinner at Pirate Cove on Sunday. I prepared notes for the orientation meeting tomorrow and completed other forms and documents for the caravan.
At 5:30 p.m. we went out to dinner with Rick & Brenda and Hank & Brenda at the College Town Brewing Co. Both couples we met during the Maritimes Caravan in 2016. The meal and company were very good.
After we got back to the campground, Paul, Rick, and Brenda all went for a swim in the pool. I sat with my feet in the water.
1 May 2019 (Wed) – We packed up and drove to Havasu Falls RV Resort, one-half hour away on the edge of town. This is the campground where our caravan begins. Three members of the caravan were already here. We checked in and pulled into our space. Jon & Nancy gathered up their material and we gathered up ours and brought everything over to the clubhouse. We put together the travel guides and the gift bags. Jon put them all back in his car to hold there until we have our orientation meeting.
At 4:30 p.m., we brought a steak over to Jon & Nancy’s where we all cooked food on their grill. It was a nice end to a very busy day. Three more rigs came in today in addition to us. We will see everyone trickling in until the caravan begins on Friday.
30 Apr 2019 (Tue) – Our tail gunners arrived at the Elks Lodge today. They are not Elks members so we are sponsoring them. While they set up, we ran out to do some errands. First stop was at JC Penney’s where Paul picked up a few shirts and I bought some Bermuda shorts. Then we went to Staples and picked up some stationary supplies (envelopes, erasure tape, etc.). After that, it was a stop at Pet Smart to get Bonnie some treats. We also stopped at Smith’s to pick up groceries then used the points earned to buy fuel. We got forty cents a gallon off. It turned out that Smith’s stopped accepting VISA credit cards at the beginning of the month but they did accept a VISA debit card. We used to have a Mastercard but our bank stopped using that card and switched to VISA. So now, all our cards are VISA. We’ll have to look for a Mastercard in order to make sure we have a card to switch to in the event they accept one (like Smith’s just did).
When we got back to the lodge, we put everything away, then sat down with Jon & Nancy to review details of the caravan. I later sent him information I had developed on my computer. After we were done working on caravan material, we went to dinner at Juicy’s. The food was good.
29 Apr 2019 (Mon) – We went to Juicy’s for lunch. The restaurant was named for the owner’s dog which he lost years ago when he was a kid. The food was good and the server was pleasant. Afterward, we drove to Tractor Supply Co. to pick up some alfalfa cubes for the caravan. I feel bad. I told everyone to bring carrots, apples, and pears to feed the wild burros. When I called the Chamber of Commerce in Oatman to let them know our group was coming to town on Saturday, I was told we could only feed the animals alfalfa cubes. So I bought 3 packs. I’ll give everyone a couple to feed the burros.
28 Apr 2019 (Sun) – We ran out to lunch at the College Street Brewhouse. It was rated number one of all restaurants in Lake Havasu City. The food was good. After lunch, we drove around the neighborhood just looking at houses. What is amazing about this area is how many garages many of these houses have. There is a tall one for an RV. Then there is a double garage to fit two cars. Another single size garage would house an ATV and some have another to fit a boat. In many cases, the garages combined are bigger that the house itself. That is crazy!
27 Apr 2019 (Sat) – We worked around the campground today – Paul washing the RV and me coordinating and confirming the meals and venues for our caravan. At noon, we went into the lodge for lunch. They were serving hot dogs and fries. Not exactly my favorite choice but it did the job.
The weather has been so hot this week. It broke a record in Phoenix today and hit 102 degrees. It was 98 here. The sunset was pretty. There was a deep red color along the horizon. Some jet stream lines were colored red as well. It’s funny. When we let the animals out, neither wants to step out of the shade. Sheba can get away with that because she has her cat box, but Bonnie can’t. She has to walk out in order to go to the bathroom. She is NOT happy about that. We try to do the long walk in the early morning and twilight when the roadway is the coolest. We certainly don’t want her to burn her feet on the asphalt.
26 Apr 2019 (Fri) – We went to Shugrue’s Restaurant at 10:30 a.m. to meet with Thom, the catering manager. We reviewed the details of our welcome dinner on May 3 and went down to look in the room. The Makai Room is on the first level looking out on a patio facing the London Bridge. The Makai is separated into two rooms. One is a bar/café; the second is a dining area. They will set up the buffet in the café and we will eat in the dining room. Cocktails will be enjoyed on the patio outside. It will be a perfect beginning to our caravan.
After our meeting with Thom, we sat in the restaurant by the windows and enjoyed lunch while watching the race boat parade. The boats motored up the channel under the bridge and out into the lake. It was fun to watch.
When we were finished with lunch, we drove over to the island to look at some of the lighthouses. There are 26 replica lighthouses located around the lake – the most lighthouses in any city in the U.S. We found the Fire Island lighthouse replica and hiked over to take a picture. There were over one hundred boats on the water. The thrum of those high performance engines filled the air. You could feel the rumble in your chest. The smell of fuel was everywhere. I could see how a boat enthusiast might be turned on by all that. It was kind of fun watching all those boats zipping around on the lake out there. Some could go mighty fast.
25 Apr 2019 (Thu) – I did some work on the caravan this morning. Paul worked on rearranging the basement and getting rid of some items. I cut his hair then we drove into town for lunch. It turned out that the Desert Storm Poker Run and Shootout 2019 is going on this weekend. They were setting up racing boats for display, tents, and food trucks. There was millions of dollar’s worth of equipment lined up and down the streets. We strolled along until we came to BJ’s Tavern and went in for lunch. We had hot dogs and margaritas. Afterward, we strolled along the street, stopping in a shop for a scoop of ice cream. The sun was so damn hot!
The Desert Storm event starts with a street party tonight. There will be a parade through the channel tomorrow (called the Desert Storm Poker Run) then the drivers will run a course on the lake Sunday (called the Desert Storm Shootout). Sounds like it will be fun to watch.
After we admired the boats, we drove to Pet Smart to get food for Bonnie. We had to buy thirty cans of her food. She gets the limited ingredient food and we can only get it in Pet Smart or Petco. There are none of those stores anywhere in the towns we will be staying in over the coming month so we had to stock up.
Next stop was at WalMart where we picked up a few groceries. We’ll go shopping again just before we leave on the caravan.
24 Apr 2019 (Wed) – We packed up and drove five hours to Lake Havasu City. The drive was uneventful and we arrived around 2 p.m. They also have some empty sites at this Elks Lodge, too. The temperature was 93 degrees. Damn! It feels like the sun is literally cooking your skin.
I spent the afternoon calling some of the restaurants and venues for the caravan, made a few deposits, and coordinated numbers. We went into the lodge for lunch. The bartender was a little rude so instead of eating at the bar, we walked to the dining room to place our order. Most of the tables were dirty; the dishes had not been cleared away. We found one that was mostly clean and sat down. We ordered our meal and left when finished.
23 Apr 2019 (Tue) – We packed up and got ready to go at 9 a.m. Dennis came out and drove with Paul to do a test drive. Everything went well and we were off. It was about a three hour drive back to Tempe where we are staying at the Elks Lodge. This is our third or fourth time here this year. Several spots were empty. The snowbirds have all gone back home. We found one and pulled through. A man came over and yelled at us for not backing in. Their policy is that everyone back into their campsite because they don’t want dividers and stanchions to get damaged.
At 4 p.m. we drove to Les & Rae’s house for dinner. He made shepherd’s pie for dinner. When we went to leave, Les gave us a large bowl of his special lima beans. They are so delicious!
22 Apr 2019 (Mon) – We went outside last night to look at the night sky. The stars glowed brightly and we were able to pick out some things we knew. We tried to use the app on my phone that shows where the International Space Station is. It turned out to be at the tip of South America. Nowhere in sight for us. Then we tried to look at some of the lights in the sky to determine if they were stars or planets. The app was a little confusing because it kept overlaying a full constellation over the stars we were looking at. Oh, well. Paul said it sounded like coyotes were right outside the RV last night. One would howl then several would answer in chorus. He said they went back and forth for a while then just went quiet.
Dennis came over at 8:30 a.m. We brought in the slides on the rig, turned on the air conditioning, left Sheba in the RV, and took Bonnie on a hike with us. We drove over to Cochise Stronghold Trail. It was a nice hike among some big rocks and a narrow trail. We crossed a small creek and Bonnie promptly lay down in it and lapped up the water. It really rejuvenated her.
After the hike, we drove down the road to a restaurant recommended by Dennis. Paul went in to get us burgers and fries while I sat in the truck with Bonnie. We all enjoyed our meal (especially Bonnie with her hamburger). Then we continued driving into the Chiricahua Mountains and the Coronado National Forest. It was a long ride over some very rough, unmaintained, unpaved, winding mountain road deep into the park. There were a few small waterfalls. Some people were camping deep in the woods. I can’t believe they dragged their campers over those roads. The elevation was over 6,000 feet. We saw a few mule deer but no other wildlife.
When we got back to the campsite, Dennis was finishing up the brake installation. He and Paul worked on getting everything right. They will test drive the RV tomorrow when we’re ready to leave.
21 Apr 2019 (Sun-Easter) – We went to the club on base for an Easter brunch this morning. The place was very nicely decorated and there was a nice array of food choices in a buffet. We got one free mimosa, breakfast and lunch meal items, and a delightful array of desserts.
When we returned to the campground, we finished packing up and departed for Cochise. Our destination was about an hour and a half away. The route followed along a local two-lane roadway. About three or four miles from our destination, we came upon an accident. It had just happened; neither the police nor ambulance were there yet. The man in the truck in front of us said the man lying in the road was dead. I grabbed my first aid bag and went over to see if I could help. There was a young man lying on the side of the road with an older woman and a middle aged black woman. The black woman was calming the young man down and reassuring him his uncle was fine (which he was not). The older woman turned out to be the young man’s grandmother. The young man was a 17-year old dishwasher at a local restaurant. His uncle had picked him up from work and they were on their way home. The uncle fell asleep and drove off the road. He tried to correct and rolled the car. He must have been driving at a very fast speed. There was stuff spread all over the road and the marks in the grass showed he started having a problem more than a mile back from where the car landed.
The man in the truck asked if we had something to cover up the man in the road. I gave him a towel. As I walked past the body, I could see his arms were at an awkward angle and there was blood all over the road. The boy was very worried about his uncle and the black woman (who turned out to be a licensed CNA) was keeping him calm and reassuring him. I checked out his hand, which was bleeding. There was no spurting or heavy bleeding so I cleaned up some of the blood and placed a bandage over the cut on his hand. The woman was holding a paper over the boy’s face to shield him from the sun. I ran back to the RV and got an umbrella. She held it over the boy until the ambulance arrived.
The EMTs checked the young man over. It looked like his wrist or arm was broken and he had a small head wound. The EMT then proceeded to cut his shirt off and remove his shoes and pants. There he was, lying on the side of the road, in his underwear. Now I could see why Mom always made sure I had clean underwear when I left the house. A helicopter flew in and they medevacked the boy to the hospital in Tucson.
We couldn’t drive through because of all the debris in the road as well as the dead body. I don’t know why they didn’t get it out of the road but they just left it lying there. We backed about a quarter mile down the road and turned around. We then drove several miles back to the interstate and continued down the road to the next exit then backtracked to the road we wanted. The sheriff had the road blocked to traffic. When we explained that we had come from the other side of the accident, they let us through.
We arrived at a locked gate. No sign of a campground or a house or even a business. I called the number of the brake mechanic and he came out to unlock the gate. We drove through the desert brush to a spot where we were able to hook up to electric and water. It is the guy’s home. How in the world did this guy get involved in installing disc brakes on trailers way out here? He’ll be over tomorrow to put on the brakes. He warned us about coyotes and javelina in the area. Looks like Sheba is housebound for the next two or three days.
20 Apr 2019 (Sat) – We drove south for 45 minutes to Vail where we took a tour of Colossal Cave. It is a dry cave, meaning it is not growing. The tour was about an hour and was pretty interesting. There isn’t much color in a dry cave. The CCC actually built the pathways and stone steps throughout the cave. As we’ve traveled around and seen CCC works, they built dams, roads, and public buildings. This is the first time we’ve seen them develop a cave for tourism.
We stopped at Rancho Rustico for lunch. It was a Mexican restaurant with excellent margaritas. I had a quesadilla and Paul had a tamale. The food was pretty good.
Next stop was at Fry’s Supermarket where we picked up some groceries. Then we drove across the street to Fry’s gas station and got ten cents off a gallon. I love Fry’s! After we returned to the campground and put away the groceries, we took naps. Then we went to Daisy Mae’s Steakhouse for dinner. It was an interesting stop and had been recommended by Les & Rae. The place was rustic with lots of wood and dollar bills stuck all over the walls. We were seated in a room with a large window that looked out on the patio where a cook was grilling all the steaks. The food was excellent.
The Davis-Monthan AFB FamCamp is an interesting place. Across the aisle from us is a fifth wheel the same size as ours. They have eight children, one an infant, two parents, and a dog. How they manage with a brood like that puzzles us. The children are well behaved and spend most of their time indoors. I guess they are being home schooled. We watched a girl of 8 or 10 years old wheel a basket of laundry in her wagon to the laundry room. When you live in a family that size, you learn responsibility real fast.
All around the campground, there are little holes like the kind you see with prairie dogs. But we haven’t seen any animals – ground squirrels, ground hogs, chipmunks, nothing. I fear that they poisoned the animals. Across the street from the campground is an abandoned golf course. It has been mostly overgrown with cacti and other grasses. One part was cleared away for a 9-hole disc golf course. We took a walk around the area and saw some of those little ground hogs. Guess they just didn’t want them in the campground.
19 Apr 2019 (Fri) – We went to the ASARCO Mineral Discovery Center today and took a tour of the Copper Glance Mine. It was a fascinating tour. A bus took us from the visitor center to an overlook where we all got out and looked down into the open pit copper mine. It was huge! The very large dump trucks looked like little Tonka toys deep down in the mine. We got back on the bus and rode to the mill where the ore is brought in. It goes into a hopper where the large rocks are crushed and broken down to smaller rocks. Those smaller rocks are then put through another hopper that further crushes them to fine gravel. That is mixed with lime salt, oil, and air. The copper is lifted to the top and mixes with bubbles while the excess slurry falls to the bottom of the tank. At this point, they have copper that is 49% pure. It is loaded on trucks and sent to the smelter in Amarillo, Texas, where it is heated in several furnaces until they get to a purity of 99.5%. The copper is formed into slabs that weigh a couple of hundred pounds. It was all very interesting to see.
On the bus ride out to the mine, the guide told us they have a wild herd of about 40 horses that roam the area. We spotted a couple of them. We also learned that there are two kinds of tailings. If you see a pile with multiple colors, it’s a rock dump. If you see piles with two or less colors, it’s a tailings pile. The tailings come out a light gray. They are put in rows and covered with dirt. That is so plants can grow on the piles and help keep the piles together. The guide told us that Arizona defined itself as The Copper State about four years ago. A researcher found that Arizona produces 60% of all the copper mined in the United States.
After the mine tour, we went to the Desert Diamond Casino for lunch. We ate at the buffet. The food was ok. Afterwards, we each threw $20 in the slot machines. Paul couldn’t get his free play of $10. Somehow, I got a free play of $20. Maybe I got his play!
We then drove down the road to Sonoita to do a wine tasting. First stop was at the Dos Cabezas Winery. It was six wines for $10. Paul and I shared a tasting but neither of us was impressed. We then stopped at the Hops & Vines Winery. It was cute and little offbeat. The tasting of six wines cost $5. We weren’t really impressed with their wines either.
As we started to drive back to the base, we passed a sign for a National Conservation Area. Intrigued, we turned in and drove through the high desert countryside. There was a sign saying it is the pronghorn fawning season but we didn’t see any. There were some cows grazing. We expected to see a lot more cows. There were thousands of acres for them to graze on. When we were done exploring, we drove the hour back to the campground.
18 Apr 2019 (Thu) – We drove into town today to go to the Horse Soldier Museum. It was a small building, built in the early 1900s. It used to be a feed barn, now renovated into a museum housing displays about the early cavalry from the Civil War through World War I. There were some very interesting stories about hero horses that did amazing things during wartime activities.
For lunch, we stopped at El Taco Tote. Diners order food at a counter. The menu has a robust offering of tacos. A salsa bar offered different levels of salsa (mild, medium, hot) and some toppings for tacos. We did not like the place. They had little tiny containers you could get chips from a bin, then get a little container of salsa at the salsa bar. The place had a cheap feel to it.
17 Apr 2019 (Wed) – It was back to the dentist this morning for Paul. He had an 8 AM appointment. He had x-rays, cleaning, and then deep cleaning around the molars. We got charged $168. Guess the dental insurance is limited in what it covers.
We returned to the campground and met Les & Rae. They called to say they were at the visitor center. We drove out to meet them and Paul drove back in the truck while I rode with Les & Rae. They needed my military ID to get on to the base.
Les is an Air Force brat (like me) and has an affinity for planes. We drove along the boneyard, looking at all the aircraft staged in the fields. We drove over to the active flight line and were able to see four A-15 Wart Hogs land and two take off. It was perfect timing! Then we drove over to the club and had lunch. It was an odd menu but the food was OK. We sat and talked for over an hour before saying good bye. We won’t be back out west (after the caravan) until next year when the SMART National Muster will be held in Wyoming.
16 Apr 2019 (Tue) – It was a pretty busy day for us today. First, we went to the dentist and I got my teeth cleaned. I switched dental insurance and this was the first time using it. There was no charge to me for the x-rays or cleaning. That’s a good start!
After the dentist, we went to Potbelly Sandwich Shop for lunch. It was OK. Then we ran some errands. We went to WalMart and picked up some groceries. We also stopped at Hobby Lobby to pick up an easel to put the white board for the caravan. We also drove to Sahuarita to the copper mine. The tours were cancelled because they didn’t have a driver. We made a reservation for a tour on Friday. Hopefully, they’ll have a driver by then. We walked around the small museum looking at all the minerals and gems on display. There was a video and a comprehensive exhibit that explained how they mine and smelt copper. It’s quite an intensive process.
15 Apr 2019 (Mon) – We took the Easter Bunny packages to the post office and mailed them off to the grandchildren. Then we stopped at Ace Hardware so Paul could pick up some hardware items for a repair. We ran out of propane last night while I was cooking dinner so we had to get the propane tank refilled (we have two tanks so we weren’t actually “out” of gas). Lunch was at Marco’s Pizza. It definitely was not New York pizza. They don’t even sell slices around here. You have to buy a whole pie although they start out pretty small (12” round). It was OK but I’m looking forward to having the real thing whenever we get back to New York.
After we got back to the campground, we walked Bonnie over to the dog wash and gave her a bath. She really needed it. She was very good about it and the set up was pretty nice. It was like a car wash with switches for bathing, shampoo, conditioner, vacuum, dryer, deodorizer, and rinse. $5 bought ten minutes worth of dog washing.
On the way back to the camper, we stopped at the office and picked up a package that had arrived for us. It is a ramp for Bonnie. She is starting to have problems with her back legs so we thought this would help her get into the truck and RV easier.
14 Apr 2019 (Sun) – We went to Brushfire BBQ for lunch. Although the reviews were good, we really weren’t impressed with their food. I brought my leftovers home. Paul left his there. It was a beautiful, balmy, perfect day today. The sky was blue. The temperature was in the mid-70s. A light breeze was gently blowing. This is the kind of day when we toast each other with, “Here’s to another day in paradise.”
13 Apr 2019 (Sat) – We have been having problems with the DISH satellite making awful noises and not being able to get a full signal or any signal at all. Paul finally bypassed the hookup in the rig and ran a line direct from the receiver to the antenna itself. Since he’s done that, we haven’t had any problems. The conclusion, therefore, is that the wiring from the receiver to the satellite hookup in the bay is faulty. Maybe the wire isn’t heavy enough. So Paul decided to put a connector in right behind the TV that goes direct from the receiver to the antenna and does not run through the wall to the RV installed connection point.
We stopped at LaMesa RV only to find they did not have a camping store. We then drove to Lazy Days and discovered their store closed at noon (it was 12:45 p.m.). Third stop was back at Camping World where we bought the DISH satellite antenna. Business was humming and Paul was able to find all the parts he wanted. Just think of all the business Lazy Days and LaMesa is not getting.
On the way back, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant, El Molinita, for lunch. Their margaritas were midget size but I guess that’s OK for lunch time.
When we got back to the campground, Paul installed the connection. The satellite appears to be working fine now. Let’s hope that’s the end of this saga. Now if we could just get rid of these hacking coughs and sniffles, everything would be fine.
12 Apr 2019 (Fri) – We took Sheba to the vet today. She didn’t need any shots and she’s not sick. It’s just been a year since she’s been to the doctor and now that she’s eight years old, we figured she should have an annual checkup. She came through with flying colors. The vet does not have Revolution but he gave us a prescription for it. We will have to go online and find somewhere that it is sold. While we were at the vet, the doctor told us Bonnie’s bloodwork came back and she has a UTI (again). He gave us medication for her and said we need to wipe her rear end once a day to keep the infected area clean. It looks like it’s the same infection of her vulva that she had last time.
After the vet, we stopped at Sprouts to pick up some things I have been looking for. We found the homeopathic medication and snacks that I’ve been looking for.
11 Apr 2019 (Thu) – We went back to the urgent care clinic this morning. I am feeling so crummy. My chest feels heavy, it’s hard to catch my breath, I am left weak and helpless after a coughing spasm, and there’s a pain in my back. I have finished the flu medicines but still feel sick. The PA said I probably have allergies. It is spring time. The wind is blowing the pollen around. Many people are coming in with the same symptoms. She suggested a steroid shot that would relieve my symptoms for 24 to 48 hours. But then they would be back. And since steroid medications have a bad reputation, I decided not to get the shot. I’ll get something at the drug store.
We went to the Pima Air & Space Museum today. They have several large buildings packed with all kinds of aircraft. Additionally, there is an outdoor area with hundreds of planes on display. We took a one-hour tram ride around the outdoor display area with the docent describing the history of various airplanes. It was quite interesting. We also went into the building for the B-17 Stratofortress and the Mitchell B-24. A person could spend days wandering among all the exhibits. There was a space building we wandered through. While it was interesting, there hasn’t been anything updated since 2006. There is so much going on in the space “world” today that they really need to have an area dedicated to all that. They didn’t even mention the new Space Command.
After the museum, we stopped at Trader Joe’s but they didn’t have what I wanted. Then we stopped at the commissary and picked up some groceries. I was exhausted by the time we got back to the campground.
10 Apr 2019 (Wed) – We took Bonnie to the vet today for a checkup and shots. She has gained another ten pounds and is now up to 80 pounds. That’s too heavy. Since we’ve put her on the limited ingredient diet, she’s been gaining weight. The doctor recommended we cut back on the can food. I would have done the opposite – reduced the amount of dry food she’s getting. Bonnie got a rabies, distemper, parvo virus, and leptospirosis vaccine. She was really out of it tonight. Spent most of the night in a deep sleep. I guess that many shots all at once would do it.
9 Apr 2019 (Tue) – We went out to the club for lunch and came back. Still both just hanging out, feeling like crap. Ugh.
8 Apr 2019 (Mon) – I am still sick (coughing and blowing my nose) but feeling better. Paul seems to be feeling worse. He had to lie down and take a nap this afternoon. I took him out for lunch today. It feels good to just get out of a sick house. We went to the Long Horn Steak House. The steaks were cooked perfectly. We tried to find some boxes to mail home Easter packages for the grandchildren but didn’t find any. We’ll keep looking.
I called several veterinarians today before finally finding a place with something available before May. I don’t know if there’s a sickness infecting a large number of animals, or if there just aren’t enough vets for all the animals. I don’t know why they are all booked into May already. At any rate, I found one and made an appointment for Bonnie for Wednesday. It is time for her annual check-up and vaccinations. We’ll also see what we can find out about improving her diet. She really hates what we are giving her now.
7 Apr 2019 (Sun) – Ugh. I have been sick with the flu. And Paul is now showing signs of having the virus. A sick house is not a fun thing. Ugh. April 2, the SMART Southwest Regional Muster began. We checked in and attended the opening ceremony. There were 50/50 drawings and door prizes. They had a catered Italian dinner which was pretty good. Several of our friends from other caravans and musters are here as well. There are 52 rigs at the muster.
On April 3, my throat started to feel scratchy and I had occasional coughing fits. Soon, my tonsils were swollen to the size of golf balls. There were some seminars. The breakfast and dinner were catered by the muster. It was a Mexican meal. A local high school mariachi band performed for the group. The kids were between the ages of 14 and 18 and they were exceptional. It was a great show. That night, I came down with chills and severe coughing spasms. I wound up sleeping in the lounge chair because lying down seemed to make things worse.
On April 4, we went to a clinic where they diagnosed the flu. I got prescriptions for flu pills, cough pills, and a nighttime cough syrup. We went to a seminar by SkyMed and wound up buying a membership. The company will pay for an ambulance (by air, land, or sea) from an accident site to a medical facility. They will also pay to get you home as well as your rig and your animals. Or, they will pay to fly someone out to you. It is also a willable product, so if we die before the six years is up, we can leave the membership to someone else. Sure sounds pretty good. Like Long Term Care Insurance, you sure hope you don’t have to use it but if you do need it, you’ll be glad you have it. The group went to a comedy theater for dinner. Although I was feeling pretty miserable and Paul was starting to come down with something, we managed to enjoy the show.
On April 5, they had closing ceremonies. We didn’t go because we didn’t want to infect anybody else with the flu. On April 6, we went back to the clinic to get Paul some medication. They said he did not have the flu but some kind of allergy. They suggested he go to the pharmacy and pick up some antihistamine. WTH? That sure doesn’t make sense. The flu is highly contagious and it is apparent I had it for a few days before symptoms broke out. We’ll see how Paul fares.
After we got back to the campground, we packed up and left for Davis-Monthan AFB FamCamp. It was all of 12 miles away. Because we are just in a holding pattern until we get the disc brakes put on the RV, we decided it would be cheaper to stay here. It is a large campground. We have been here before. They have the aircraft boneyard on base with thousands of planes shrink wrapped in various states of condition. There is also a great museum on base. Although we have been here before, we were told they have changed things so we are looking forward to going when we feel better.
Today, April 7, we went to the commissary to pick up a few groceries and then to the PX to pick up some paper and printer ink. We’ve been working on stuff for the caravan next month.
1 Apr 2019 (Mon) – We drove to Total Wines and picked up some libations for our coming week with the SMART muster. We also stopped for lunch at the Yard House. The building used to be a stop on the stagecoach route. They handed glasses three feet long to the drivers sitting up on the coach (otherwise they couldn’t reach the drinks). The restaurant is named in honor of those long glasses.
At 4 p.m. we took off for the Kitt Peak Observatory where we were going to the Dark-Sky Celebration (they almost didn’t have it – they called at 10:30 to say it was cloudy and might not happen, then called back at 1:30 to say things cleared up and the program would go forward tonight. Why bother calling and giving people aggravation? We fretted for nothing.). It was almost an hour and a half drive. We went through a Border Patrol check point just before entering the Tohono Ooodham Reservation. The last 12 miles wound up over 7,000’ to the peak. The views along the way were phenomenal! There was a huge plain spread out below us with various mountain ranges in the distance. As we climbed higher, everything grew smaller.
When we arrived, guides came over and covered the headlights with a red vinyl. Looking around, we could see they were covering all the car headlights. They also lined everyone up in a line formation, making it easy to leave in one long line at night’s end. We checked in, were given a flashlight with a red lens, and found that an introductory video was already playing. Two groups were actually there – one was doing the dark sky celebration with a chance to look through a telescope. The other group was looking at the night sky with binoculars. We all had to get there before dark and could not leave until the program ended. This is the way they control light pollution. There are 26 observatories on Kitt Peak alone. Many are conducting expensive, long-term studies and one stray beam of light could ruin the whole experiment.
We all got dinner (turkey sandwich, bag of kettle chips, chocolate cookie, peanut butter protein bar, and a bottle of water), then listened to an introductory talk with lots of “Don’t do this and don’t do that’s” in it. Then we all walked up a hill where a guide talked about the area, space, the stars, the topography, why the area is good for research, etc. When he was done, the group split in two and we went with our group into the observatory. There were ten of us. The classroom was lit with red lights. There was a survey form to fill out but it was really hard to read the questions. The guide turned the lights up a little but it was still a challenge to complete the survey. They wanted to know what topics we were interested in seeing/learning about at the Kitt Peak Observatory. This is going to be used to create programs for future tourists.
After the forms were filled out, the guide flashed a slideshow on the screen and we spent an hour listening to a canned presentation. It was like being in an Astronomy 101 class. We thought it was stupid; especially when he made statements that we couldn’t question, like, humans are made of stardust (that’s the result of the studies they have been making up there). When he was done, we went upstairs to a second floor. There was a telescope in the middle of the very small room with chairs lined around the walls and the ceiling peeled back to reveal the night sky. It was cold and we were all glad we brought extra jackets. The guide focused the telescope on different star clusters and formations and we all took turns looking through the lens. We stood in a line that circled around the telescope, all shuffling and trying to keep your balance. That low light with the red lighting is very disorienting. It felt like being on a ship in the ocean. As we shuffled around, one guy said it was like being in a prison exercise yard. After the first few showings, Paul and I sat the rest out. You couldn’t really see all the stuff the guide was talking about and it all started to look the same. They should have shown some planets. We did get to see two satellites traversing across the sky and Paul spotted a falling star. All in all, the program was a big disappointment.
When the program was done, everyone gathered back in the visitor center where they opened the gift shop for last minute purchases and offered coffee (for a donation). All in one entire group, we walked back to our cars, waited for the signal, got in the car, waited for another signal, then started the car and put on the headlights (which were covered with red vinyl sheets). An observatory van led the way and we all filed out in single file. We drove for one mile where they stopped and removed the red vinyl covers from our headlights. Then we slowly made the 11-mile drive down the mountain in total darkness. That was thrilling (not!). What was interesting was the lights below in the towns. Tucson has a very strong ordinance about lighting to support the dark sky programs. Many universities and laboratories around the world have vested interest in the research that is going on in Arizona.
31 Mar 2019 (Sun) – We did a lot of walking with Bonnie today exploring the campground and surrounding area. At noon, we drove into town for lunch and to get Paul new sneakers. We drove down I-10 to where Paul remembered seeing a very large RV Center that intrigued him. He wanted to go through their trailers. Unfortunately, they are closed on Sundays. We got back on I-10 and drove down a few exits to where Paul had seen an outlet center during our drives back and forth between Phoenix and Tucson. It was a large center much like the Deer Park outlet back home in New York. We consulted a directory and found a food court. Lunch was at the Fabulous Wok where we had Chinese food (chicken and rice). Then we headed to a shoe store which had the exact style and size Paul wanted. We bought the pair and left.
On the way back to the campground, we took a turn down a side road and traveled up to Sentinel Peak Park. It was a steep winding drive with no rails to the peak. It had a fabulous view of the surrounding town below. That was one of those serendipitous side trips that turn out to be a great decision.
30 Mar 2019 (Sat) – We packed up and left Tempe at 9:30 a.m. The weather was good and the drive was easy. We arrived at the Rincon Country West RV Resort in Tucson in two and a half hours. The campground is humongous!! The Rincon Country West was 1,150 campsites. The Rincon Country East has something between 500 and 600 sites (but they’re smaller – 35’ and under). This place as everything a camper could want – pickle ball, shuffleboard, a pool, a hot tub, mailboxes, dog park, laundry, buildings with rooms marked for different activities (quilting, sewing, computer club, photo club, lapidairy, woodworking, etc.). There is even a library with hundreds of books. There is a big sign out front by the office that says they were awarded the 2018 Megapark of the Year. I can believe it!
We were assigned to site 833 (which is a back-in). They are supposed to have wifi but I couldn’t connect. I am getting tired of non-working wifi sites and slow internet. There must be something better out there. The desk clerk told us the rally organizers won’t arrive until tomorrow and they will have all the information to hand out about the campground.
The sun is incredibly hot. It beats down on you unmercifully. We took a walk on the Tucson Loop that passes by the back of the campground. It is a 131 trail that goes around the city. It followed along a very large dry wash. It reminds me of the movie, Them, where the ants are living in the large culverts in Los Angeles. The clerk told us that coyotes and javelinas live there and not to go into the wash as night. As we walked around, we noted that this is a gated community surrounded by a cement block fence topped with spikes and barbed wire. There are also cameras mounted around the property. Paul said we are either in a bad area or you have to ask who is in the jail – us or the outside world?
29 Mar 2019 (Fri) – We ran some errands today, getting ready for tomorrow’s move to Tucson. We stopped at Fry’s to pick up groceries, and used our points to get fuel (we saved ten cents a gallon). Paul needed new sneakers so we went to a mall (after several false starts – Sirie does not know what a shopping mall is). Although we walked up and down halls and stairways, we did not find sneakers. We wanted to get a pair of New Balance but all the stores we stopped in only had two or three styles. A New Balance outlet store had choices but none in Paul’s size. We’ll look again when we get to Tucson.
We went over Les & Rae’s at 3:30 p.m. After a short visit, we piled into Les’ truck and went to the Blue Adobe for dinner. Paul, Les, and Rae all had the fish & chips special; I had meatloaf. The margaritas were very good. We returned to Les & Rae’s house for further visiting then said our goodbyes.
28 Mar 2019 (Thu) – It was a busy three days in Houston. My flight out on March 26 went fine. It was direct flight from Phoenix to Houston. The weather was good. The Southwest flight was fully booked and every seat was taken. When I got to the airport, I walked over to the taxi stand and took a cab to the Quality Inn. The cab driver was a very talkative man who laughed way too much at everything I said. I knew he was “working it” for a tip. The meter said $34.10 but he told me the cost was $35. I gave him $40.
The motel reminded me of the old Holiday Inns we stayed at when traveling from New York to Florida. A little run down, scuffed moldings, peeling paint, some mold in the bathroom, a smell in the room. They have an arrangement with M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and only(?) charged $69 a night.
I caught the shuttle run by the motel to the hospital at 7:00 a.m. I arrived at the blood collection site at 7:30 and waited a half hour. Then a nurse called me up, gave me a ticket, and told me to bring it to the diagnostic center. They would take the blood when they put in an IV. The elevator took me from the second floor to the sixth floor. They put in the IV and took me in for the CT scan. Everything went smoothly and I was done by 9:30 a.m. Now I had to wait until my doctor’s appointment at 3:40 p.m. What was I going to do with myself for six hours?
First, I went to the cafeteria. Since I had to fast for the scan, I was hungry and enjoyed a breakfast meal. Then I walked across the Sky Bridge from the Mays Clinic to the Main Building (when all was said and done, I had walked over two miles in the hospital that day). I tried to check in at the doctor’s office thinking he might see me earlier. The nurse told me I couldn’t check in any earlier than two hours before my appointment. She suggested I go down to the cafeteria and get a bite to eat.
While wandering about the halls, it occurred to me that the hospital complex was so big that they probably had a hair salon somewhere. An employee told me where it was and I walked over. When I arrived, there were two people waiting, one person in the chair, and the stylist told me another person was on the way (she had gone to the restroom). Since I had nowhere else to go, I waited. A man was just leaving the chair. She had shaved his head. The next customer was another man whose head she shaved, too. After he was done, the woman who had stepped out got her hair done – another head shave. Then it was my turn. The first question I asked was whether that was the head shaving chair. I wanted to be sure she wasn’t going to do to me. She thought I was pretty funny. I asked for a pixie cut and got a Hail Caesar cut. Oh, well. The cut was free (I made a $10 donation). I’ll find someone to fix it.
While in the chair, I commented on how busy the salon was and suggested that the hair stylist get another person to help. She told me there was a big lay off three years ago and everyone except her were let go. I asked what happened that caused that massive lay off. She said Obama Care went away and insurance companies told patients they had to go elsewhere (somewhere cheaper) for healthcare. Many patients who were getting certain medications and treatments at Anderson lost those benefits.
After the haircut, I went back down to the cafeteria and got a chicken wrap. I ate half and took the other half back to the motel for dinner. I went to the waiting room and took a seat. I read my book until it was 1:45 p.m. then checked in with the nurse. Despite all that, the doctor was almost an hour late seeing me. He turned out to be a new doctor. He had completed his fellowship eight months ago and stayed on as staff. Dr. Niar was young and smiled a lot but I didn’t feel very confident with him. At any rate, he said they had the scan results already and everything was stable. The bloodwork was good. He said I should come back for another scan in three months and that would give them a good base to see how the disease is progressing. If everything is still stable, they can lengthen the time between scans. One funny thing: when the doctor was looking me over, he asked what was wrong with my hair. Why was it falling out? At first, I thought “Oh, no. Another problem!” Then I realized it was the haircut I had gotten earlier that left hair on my shirt. We had a good laugh over that.
I caught the shuttle back to the motel. I asked the clerk about getting a ride back to the airport the next day and she told me she had a friend that could call. I thanked her and turned in. It was an exhausting day.
The next day (Mar 28), the taxi driver arrived. He was a Cuban immigrant who spoke very poor English. He and I tried to chat throughout the drive to the airport. He charged me $42! I thought he would be an Uber driver but he wasn’t.
The flight back to Arizona went. I had one stop. During the first leg, I sat next to a man who talked about the Roman empire. He was very thorough about its history and was fascinating to listen to. The second leg was quiet. The plane was full and everyone just played with their phones. Paul picked me up and we went to Top of the Rock for dinner. What a great place! The conference center and restaurant sat atop a hill overlooking the valley below. We sat out on the deck in the balmy breeze watching the rush hour traffic (which wasn’t going very fast) go by. The sun slowly slipped behind the hilltop and cast its fading light on the surrounding mountainside. It was such a perfect place and a perfect meal.
25 Mar 2019 (Mon) – We did laundry today. Since we were meeting Les & Rae for dinner early tonight, we just had a snack for lunch. We took Bonnie for a long walk around the industrial park. They were very busy today with lots of traffic coming and going.
At 3:30 p.m. we went over Les & Rae’s house. After a brief visit, we drove to Blue 32 for dinner. The food was good and the company enjoyable.
I leave for Houston tomorrow to get a PET scan at MD Anderson Cancer Center. I will be back on Thursday.
24 Mar 2019 (Sun) –We walked around the grounds this morning before leaving and stopped at the building where the Escapees had their office. Everyone was gone. We were trying to recover Paul’s picture that he submitted to the photo contest. On the way back to our RV, we spotted a camper with a sign on it indicating the folks had been office staff during the Escapade. We knocked on the door to ask if they knew who we could contact about the photo. They gave us the name of the woman who coordinated the event. I am afraid that they threw it out. Since we didn’t come by to pick it up, they wouldn’t keep it. They have too much stuff to gather up and return to the office with. I sent her an email. We’ll see what happens.
We packed up and left Tucson at 9:30 a.m. It was an easy two-hour drive back up to Phoenix. We are parked in the Elks Lodge where we were three weeks ago. We called on the way to see if they had availability (it’s first-come, first-served). The camp host said they had four spaces. They were holding one for a woman who was coming in to see her dying sister (they made an exception to reservations in her case). When we pulled in, the host was parking a rig. He then told us we got the last spot. Three rigs had pulled in before us. I am glad we weren’t any later than we were!
We went over Les & Rae’s house for dinner. There were many packages that had arrived for us (we have been ordering items and having them forwarded there). Les made shepherd’s pie (one of my favorite meals). It was a good visit.
23 Mar 2019 (Sat) – We went to the Thunder & Lightning Over Arizona Air Show at Davis-Monthan AFB today. What a fabulous show. Many of today’s modern jet fighters put on a display in incredible flights of precision. There was a Heritage fly over where four jets used by the Air Force beginning with WWII and going through Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq put on a show. There were incredible aerobatics of aircraft that was phenomenal. A jet dragster with three jet engines raced one of the planes. There were pyrotechnics, simulated bombs and strafing, and explosions galore. The Thunderbirds, of course, were the highlight of the show and were reserved to the end of the show.
The area we were in had a continental breakfast and a barbecue lunch with unlimited soda and water throughout the day. There was a covered area to sit at tables and an open area on the flightline to watch the show. Unfortunately, we sat right next to the speaker and it was incredibly loud. Most of the music was not to our liking and hurt our ears. Luckily, they handed out earplugs to visitors. They helped a little. The sun got really hot in the afternoon. We thoroughly enjoyed the displays and were wowed with the capabilities of our military aircraft. It was a good day.
22 Mar 2019 (Fri) – About half of the rigs left today. Most of the rest will leave tomorrow and there will only be a few of us remaining to leave on Sunday. It was a busy day around the area for the fairgrounds folks. They were smoothing dirt in the horse corrals and jumping arenas all day long. The tractors were out at 5 a.m. We sat and watched the horses jumping for a while, then went into town to pick up pet food and groceries. After we dropped those off and had lunch, we drove into Tucson to the University of Arizona Flandrau Science Center & Planetarium. There was a display about sharks that was designed to make visitors feel good about them at the end of the tour. There was an extensive exhibit about the moon, the sun, Mars, and the solar system. We went into the basement where they had an extensive collection of minerals and gems on display. Nature is so amazing! The colors and shapes of the rocks were so impressive.
At 4 p.m. we went into the planetarium and watched a show about the Tucson skies at night. The speaker showed where key stars were located and described the constellations. Then he began to describe the universe at large. It made us feel pretty insignificant. They sure didn’t teach that when we were in school. Scientists have discovered so much about the world we live in and the space we travel through. The immensity of the size of the universe and the hundreds – no, thousands of galaxies is almost overwhelming.
21 Mar 2019 (Thu) – We attended a couple of seminars this morning. One particularly interesting seminar was hosted by the Fulltime Families, a group of families (with children) that travel around the U.S. full-time. The host started out by telling the audience about some lesser known parks and attractions that were very enjoyable. When he was done, he asked members of the crowd to shout out their favorite places. We got a whole list of new places to explore. Most are state parks. It will fun to visit them.
We went to the cantina for lunch. I’m glad the rally ended today. I’m kind of tired of eating there. I had fried shrimp and Paul had chicken strips. After lunch, we got a soft serve ice cream from a food truck. We walked back to the RV, took Bonnie for a walk, and gave Sheba time outside.
At 3 p.m. we went to the closing ceremonies. They told us the statistics of the rally. There were 837 RVs at the rally. With the daily walk-ins included, there were more than 2,400 people who attended. They announced the winner of the photo contest (alas, it was not Paul), and listed the monies raised for various charities. There were door prize drawings for the volunteers as well as everyone attending and awards for different things including the talent show.
At 6 p.m. they had a Farewell Fiesta. The weather was cool so we didn’t go. It was held outdoors in the park.
20 Mar 2019 (Wed) – We went to an 8:30 a.m. seminar this morning. It was “DIY Pet Care” given by a veterinarian. She spoke about the most common complaints and some ways to treat those issues. She is also a provider of vet products, NewLeaf Pet.
The next seminar was “Soak up the Science” which was about all the science activity going on at the University of Arizona. It was a fascinating presentation. There are more telescopes in Arizona than anywhere else in the world. The university has many programs available to the general public and we are interested in visiting some of them. The Flandrau Science Center & Planetarium deals with astronomy and offers dark sky programs. There is also a center that studies tree rings. They have gone back 11,000 years in their studies. The speaker explained how they use the rings from one tree to another to track back in time and measure climate and world events. Another center at the college builds mirrors for telescopes. The process for forming the honeycomb pattern that keeps the mirror light weight is very interesting. The university also has an observatory on the top of Mt. Lemmon (where we were last week). We will definitely have to make time to go over there.
We broke for lunch and wandered over to the cantina for lunch. We shared the table with another couple for a short while. Their friends were all at the next table and were busy gobbling up all the chairs on the deck as more and more of them joined in. I began to get the feeling they were going to grab our chairs out from under us. Two people stood there staring at us as if to urge us to leave. It was pretty disconcerting. We stubbornly sat and continued to enjoy our lunch until we were done.
At 1:30 p.m. we went to “RV Disaster Corps.” That is a group that formed in Texas in response to Hurricane Harvey. The group gets a notice from Americorps that there is a disaster somewhere. (BTW, Texas has the most disasters of any state and it takes up to ten years to recover from major disasters.) The RVDC director sends an email out to the RVers in the group. Each RVer looks over the list, picks out events where they feel they can help, coordinates their calendar, and signs up to help. Then the RVers go to the area, find a place to set up, then help in whatever way they can. RVDC is trying to go national and has coordinated with many emergency operation centers in many states. The speaker was enthusiastic but very skilled in public speaking. The talk was jerky with the mike going back and forth between the husband and wife. There were a lot of questions they couldn’t answer either. Regardless, the program sounds interesting and we will look into it.
Last seminar was “Lifestyle Choices to Minimize Lifestyle Restrictions” which turned out to be a very fit 80-year old former chiropractor telling everyone how to live a good, long life. He covered issues that help us grow old but remain healthy and active. I didn’t find much I didn’t already know and felt like he talked down to the audience.
Following the seminar, we returned to the RV, got Bonnie and took her to the dog park. There was a young dog there who kept trying to play with Bonnie but she didn’t want to run. On the way back to the RV, I stopped at the RV Country table and got a glass of wine for us.
It was a pretty good day. The weather has been delightful. The sky has been mostly clear, the temps are in the high 60s/low 70s, and there has been a balmy breeze blowing. Last night, a guy across the aisle from us invited us to join them at a campfire. I was too tired but Paul went. He said the group kept growing and growing until there were about a hundred people formed in three circles around fires. This is certainly an unusual lifestyle. We love it.
19 Mar 2019 (Tue) – There was a dog walk at 8:30 a.m. this morning. About 20 dogs gathered and their owners walked them about a mile around the property. After the initial excitement, all the dogs settled down and the walk went well.
While Paul was walking Bonnie with the group, I went to a craft demo of Swedish weaving. The lady running the class was NOT a teacher and it was difficult to follow. Luckily, the lady sitting next to me was a crafter and caught on quickly. I got tips from her on how to do the craft.
At 11:30 a.m. Paul and I went over to the Transportation Assembly Point and reported in for our volunteer assignment of driving golf carts around the campground until 3:00 p.m. It was lots of fun.
When we were done, we got a piece of paper signed by the coordinator which we took back to the volunteer coordinator where we got a ticket for a special drawing and we got a Volunteer pin.
Since we never had lunch, we went to the Cantina for a late lunch/early dinner. While we were sitting outside eating our meal, a couple came by who recognized Paul during his golf cart drive. He had picked them up and talked about SMART enough that they remembered him. We invited them to sit with us after placing their order. He served 21 years in the Navy; she served 6. They were a very interesting couple and we enjoyed our visit.
We walked back to the RV and just relaxed the rest of the night.
18 Mar 2019 (Mon) – The seminars started today. At 8:30 a.m. we went to “Understanding Guided RV Tours.” We thought that since we will be leading a caravan in May that maybe we could pick up some pointers on wagon master duties or running activities. Although it was interesting, I don’t think we really picked anything up.
Next seminar was “Home is Where You Park It.” This was an important seminar in that a lawyer discussed the issues of where you declare your domicile and the legal issues associated with where you actually live as compared to where you declare your home state to be. Many people set up LLCs in South Dakota because of the low taxes. They buy those $300,000-$500,000 rigs then register them in South Dakota to save on paying taxes in their home state. Legal issues arise when people try to claim their domicile is in one state when they actually have property and spend more time in another state. I learned a lot.
We broke for lunch and went to the Cantina on the fairgrounds. I had a chicken wrap and Paul had a quesadilla. After eating, we walked over to the office and got some prices on what it would cost to hold a rally here. We were thinking about bringing that information back to SMART for one of their future musters. Next was a trip back to the RV where Paul walked Bonnie and I watched Sheba outside, then we took short naps.
At 1:30 p.m., we went back to the main area for the seminar “Maintaining a Showroom Look of Your RV.” It was a product specific presentation. The speaker was a vendor for Wash Wax All. He gave some good information about cleaning your RV but all the products were specifically what he sells. We’ll have to consider everything he said with a grain of salt.
At 3:00 p.m. we split up. Paul went to “Benefits of Disc Brakes” and I went to “RV Entertainment Technology.” I thoroughly enjoyed the speaker who was both entertaining and informative. The room was packed (apparently everyone likes to be entertained in their RV). He ran over time. Paul thought his seminar was interesting as well and plans to follow up with getting disc brakes on the RV.
After the seminars, we walked over to the outdoor display of used RVs which is being hosted by RV Country. They were giving away margaritas and snacks during their happy hour. The line to get all these freebees was very long. We waited about 15 minutes but finally got our drink and food. There was nowhere to sit so we walked over to a set of bleachers and had out snack there. Then we returned to the rig and enjoyed cheese and crackers for dinner.
17 Mar 2019 (Sun) – We took Bonnie for her long walk with the 30’ leash. It gives her a chance to wander more freely but still be under control. After her walk, we went to the registration desk and picked up a new name tag for me. Then we went to volunteer desk and signed up to drive golf carts on Tuesday. We wanted to do more but after we selected the seminars and events we want to attend, that day and time was the only slot available. We’ll keep checking back to see if any other volunteer opportunities open up.
Next was a stroll up and down the ROW. This is a section with tables set up for each chapter and BOF (Birds of a Feather). We signed up for the Elks BOF and asked for information about other groups. Then we walked to the back of the building where venders had tables displaying their products. Most of it was RV related but there were a few that managed to slip in. There was the ever present jewelry table and a guy who was selling something that looked like a TENS machine but his sign claimed it wasn’t. That stupid My Pillow was also there (we bought it a few years back and it never did what they claim – AND it was expensive!). It is always fun to look at the latest gadgets. I bought a book by Kaye Peterson, the woman (and her husband) who originally started Escapees in 1978. The book is called “Beating the Odds.” Their children and grandchildren continue to run the organization today.
After exploring everything inside the huge registration building, we wandered outside and poked around in RVs that are parked in a display area. They are all used RVs for sale. There were so many different kinds of RVs on display – motor homes, travel trailers, fifth wheels, and Class Cs. It was fun looking over all the different floor plans and imagining how we would change the layout.
At 3:30 p.m. the opening ceremony began. We heard about how Escapees started and the services it provides now. The grandchildren of the Peterson’s, Travis & Melanie Carr, both spoke about a new branch of Escapees that they started – the Xscapers. This is a group of younger folks who work on the road, home schooling their children while exploring the U.S.A.
Following the opening ceremony, everyone filed out and got an ice cream pop. Then the First Timers gathered in the park. The First Timers are those people (like us) who are attending an Escapade for the first time regardless of how long they have been members of Escapees. We joined six years ago when we hit the road because we needed a mail forwarding service. We have slowly been drawn in to explore many of their other club benefits and are now devoted members who believe strongly in this group.
16 Mar 2019 (Sat) – Today we went to the laundromat. After the clothes were tucked in the washer, we drove to Wendy’s and had lunch. We returned, put the clothes in the dryer, then went to a lot where pre-fab homes were on display. COVCO had some interesting layouts but they were built cheaply. We liked the design but not the actual homes.
After collecting our clothes, we drove to Camping World and asked for another exchange for the DISH antenna. We had also brought the receiver with us and a tech was able to test them both. They worked fine. In that case, the tech said the problem had to be with the coaxial cable. If the receiver works fine, and the dish works fine, then the problem has to be in the connection between the two. We picked up a new coaxial cable.
When we returned home, Paul hooked up everything. The DISH appears to be working fine now. We took Bonnie on a long walk around the campground. They have a 1-1/2 mile fitness trail where there are pieces of equipment to do exercise on along the trail.
There is a horse school in the fairground that puts on shows on Friday and Saturday. We’ve been watching (at a distance) the horses trotting around the corrals. There are also three race courses nearby. The sound of revving car engines filled the air all day long yesterday and today.
When we pulled into the campground yesterday, there was a strong wind blowing. All the volunteers on the parking detail were bundled in winter coats. The wind was blowing today as well but not as strong or as cold.
15 Mar 2019 (Fri) – We packed up and left the Diamond J RV Park at 8:30 a.m. We wanted to get into the Pima County Fairgrounds early. The Escapees Escapade opened today for early arrivals (the rally actually starts on Sunday) and crews were parking RVs from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. It was only 27 miles to the campground (still in Tucson); less than an hour’s drive.
Like all fairgrounds, the campground is very large. They can fit over 400 RVs. There are a mix of amenities available. Some people have full hooks, some (like us) only have electric and water, and some are boondocking. Those guys have solar panels set out around their rigs.
We checked in at the registration desk and got name tags and a goodie bag. Our tags show that we are First Timers – meaning that this is the first Escapees Escapade we have ever attended. Although we have been members for six years (primarily for their mail forwarding service), we have not joined in on any musters. We have stayed at some of the Escapees campgrounds. Last year we stayed at their Livingston campground and learned about their CARE program for full-time RVers. We have also attended two HOPs (destination caravans) with Escapees – the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque and the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena.
We are parked out in an open grass field. The fairgrounds have run out hoses and electric lines for the folks parked in this area. There are several large buildings scattered around the grounds and they have a dog park for Bonnie to play in. Yay!
Paul couldn’t get the DISH antenna working so we packed it up (after a long call with the DISH service agent) and brought it back to Camping World. We only bought the thing 17 days ago. The sales associate exchanged another one for the nonfunctional dish.
We stopped at Fry’s to pick up fried chicken for dinner. We then stopped at WalMart to see if they had a 11-1/2 x 14-1/2 manila envelope to put out photograph submission in for the contest. We are not having any luck finding a large enough envelope. Office Depot had a pack of 100 but we did not need 100 envelopes! Oh, well. We’ll keep looking.
Frustratingly, the new DISH antenna did not work. It was doing the same thing the last dish was doing. Aaarrrrrgggghhhhh!
14 Mar 2019 (Thu) – We drove to Mt. Lemmon Scenic Byway this morning. The road was open. What a fantastic drive! We climbed up over 8,000 feet. As we ascended, we passed through four life zones and the geography changed. We went from cacti, to pine trees, to oak trees, to aspens. As we passed 6,000 feet, we started to see snow and as we climbed higher the snow got thicker. There were several pullouts and overlooks with the most incredible vistas. It seemed like you could see forever. There was the huge basin and several mountain ranges in the distance. We stopped at a couple of places and hiked out to look at mountain streams and hoodoos (tall columns of rock piles).
When we got to Summerhaven, we stopped in at the General Store and bought a Christmas decoration and post cards for the grandsons. Then we went to the Sawmill Inn for lunch. I ordered a bowl of chili and Paul had a ham and cheese sandwich. My chili was too spicy. I wound up sending it back and getting a ham and cheese sandwich.
After we got back down the mountain, we stopped at Hobby Lobby. Paul will be submitting a picture for the photo contest that Escapees is having. We start the Escapees Escapade tomorrow and they will have the photo contest on Saturday and Sunday. We had to have our picture enlarged to 8 X 10 (we blew up six pictures because we couldn’t decide on “the one”). We bought an 11 X 14 black frame for the picture. After seeing how each pictures looked in the frame, Paul selected the one he will be submitting. He sent the picture digitally to Escapees as well.
13 Mar 2019 (Wed) – We drove into town to the Mission San Xavier del Bac. It was a very old church built by Spanish missionaries in the late 1600s. It was a large complex and beautifully preserved. There was also a small hillock with a burial site on it with a sign saying there have been visions of the Mother Mary. Across the square from the mission were a few shops selling Native American crafts. We wandered through a store. Their wares were mostly jewelry and baskets.
We then drove to the St. Augustine Cathedral. It was a very large church with a very long row of benches. We wandered around and took some pictures then left.
We stopped at PetSmart and picked up some pet food and stopped at IHOP for lunch. Then we decided to take the Mt. Lemmon Scenic Byway into the Santa Catalina Mountains. It was a long ride across town and when we arrived there were sheriff’s deputies stationed at the entrance to the byway. They had the road blocked off and were turning everyone around. The town at the top of the mountain, Summerhaven, had been hit with the storm that passed through. They had snow and high winds. The roads were impassable. So we turned around and returned to the campground.
12 Mar 2019 (Tue) – It rained on and off all night. I did not sleep very well and wound up getting up at 6 a.m. Paul is usually the one who gets up at six, makes the coffee, feeds the animals, and takes the dog for a walk. I made the coffee and fed the animals but let Paul get up later and walk Bonnie. It stopped raining long enough for them to go out and back.
I felt logey and finally crawled back into bed at 8:30 a.m. and slept until 10:30 a.m. I felt much better when I got up. But that probably means my sleep will be messed up tonight. Ugh. We went into Tucson at 11:30 a.m. Stopped at Los Nopales for lunch. It was very good Mexican food. We even got a quart of the chicken and rice soup to take home for dinner.
After lunch, we drove to The Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures. It was basically a museum of doll houses filled with miniature stuff – furniture, dolls, paraphernalia. It was interesting but too much of a good thing.
On the way back to the campground, we stopped at Fry’s and picked up groceries. After the food was all put away, we sat down and enjoyed our soup. The rain continued to fall on and off all day and night.
11 Mar 2019 (Mon) – We waited until 8:30 a.m. this morning before starting to pack up. We had to get through to a campground to see if we could get a site. The Asian woman on the phone was difficult to understand. We managed to get through the fog and found they did have a site available. So we packed up and left Why at 10:15 a.m. The drive was almost all through the Tonoho ‘Oodham nation reservation. There were many run down and dilapidated homes along the way. It was kind of sad.
We finally arrived at Justin’s Diamond J RV Park in Tucson at 1 p.m. The park has 130 sites. We got one with full hookups. The place is supposed to have Wifi but I can’t get it to work. Have to stay with our slooooow hookup. It’s so aggravating.
After set up, we drove into town. We got propane and then stopped in a steakhouse for an early dinner. It was a very eclectic place but the food was good. We both had a ribeye steak with baked potato and a salad. Accompanied, of course, by margaritas! We returned to the campground and took Bonnie for a long walk. I also called Kitt Peak Observatory and made reservations for a Dark Night program on April 1st. They have a 4-hour program that starts with a light supper then has a scientist relate stories of space and planets. It will be fun.
10 Mar 2019 (Sun) – We took a long walk out into the desert this morning, looking for the herd of donkeys. They were no where to be found. I had cut up an apple to give them but wound up bringing the bag back to the trailer with us.
At 1:30 p.m. we walked over to the casino and had a hot dog for lunch. Then we wandered from the convenience store into the casino and played the slots. I put in $20 and walked away with $0.25. Paul put in $40 and walked away with $119.50.
At 4 p.m. we took another long walk into the desert looking for the donkeys. After a good distance into the park, we heard a donkey bray off to the right. So we altered course and cut over to where we thought the donkeys might be. Although we only heard one donkey occasionally honk, we never found it. I finally opened the baggie and spread the apple slices around on the rocks hoping they would find them later. As we got back to the gate, there was the herd grazing on the grass right outside the campground. We went back into the RV, cut up more apples, then hurried outside to the fence. The donkeys were already moving on. We tried calling but they ignored us so we heaved the slices over the fence, trying to get the apples close to the donkeys. They ignored the apples, too. Ungrateful buggers!
9 Mar 2019 (Sat) – We took Bonnie for a walk in the area behind the campground. There is a fence all around the campground and we were wondering if it was designed to keep something in or out. We had to pass through a locked gate. As we walked along the trail, we suddenly heard braying. Following the sound, we came upon a herd (pack?) of burros. There were about 20 of them. Beautiful animals going from light brown to a deep chocolate color. Two had the prettiest white face while all the others had a white muzzle. They all froze and stared at us as one. It was a great moment. We took pictures but when we tried to move closer, they moved away. Best not to get too close to a wild animal.
We drove to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument after dropping Bonnie off back at the trailer. When we got there, we drove along the 21-mile Ajo Mountain Loop. About one-half of the way around the loop on a rough, unimproved road, we arrived at the Arch Canyon Trail. It was a 1-1/2-mile round-trip hike. It was a fairly easy hike, except for the last bit of it. That got narrow and steep with lots of loose rock. There was a crew of volunteers doing some trail maintenance. The flowers were in full bloom everywhere. The desert is alive with growth!
After we came down from the trail, we drove the rest of the loop back to the main road. It was so interesting looking at all the cacti. It seems like so many of them are unique with different shapes. We finally got back to the campground around 3:30 p.m.
As I was sitting at the desk working on the computer, Paul pointed out that the mule pack was walking by. I looked out the window to watch them stroll by on the other side of the campground fence. At sunset, we hiked the trail outside the campground and found the burro pack walking back from wherever they went today. We took some pictures and threw some carrots over to them. They seemed to enjoy the treat.
8 Mar 2019 (Fri) – The day started out pretty cool. It’s been so nice the last few days with temps in the high 70s. There is a low that came in from California. The sky was cloudy for most of the day but cleared up by dinner time.
We packed up and left Gila Bend at 9:20 a.m. The weather was good (but cool) and the drive was easy. We arrived at Why an hour and a half later. We are staying in the back of the Desert Diamond Casino in Hickiwan Trails RV Park. A young woman (she looked Indian) greeted us when we came in and took Paul for a ride around the campground to look at the open campsites. They only accept cash or checks so I wrote a check. The cost is only $19 a night. We have full hookups, but not much else. There is no wifi and the casino is really tiny with no restaurant in it. It sure isn’t like Foxwoods or Las Vegas!
After set up, we drove into Why for lunch. Granny’s Kitchen was rated #1 of 1 restaurants in town. It was with a little trepidation that we went in the door. After all, it was the only choice and it would be whatever it would be because it was the only restaurant in town. The food was actually very good. There was one waitress working several tables in the small café. A steady stream of diners kept coming and going. Nobody lingered over their meal. They came. They ate. They left.
Following lunch, we drove down Route 83 to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. We had to pass through an immigration check point inspecting all the vehicles coming into the U.S. There was also a very large border patrol station on the side of the road just before the entrance to the park. The organ pipe cactus is rare in the U.S. It is very prolific in Mexico but doesn’t like the cold so hardly grows past the border. It looks like a collection of long arms growing upward, kind of like the pipes on an organ. We stopped at the visitor’s center and watched an introductory video about the park. Then we took part of a scenic drive around the park. There were so may saguaro cacti that it was like being in a forest of cactus. The flora and fauna in this area are lush and plentiful.
We returned to the campground and had dinner. We took Bonnie for a walk around the campground as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon and a sliver of moon appeared high in the sky. We could hear wild burros braying in the distance.
7 Mar 2019 (Thu) – We didn’t go anywhere today. Bonnie got extra walks around the base. I worked on the Nomads muster and Caravan documents.
We sat outside after dark last night looking up at the night sky. There’s no big town around so we thought the night sky would look good. Unfortunately, there are a lot of lights around the campground. It was also very windy yesterday making the skyline hazy with dust. You couldn’t see any stars on the horizon at all. The sky was inky black but there just weren’t many stars to see. It was disappointing.
The day started out cloudy. Unlike yesterday where the sky was so clear and blue and cloudless. The clouds mostly cleared away.
6 Mar 2019 (Wed) – We drove out to Painted Rock Petroglyphs today. There is a pile of rocks sitting in the middle of the desert with a bunch of painted rocks. The paintings date from the 1700s to the early 1900s. We hiked around the rock mound, looking at the symbols on the rocks. We then drove into Gila Bend for lunch and ate at Sofia’s Mexican Restaurant; rated number 2 out of 10 by Trip Advisor. The service was on the slow side but everything appeared to be cooked fresh. I had a burrito and Paul had a combo dish of tacos and tamale. The food was excellent.
We left the restaurant and drove out to Old Highway 80. Several miles down the road were the Gillespie Dam and Bridge. The bridge was built in 1927 as a federal aid project and was part of the historic Ocean-to-Ocean Highway. The Gillespie Dam was built in 1921 to supply water to a ranch. It was the largest privately financed concrete irrigation diversion dam in Arizona at the time. The dam was breeched in 1993 and it no longer holds back the water.
5 Mar 2019 (Tue) – We drove south to the town of Ajo. We stopped in the Ajo Visitor’s Center and got some information about the area. You know you’re in trouble when you ask the clerk to recommend a good place for lunch and the answer is “Ummmm.”
We walked around the town square. It used to be a train depot – the last stop in the U.S. It was a very nice area. There were many small shops in the square. We had lunch at a local restaurant, which we thought was terrible. Service was slow and the food was bad. Afterward, we wandered into the Immaculate Concepcion Catholic Church and admired the interior. An older woman inside the church was very chatty until we confessed we were Methodists, then she turned away. Hmmm.
We got back in the truck and drove to the overlook for the Ajo Copper Mine. It was an open pit mine that operated from the late 1800s until 1985. Interestingly, the employees went on strike in 1983 and that killed the mine. We stopped in the Ajo Historical Museum on a hill overlooking the pit. The curator was full of information and eager to talk about it all. It was tough to get away from him, finally.
We stopped at a local market on the way home to pick up bottle water. I don’t trust the campground water.
4 Mar 2019 (Mon) – We pulled up stakes and left Tempe at 10 a.m. An hour and a half later, we pulled into Luke AFB Gila Bend Auxiliary Field FamCamp. It is in the middle of nowhere. Gila Bend is a pass-through place. Lots of businesses and homes are boarded up. Route 85 passes through the town on the way to Mexico. There’s not much to see.
There are 34 campsites here and the campground is mostly full. There is plenty of space between sites. Each site has a concrete patio and a picnic table. We have full hook-ups. There is a sign on the bulletin board that warns against drinking the water. Our campsite has a separate water spigot for drinking water that has been processed by reverse osmosis.
There is nothing on the base. There doesn’t appear to be any family housing. A trailer houses the mobile PX. One two story hotel sits across the street from the campground. From what we’ve been able to discern, this base manages the surrounding desert area as range management. We’ve seen four jets practicing touch and goes but there really aren’t any planes stationed here.
We went into town and had lunch at the Space Age Lounge. The outside is decorated with a picture of a flying saucer. Inside, there are paintings on the walls of spaceships and astronauts. The food was terrible. And the service was so very sloooooow. Cut ambiance; bad service and food.
3 Mar 2019 (Sun) – We met Les & Rae at their house, then got in his truck and drove to Biscuits for breakfast. They had some very interesting, old style items on the menu – SPAM and eggs, SOS, biscuits and gravy, etc. Everything was very good.
After breakfast, we drove back to their house and visited for a while. Then we said good bye. I gathered up the lima beans Les had made for me and we left. We stopped at Pet Smart on the way home to pick up pet food. I had forgotten to grab the shopping list before we left this morning, so we went back to the RV, put away the pet food, walked Bonnie, gave Sheba outside time, and then drove to Fry’s, where we picked up groceries.
2 Mar 2019 (Sat) – We did the laundry this morning. While the clothes washed, we walked over to Freezer’s Ice House for lunch (the laundromat was in a strip mall). I had a taco salad and Paul had a cheeseburger. The place was a huge billiards hall. They had 26 tables, and about ten dart machines. TVs were everywhere with all kinds of sports playing on the screens. The place had a very new feel to it. The waitress said the restaurant was just two years old.
After the laundry, we returned to the campground. Once the clothes were put away, we took Bonnie for a long walk around the block. We stumbled upon a liquor store and stopped in to see if they had 43. We have not been able to find it for weeks. We bought the last bottle, dust and all.
1 Mar 2019 (Fri) – We met Les & Rae at Hacker’s Grill in Apache Junction for lunch. The food was very good. The weather today was delightful – in the high 70s with clear blue skies and a balmy wind. Later, Bonnie and us went over Les & Rae’s house for dinner. I showed him how to cook a spaghetti squash. He made meatballs and sauce. We brought a loaf of garlic bread. It was fun.
28 Feb 2019 (Thu) – We met Jon & Nancy at Black Angus in Mesa for dinner. Jon had a coupon for a Dinner For 2 Night. It was one appetizer (to be shared), two entrees (one each), four sides, and one dessert. Everything was delicious and the company was enjoyable. After dinner, we stopped at Target to pick up a few items.
27 Feb 2019 (Wed) – We went to the Capitol Museum this morning. It had to be one of the smallest capitols we have seen yet (I think Illinois was smaller). There were four floors with two wings. The rooms were small. Displays in several rooms depicted the history of Phoenix and the Arizona territory as well as the story of statehood. President Taft turned down their application for statehood because they had a resolution that said any representative of the state could be recalled at any time for any reason. He also wanted New Mexico and Arizona to apply for joint statehood. Does that mean the two states were supposed to be one big state? The storyboards did not answer that question. At any rate, Arizona dropped the part about recalling representatives and was granted statehood along with New Mexico in 1912. The state later voted to put the amendment about recall back into their constitution.
There was also an exhibit on loan from the Smithsonian about the internment of Japanese-American citizens into relocation camps during WWII. They also had four rooms dedicated to the story of their lottery and the man who served as their spokesman. Every place has its unique stories. The world is such an interesting place.
Outside, in front of the capitol building, was a memorial circle with lots of stones and statues dedicated in memory of different groups. There were the usual war memorials to WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, and Enduring Freedom. There were also statues to pioneer women, to Jewish War Veterans, to K9 dogs, to firefighters and peace officers, etc. They had a piece of steel from the World Trade Center, stones from the Pentagon, and dirt from Shanksville, PA, in a 9-11 memorial.
Across the street from the capitol were four food trucks. We walked over and got some lunch at a Greek truck. It was expensive. Paul got a gyro and I got a shawarma with a side of falafel. The meal cost us $32. I always thought the food trucks were supposed to be good food at low prices. Boy, was I wrong.
When we got back to the truck, we noted a large building right next to the parking lot that had mining equipment displayed around the area. Signs in front of some of the equipment was for the Arizona Mining and Minerals Museum. That’s where we thought we were. We moved the truck to another parking lot (there was a two-hour limit on parking) and then walked to the museum. The building looked like it might have been an old temple. There was a plaque on the outer wall noting that the El Zaribah Shrine Temple had been placed on the historic register in 1989. Another plaque said the building was dedicated to the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum in 1992. Unfortunately, the building was closed and there was nothing that we could see through the windows. Guess the building went belly up and they just left their giant tire and mining gear sitting around the building.
Next stop was at Heritage Square. It is a large, multi-block area with historical buildings that have mostly been converted to shops and restaurants. One home was restored to its original form with furnishings from the period (but not the originals). The home was built in the late 1800s for a surgeon and his family. There were several owners over the years. The city took it over in 1980 when 19 people were still living in the house. The chirpy little college-aged docent didn’t know what happened to them.
At 5:30 p.m., we went into the Elks Lodge for dinner and their Queen of Hearts drawing. The place was pretty crowded. There was a “real” German lady cooking dinner tonight (that’s how the waitress described the cook). We had cabbage rolls with roasted potatoes and a salad of cucumbers with tomatoes drenched in a dill cream sauce. It was all very good.
26 Feb 2019 (Tue) – I am feeling better today. Not fully recovered, but better. Jon came over to get an update on the stick we gave him. Apparently, when I copied the files, I copied them from a file on the desktop to another file on the desktop and not to the stick. Ugh. I was sick! At any rate, I think we got it right this time.
The DISH satellite has not been working right. We spent over an hour on the phone with the tech rep who finally advised us to bring the satellite to a shop for repair. So we contacted a place and then brought the satellite and receiver there at 11:30. The tech found that the signal is intermittent and offered to sell us a new satellite. It was, however, on a truck that was out in the field and we would have to come back tomorrow to get it. It sold for $349; with tax, it would cost us $370.
We left the place and drove to Camping World to price DISH satellites. We found what we wanted for $249. We saved over $100 by buying that model. It isn’t the latest and the greatest but meets our needs just fine.
We then went to La Mesa RV looking for a vent cover. Neither Camping World nor La Mesa had the part. Looks like we’ll have to contact the manufacturer. We then stopped at Culver’s for lunch. It advertised butterburgers, which turned out to be a bun spread with a little butter and grilled toasty. It was ok.
We went over to Les & Rae’s at 4:30. Les reheated the dinner we missed on Sunday. It was every bit as good when he served it then. Afterward, we sat and chatted while Bonnie demanded attention. They really love that dog. And Bonnie enjoys the visits. She doesn’t like their yard, though. It’s entirely covered in stone, which hurts her paws to walk on. We made a date for lunch on Friday.
Les & Rae had a 22’ saguaro cactus in their front yard. They estimated it to be around 150 years old. With all the rain that Arizona has had, the roots got saturated and the cactus fell over. Les had to call a company to remove it. They estimated it weighed 3,300 lbs. When they first cut into the tree, Les said water shot out like a water hose full on. The saguaro cactus is protected in Arizona. It only grows in this state and at very specific elevations. If you have one in your yard, you better have purchased it from an approved florist and have a registration number to show for it. In fact, the rocks in the desert are also protected. You are not allowed to take any rocks or stones. You can be fined and arrested!
25 Feb 2019 (Mon) – I was still not feeling well enough to go anywhere today. Paul went out by himself and did the laundry, picked up groceries, bought some items for the truck, and mailed off our tax return to the accountant. What a dolly!
24 Feb 2019 (Sun) – I now have a full-blown viral infection. My sinuses are full, my tonsils are swollen, and I feel crappy. I feel so bad for Les. He is having a dinner for friends today. We were going to help him with the cooking and set up for 12 people. I didn’t want to infect anyone, especially Rae, so we didn’t go to the dinner. Hope we can make it up to him after I’m feeling better. I just hope I didn’t already infect them.
Paul brought a new stick to Jon & Nancy. Jon has copies of the travel guide on a stick but he forgot the page numbers. Paul left the book and stick with Jon to review again. He also picked up some propane while in Mesa.
23 Feb 2019 (Sat) – We drove into Phoenix this morning intending to go to the capitol. It turns out there is a capitol museum to see but it is only open Monday through Friday. So we went to the Heard Museum. It is a museum that exhibits artifacts and stories about the American Indians of the Southwest. There were clothing, lots of pottery, and housing on display. I learned some very interesting facts.
After the museum, we wanted to go to Heritage Square. When we got there, the place was alive with people as there was some kind of festival taking place. Paul did not want to deal with the crowds so we passed it up. Sometimes that big ass truck can be a detriment.
Frustrated, we just gave up on going anywhere else. We stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant and at Ace Hardware to pick up a few things.
I started coughing and sneezing today. I have had a scratchy throat in the morning when I’ve woken. I had hoped that would be all but I guess the virus was just incubating and is now coming out. Damn.
22 Feb 2019 (Fri) – Paul and I went to the aquarium this morning. It was not the one Paul wanted to go to. There are billboards in the area advertising a monster fish at the aquarium. It turns out to be in Scottsdale. Maybe we’ll go sometime next week. This one was small and located in a mall. It was very much oriented to young children and emphasized the need to save the earth and seas.
After the aquarium, we wandered around the mall, stopping for lunch at Johnny Rockets. I bought two blouses and we examined lounge chairs. It rained all day and we were thankful to be indoors.
Les & Rae met us at the Lodge tonight for dinner. There is something so sad about watching a person afflicted with Alzheimers. Facing the wrong way when talking to someone, putting phantom food in their mouth, speaking gibberish, getting angry with loved ones when they try to help. It must be so frustrating. The future looks very bleak for them.
21 Feb 2019 (Thu) – We went over Les & Rae’s at 8:45 a.m. Les and Paul took off for the day while I stayed with Rae. The guys first stopped at the VA so Les could keep an appointment, then they met a friend of Les’ at Hackers, a local restaurant. After that, they rode around the area for a bit before returning at 3 p.m. It was raining so they couldn’t take the mustang out (it doesn’t handle well in wet weather). They had to settle for a drive in Les’ truck. In the meantime, Rae’s aide arrived and spent the day with us. She helped Rae do some exercises, made us lunch, and worked around the house before leaving. I spent the majority of the day watching TV.
After the guys got back we visited for a bit then Les made dinner. We had Caesar salad with chicken.
20 Feb 2019 (Wed) – Same today as yesterday. We spent the day in the campground then drove to Les & Rae’s for dinner. Traffic was awful. Bonnie came with us. Les reheated leftovers and we visited for a while after dinner. Les bought a mustang last year and he took Paul out for a ride. When they got back, Les showed me all the bling on his car. It is quite the machine.
19 Feb 2019 (Tue) – We spent the day around the camper this morning. At 3 p.m. we drove to Les & Rae’s. The traffic was horrendous. I guess it wasn’t bad yesterday because of the holiday. It took us almost an hour to drive 17 miles. Les made shepherd’s pie (one of my favorite meals). After dinner, we visited for a couple of hours. We brought Bonnie with us. They seem to enjoy her company as well.
18 Feb 2019 (Mon) – We drove about 15 miles northeast from Mesa to Gilbert today. We are camped in the Elks Lodge in Tempe. We have been here twice before. We got the last space. Other RVs came and went during the day but all got turned away. It pays to get to the campground early.
After set up, we went shopping at Fry’s for groceries. We also stopped at Torres Mexican Restaurant for lunch. They had a special: 5 tacos for $6. The tacos were very oily. It was not a good stop.
When we returned to the campground, we unpacked the groceries, fed the animals, and then drove to Les & Rae’s. We met them on the Alaska caravan and have visited with them a couple of times whenever we’ve come through the area. We went out to dinner at their favorite sports bar.
17 Feb 2019 (Sun)
– We walked over to Jon and Nancy’s motor home and worked on the caravan details for most of the morning. Paul was feeling a lot better today. We spent the rest of the day getting ready to move tomorrow.
16 Feb 2019 (Sat) – Paul was not feeling well today so we stayed home all day. He started sniffling and sneezing yesterday and by last night, he was feeling achy and fatigued. Today he spent a good deal of the day in bed. I walked the dog and worked on caravan “stuff.”
15 Feb 2019 (Fri) – We picked up the laptop from Best Buy yesterday. We brought it back to see if the tech could clear up the problem with the computer not uploading pictures from my cell phone. Apparently, Microsoft 10 and iTunes don’t get along and you need iTunes to upload pictures from an iPhone. Ahhhh, technology.
We have been spending the last few days getting to know Jon and Nancy and reviewing the details of our caravan. Jon and I have been coordinating with campgrounds and various venues to lock in the final arrangements. It’s all starting to get exciting now. There are less than three months to go.
11 Feb 2019 (Mon) – We packed up and left Picacho Peak State Park (we will have to come back here again) at 10:30 a.m. It was a little over two hours to Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix. We are staying at a Thousand Trails campground – Mesa Spirit RV Resort. We came here to meet with Jon & Nancy, the couple who will be taking the Utah’s Mighty 5 Caravan on its adventure in May and June. They will be our tailgunners.
When we arrived, the office checked us in and assigned us to site B-90. A member of the camp-ground led us to the spot and helped Paul back into a very narrow spot. Unfortunately, there was a post right next to our site that would have prevented our slide out from fully extending. The parker took Paul back to the office in his golf cart while I stayed at the trailer chatting with Jon & Nancy. Paul returned and we drove all the way over to the other side of the campground to site V-128 (there are 1,800 sites in the campground comprised of park models, mobiles homes, and RVs). This site was wider and after a great deal of maneuvering, Paul got the RV parked into our assigned space. We have full hook-ups with Wifi and cable TV. The campground has 9 dog parks (some fenced, some not), 5 pools, and 3 hot tubs. There are courts for pickle ball and bocci ball and a mini golf course. Flyers posted around the campground announce various activities and groups.
Once hooked up, we took Bonnie for a walk and promptly got lost. Most of the roads do not go through and we repeatedly found ourselves at dead ends and had to reverse our course. Finally, we got back to the camper and dropped Bonnie off then drove all the way across the campground (we couldn’t be further apart if we tried) to Jon & Nancy’s RV. We visited for a bit then drove to Fry’s to pick up some groceries. When we returned, we grilled steaks at Jon & Nancy’s. We spent the evening getting to know one another. Tomorrow, the work begins.
10 Feb 2019 (Sun) – We packed up and left Willcox at 10:45. The sky was overcast and we had a little rain during our three hour drive to Picacho Peak State Park. The park is right off I-10. The campground sits right at the base of the Picacho Mountain. There are hiking trails that climb up the mountain and offer spectacular vistas of the surrounding area. We had to stop and fill up the fresh water tank before we pulled into our site. We have 50 amp electrical hook-up. We’re not going to bother to dump since we’re only here for one night. Paul ran out and got some firewood and we enjoyed a campfire tonight. The sky was beautiful. I-10 stayed pretty with traffic all night long but with a mountain between the highway and the campground, we could barely hear the noise of passing trucks and cars.
9 Feb 2019 (Sat) – We drove an hour to the Chiricahua National Monument. We stopped in the visitor center to pick up a trail map then drove to Echo Canyon where we hiked the Grottoes Trail. It was one mile round trip. The Chiricahua named the area the “land of standing rocks.” Erosion over millions of years has left rocks and boulders and columns all around the area. It is a fantasy world of incredible shapes and sizes. The scenery was so delightful and we really enjoyed the hike.
Then we drove down the road to the high point on the road, called Masai Point. The wind was blowing fiercely and it was on the cool side. We took a few pictures then drove to Fort Bowie, a few miles down the road from the Chiricahua National Monument. We had been here a few years ago. The drive off the main road coming from the monument was over a graded dirt road for eight miles. When we got to the trailhead, it was a 3-1/2 mile hike round trip to the ruins of the old fort. We had not hiked that trail last time so we decided to do it this time. The trail wound past several historical areas as it led up to the fort located in Apache Pass. There was a marker for where a station had been located for the Butterfield Stage Coach. Another marker recounted a massacre of a wagon train. An old cemetery sat in the desert surrounded by a wooden fence. Inside were about 15 markers for civilians buried there (all the military personnel had been removed years ago and interred in the national cemetery in El Paso). There were three apache children buried in the cemetery. One of the graves was for the two year old son of Geronimo.
At the pass, we came to the ruins of the fort. There wasn’t much left; just a few foundations and crumbling walls. A visitor center was located there and a map showed visitors how the fort had been laid out when it was in operation. After the end of the Indian Wars, life at the fort was kind of gentile. They had tennis courts, gas streetlamps, and a giant ice machine – all kind of odd things to see at a western frontier fort. After eight years, the fort was abandoned and left to the elements.
The walk back was along a ridge line that provided a phenomenal view of the surrounding mountains. The winds picked up and we got some rain sprinkles occasionally. We got back to the truck a little after 4:00 p.m. We drove out of the park in the opposite direction. There was only a mile or so of rough dirt road then it was paved. A much better ride. It was a good day.
8 Feb 2019 (Fri) – We packed up and left Deming, NM, at 9:50 a.m. The drive was short and easy and we arrived at Willcox, AZ, at 1:00 p.m. We are staying at the Elks Lodge (this is our third time here). There are 28 sites aligned in three rows. Each campsite has hookups for two RVs, each RV facing opposite directions. The town is small. A nearby train crossing has a “no horn” sign.
We went into the lodge at 5:00 p.m. They have dinner every Friday night. Today’s menu offering was meatloaf. We sat at the bar until dinner was served at 6:00 p.m.
I am getting tired of slow Wifi that doesn’t let me upload any pictures. What good is a blog if you can’t post pictures of your adventures along with your story? Ever since the last treatment by Best Buy, my computer has been screwy. It won’t upload my pictures from my cell phone. The first big town we get to, I will bring my computer back to Best Buy to fix whatever the last techie broke.
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Corporate Lawyer Salt Lake City Utah
Salt Lake City was referred to as the “Center of Scenic America.” Since the early part of the century, when the “See America First” movement was founded in the city, community leaders had promoted it as a tourist destination. It was not hard to find a place to stay in Salt Lake City since motels lined Highways 89 and 91, which ran north and south along the Wasatch Front. Motels sprang up along Second West and State and Main Streets because they were the major arteries through the city. Highway 40 continued its way east at Twenty-first South Street, and some motels did cater to travelers along that route.
youtube
As Salt Lake City became a common tourist destination, the number of motels increased. In 1947 the Salt Lake City directory listed thirty-six hotels (some of them residential like the Belvedere) and sixty-two lodging houses, many of them small tourist homes akin to today’s bed-and-breakfasts. None of them used the label motel; nearly all were listed as hotels. A decade later, the 1957 directory listed lodging under two headings: hotels, and motels and auto courts. The number of hotels had risen from thirty-six to eighty-six, and the number of motels and auto courts nearly doubled to a total of 109. Of these nearly all chose the name motel or motor lodge, which implied a larger motel with a coffee shop. Later on the number of motels decreased and many motel owners put their motels up for sale. If you are considering selling your business in Salt Lake City or considering buying a business that is up for sale in Salt Lake City, speak to an expert Salt Lake City Corporate Lawyer. There are many pitfalls in buying and selling a business. To succeed in the sale or purchase, you need to avoid these pitfalls.
Selling the Business outside the Family
A business has been built over the years. The children have developed their own careers. The owner’s spouse has seen more than enough of this business and would like both of them to retire. This situation is not unusual; it is the norm. Of every one hundred family-owned businesses, by far the dominant form of business throughout the world, only a third are transferred to the next generation of the owner’s family. As most closely held businesses are family owned, this simple statistic reminds us that two-thirds of them change ownership through sales to outsiders, or through dissolution and sales of assets. These sales should be arranged to obtain as much after-tax money as possible for the owners with as little risk as possible.
youtube
The first critical question for a buyer is: “Why is this firm for sale?” The second is like unto it: “Who is selling?” The answers to those questions may significantly affect the value a buyer would have to pay, and the negotiating strategy most likely to be effective.
Company Estate Sales
In an estate sale, for example, when the owner/manager has died and no one from the family is taking over, trustees will liquidate the estate’s assets. In many cases, the trustees will not be industry-knowledgeable. That means they may be little help in providing useful information about industry trends, historical meanings of financial records, hidden assets, and so on. Due diligence will need to be more exhaustive, rely more on employees, and be more exposed to competitors. In other words, the risks will go up, and hence the value is likely to go down along with the price. It is also possible that the trustees will be willing to accept a lower price to have a clean, all-cash transaction that allows them to close the books on the estate and distribute the funds to the beneficiaries.
Conversely, some trustees or inheritors are emotionally wedded to their family’s firm, without having the business acumen to understand its value to the buyers—or the expertise to run it competently themselves. They may sell for less than it is really worth, or hold out for more than buyers will pay, eventually damaging the firm’s value that way as well. In both cases, a buyer faces the prospect of having to educate the seller, and that education is likely to have a price as well—if the buyer is even willing to supply it.
Business Retirement Sales
When the owner is retiring in good health, however, the circumstances change. He or she may be available to help with a transition, may even need the emotional progression associated with a gradual change in status. He is likely also to have valuable expertise about the inventory, other assets, employees, suppliers, and customers. If those values can be incorporated in the sale, new owners are likely to pay a higher price, because they would be receiving a more valuable, less risky package. Transition roles, staged payments, performance guarantees, expert consulting, training contracts, and other features may come into play as part of the transfer process. They are likely to affect both price and terms. They do provide many additional ways for the parties to transfer (or withhold) value.
youtube
Carefully consider what kind of buyer is the best fit for the business being sold and vice versa. Bad fits will cost both parties money, and often lead to “walk-aways” instead of successful deals. A well-prepared buyer has to know what she has to offer, and what she needs, or what it will cost to buy those additional resources. Then you can begin a useful search and head into negotiations with a workable plan.
Conversely, a smart seller has to target the sale for a market where several possible buyers exist, so some form of auction can be started and the business will be sold to the buyer willing to pay the most. When a sale is targeted for a market of one, the buyer has all the negotiating power. Worse, when the sale is targeted for a market with no likely buyers, not only will a sale not happen, but the value of the business will likely be damaged by a selling period with no takers, and the eventual sale price will be further reduced as perceptions of a damaged property accumulate.
In most markets, there are sources of capital available for a kind of intermediary financing. A third party could have been found to provide the cash the seller needed to exit the deal, in return for the repayment of that investment by the cash-strapped buyer. Neither party had the financial acumen or networks to find such an intermediary. Hardly anyone would think of buying a house this way. We almost always use mortgage financing to allow us to buy a much more valuable house than we could afford in an all-cash deal. The seller of the house gets cash, and the buyer pays down the mortgage over time. Without mortgages and professional real estate brokers, the housing market would be severely constrained. Similar facilities exist in business markets.
The Art of Know What You Are Getting
The first and foremost principle in buying any business is to understand what is really being bought. This includes both tangible and intangible assets. Besides the positive assets, the transaction should also address the existing liabilities that the buyer would have to assume and possible future ones inherent in the deal. It is important to value both assets and liabilities in terms of what it would cost the proposed buyer to replace them. In doing that, one must be careful not to use their book or historical cost accounting values—particularly for real estate—although the history of those book values may be very useful in discovering hidden assets. The firm’s specific assets should be examined and assessed, even if the firm will be valued as a going concern, to be sure these things are as they appear, or at least so the buyer does understand what they represent.
Structuring the Business Sale
One of the important things to consider when structuring the sale is the tax implications. Both the seller and the buyer will have certain tax implications arising from the transaction. An experienced Salt Lake City Utah corporate lawyer can help you structure the sale to deal with the tax implications.
youtube
Sellers usually try to structure sales to get the most money, as soon as possible, after taxes. This objective requires careful planning in organizing the business for tax purposes well before it becomes time to consider selling. There are two basic ways that a closely held firm can be structured for taxes. It can be operated as a regular C corporation, which pays taxes as a business before its shareholders pay again on any dividends they receive. Alternatively, the firm can be formed as a single-tax entity, such as a partnership, or Subchapter S corporation. More recently, owners have the additional option of using a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), in which all profits annually flow through to the owners, who then pay the taxes at their personal income tax rates.
At first glance, paying taxes once sure looks better than paying taxes twice. But one must look closely. When taxes are paid twice (regular or C corporation), all the wages and benefits paid to the owner/manager are tax-deductible (for the business)—including medical insurance and contributions to retirement plans. These benefits must also be made available to all employees, however, not just the controlling shareholder, to be deducted by the corporation. Furthermore, the IRS goes to great lengths, particularly with retirement plans, to make sure that they do not just benefit the highly paid workers in a firm, a group that most obviously includes the owner/ manager. Although they can be deducted from taxable income as business expenses, those employee benefits are still expenses, still costs to the business. Do they pay for themselves in reduced taxes and increased employee morale, productivity, and loyalty? That’s the trade-off.
Limited Partnerships
Another option to minimize taxes when transferring ownership is to use a limited partnership. This technique only works when the children do not want to run the business. If they are materially participating in the firm’s operations, the IRS will not recognize this form of transfer for its favorable tax treatment. The original owner/manager remains the general partner, still running the business. Children receive ownership positions, with a minority interest discount even when they have over 50% ownership. Once the ownership position is transferred, the entire business is sold, triggering capital gains treatment.
Good advice on tax strategies is always recommended. U.S. tax laws change frequently, and the Internal Revenue Code has become very complicated. After-tax wealth is one of the primary objectives of a sale; good advisors can be very valuable in helping owners reach that objective. Conversely, bad advice, or aggressiveness to the point of fraud, can be very expensive. Therefore, one should check with an expert on trusts for the latest rulings and corresponding IRS treatment before proceeding. Any lawyer can point to at least a dozen cases in which large sums of money — in taxes and legal and accounting fees — could have been saved if only question had been asked, a single phone call to an expert made. Speak to an experienced Salt Lake City Corporate Lawyer. The lawyer can help you structure the sale or purchase depending on whether you are buying or selling the business.
Whether you are the buyer or the seller of a business, you will need sound legal advice. As a seller you need to be aware of what you are selling and as a buyer you need to be aware of what you are getting in return for the money you are shelling out. There is also the tax implications to be considered. As a buyer, you must conduct proper due diligence before you sign the contract. The last thing you want is to be straddled with liabilities that have nothing to do with you. Speak to an experienced Salt Lake City Utah corporate attorney and get invaluable advice.
Free Consultation with a Corporation Attorney in Salt Lake City
When you need legal help with a company in Salt Lake City Utah, please call Ascent Law for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.
Ascent Law LLC
8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C
West Jordan, Utah
84088 United States
Telephone: (801) 676-5506
Ascent Law LLC
4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews
Recent Posts
How to Fix Real Estate Title Problems in Utah
Corporate Lawyer West Jordan Utah
How Long Does It Take To Get Divorced?
What Is A Trademark?
Slip and Fall Accidents
Divorce With a Child in Utah
Source: https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/corporate-lawyer-salt-lake-city-utah/
0 notes
Text
Corporate Lawyer Salt Lake City Utah
Salt Lake City was referred to as the “Center of Scenic America.” Since the early part of the century, when the “See America First” movement was founded in the city, community leaders had promoted it as a tourist destination. It was not hard to find a place to stay in Salt Lake City since motels lined Highways 89 and 91, which ran north and south along the Wasatch Front. Motels sprang up along Second West and State and Main Streets because they were the major arteries through the city. Highway 40 continued its way east at Twenty-first South Street, and some motels did cater to travelers along that route.
youtube
As Salt Lake City became a common tourist destination, the number of motels increased. In 1947 the Salt Lake City directory listed thirty-six hotels (some of them residential like the Belvedere) and sixty-two lodging houses, many of them small tourist homes akin to today’s bed-and-breakfasts. None of them used the label motel; nearly all were listed as hotels. A decade later, the 1957 directory listed lodging under two headings: hotels, and motels and auto courts. The number of hotels had risen from thirty-six to eighty-six, and the number of motels and auto courts nearly doubled to a total of 109. Of these nearly all chose the name motel or motor lodge, which implied a larger motel with a coffee shop. Later on the number of motels decreased and many motel owners put their motels up for sale. If you are considering selling your business in Salt Lake City or considering buying a business that is up for sale in Salt Lake City, speak to an expert Salt Lake City Corporate Lawyer. There are many pitfalls in buying and selling a business. To succeed in the sale or purchase, you need to avoid these pitfalls.
Selling the Business outside the Family
A business has been built over the years. The children have developed their own careers. The owner’s spouse has seen more than enough of this business and would like both of them to retire. This situation is not unusual; it is the norm. Of every one hundred family-owned businesses, by far the dominant form of business throughout the world, only a third are transferred to the next generation of the owner’s family. As most closely held businesses are family owned, this simple statistic reminds us that two-thirds of them change ownership through sales to outsiders, or through dissolution and sales of assets. These sales should be arranged to obtain as much after-tax money as possible for the owners with as little risk as possible.
youtube
The first critical question for a buyer is: “Why is this firm for sale?” The second is like unto it: “Who is selling?” The answers to those questions may significantly affect the value a buyer would have to pay, and the negotiating strategy most likely to be effective.
Company Estate Sales
In an estate sale, for example, when the owner/manager has died and no one from the family is taking over, trustees will liquidate the estate’s assets. In many cases, the trustees will not be industry-knowledgeable. That means they may be little help in providing useful information about industry trends, historical meanings of financial records, hidden assets, and so on. Due diligence will need to be more exhaustive, rely more on employees, and be more exposed to competitors. In other words, the risks will go up, and hence the value is likely to go down along with the price. It is also possible that the trustees will be willing to accept a lower price to have a clean, all-cash transaction that allows them to close the books on the estate and distribute the funds to the beneficiaries.
Conversely, some trustees or inheritors are emotionally wedded to their family’s firm, without having the business acumen to understand its value to the buyers—or the expertise to run it competently themselves. They may sell for less than it is really worth, or hold out for more than buyers will pay, eventually damaging the firm’s value that way as well. In both cases, a buyer faces the prospect of having to educate the seller, and that education is likely to have a price as well—if the buyer is even willing to supply it.
Business Retirement Sales
When the owner is retiring in good health, however, the circumstances change. He or she may be available to help with a transition, may even need the emotional progression associated with a gradual change in status. He is likely also to have valuable expertise about the inventory, other assets, employees, suppliers, and customers. If those values can be incorporated in the sale, new owners are likely to pay a higher price, because they would be receiving a more valuable, less risky package. Transition roles, staged payments, performance guarantees, expert consulting, training contracts, and other features may come into play as part of the transfer process. They are likely to affect both price and terms. They do provide many additional ways for the parties to transfer (or withhold) value.
youtube
Carefully consider what kind of buyer is the best fit for the business being sold and vice versa. Bad fits will cost both parties money, and often lead to “walk-aways” instead of successful deals. A well-prepared buyer has to know what she has to offer, and what she needs, or what it will cost to buy those additional resources. Then you can begin a useful search and head into negotiations with a workable plan.
Conversely, a smart seller has to target the sale for a market where several possible buyers exist, so some form of auction can be started and the business will be sold to the buyer willing to pay the most. When a sale is targeted for a market of one, the buyer has all the negotiating power. Worse, when the sale is targeted for a market with no likely buyers, not only will a sale not happen, but the value of the business will likely be damaged by a selling period with no takers, and the eventual sale price will be further reduced as perceptions of a damaged property accumulate.
In most markets, there are sources of capital available for a kind of intermediary financing. A third party could have been found to provide the cash the seller needed to exit the deal, in return for the repayment of that investment by the cash-strapped buyer. Neither party had the financial acumen or networks to find such an intermediary. Hardly anyone would think of buying a house this way. We almost always use mortgage financing to allow us to buy a much more valuable house than we could afford in an all-cash deal. The seller of the house gets cash, and the buyer pays down the mortgage over time. Without mortgages and professional real estate brokers, the housing market would be severely constrained. Similar facilities exist in business markets.
The Art of Know What You Are Getting
The first and foremost principle in buying any business is to understand what is really being bought. This includes both tangible and intangible assets. Besides the positive assets, the transaction should also address the existing liabilities that the buyer would have to assume and possible future ones inherent in the deal. It is important to value both assets and liabilities in terms of what it would cost the proposed buyer to replace them. In doing that, one must be careful not to use their book or historical cost accounting values—particularly for real estate—although the history of those book values may be very useful in discovering hidden assets. The firm’s specific assets should be examined and assessed, even if the firm will be valued as a going concern, to be sure these things are as they appear, or at least so the buyer does understand what they represent.
Structuring the Business Sale
One of the important things to consider when structuring the sale is the tax implications. Both the seller and the buyer will have certain tax implications arising from the transaction. An experienced Salt Lake City Utah corporate lawyer can help you structure the sale to deal with the tax implications.
youtube
Sellers usually try to structure sales to get the most money, as soon as possible, after taxes. This objective requires careful planning in organizing the business for tax purposes well before it becomes time to consider selling. There are two basic ways that a closely held firm can be structured for taxes. It can be operated as a regular C corporation, which pays taxes as a business before its shareholders pay again on any dividends they receive. Alternatively, the firm can be formed as a single-tax entity, such as a partnership, or Subchapter S corporation. More recently, owners have the additional option of using a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), in which all profits annually flow through to the owners, who then pay the taxes at their personal income tax rates.
At first glance, paying taxes once sure looks better than paying taxes twice. But one must look closely. When taxes are paid twice (regular or C corporation), all the wages and benefits paid to the owner/manager are tax-deductible (for the business)—including medical insurance and contributions to retirement plans. These benefits must also be made available to all employees, however, not just the controlling shareholder, to be deducted by the corporation. Furthermore, the IRS goes to great lengths, particularly with retirement plans, to make sure that they do not just benefit the highly paid workers in a firm, a group that most obviously includes the owner/ manager. Although they can be deducted from taxable income as business expenses, those employee benefits are still expenses, still costs to the business. Do they pay for themselves in reduced taxes and increased employee morale, productivity, and loyalty? That’s the trade-off.
Limited Partnerships
Another option to minimize taxes when transferring ownership is to use a limited partnership. This technique only works when the children do not want to run the business. If they are materially participating in the firm’s operations, the IRS will not recognize this form of transfer for its favorable tax treatment. The original owner/manager remains the general partner, still running the business. Children receive ownership positions, with a minority interest discount even when they have over 50% ownership. Once the ownership position is transferred, the entire business is sold, triggering capital gains treatment.
Good advice on tax strategies is always recommended. U.S. tax laws change frequently, and the Internal Revenue Code has become very complicated. After-tax wealth is one of the primary objectives of a sale; good advisors can be very valuable in helping owners reach that objective. Conversely, bad advice, or aggressiveness to the point of fraud, can be very expensive. Therefore, one should check with an expert on trusts for the latest rulings and corresponding IRS treatment before proceeding. Any lawyer can point to at least a dozen cases in which large sums of money — in taxes and legal and accounting fees — could have been saved if only question had been asked, a single phone call to an expert made. Speak to an experienced Salt Lake City Corporate Lawyer. The lawyer can help you structure the sale or purchase depending on whether you are buying or selling the business.
Whether you are the buyer or the seller of a business, you will need sound legal advice. As a seller you need to be aware of what you are selling and as a buyer you need to be aware of what you are getting in return for the money you are shelling out. There is also the tax implications to be considered. As a buyer, you must conduct proper due diligence before you sign the contract. The last thing you want is to be straddled with liabilities that have nothing to do with you. Speak to an experienced Salt Lake City Utah corporate attorney and get invaluable advice.
Free Consultation with a Corporation Attorney in Salt Lake City
When you need legal help with a company in Salt Lake City Utah, please call Ascent Law for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.
Ascent Law LLC
8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C
West Jordan, Utah
84088 United States
Telephone: (801) 676-5506
Ascent Law LLC
4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews
Recent Posts
How to Fix Real Estate Title Problems in Utah
Corporate Lawyer West Jordan Utah
How Long Does It Take To Get Divorced?
What Is A Trademark?
Slip and Fall Accidents
Divorce With a Child in Utah
from Michael Anderson https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/corporate-lawyer-salt-lake-city-utah/
from Criminal Defense Lawyer West Jordan Utah https://criminaldefenselawyerwestjordanutah.wordpress.com/2019/07/07/corporate-lawyer-salt-lake-city-utah/
0 notes
Text
Corporate Lawyer Salt Lake City Utah
Salt Lake City was referred to as the “Center of Scenic America.” Since the early part of the century, when the “See America First” movement was founded in the city, community leaders had promoted it as a tourist destination. It was not hard to find a place to stay in Salt Lake City since motels lined Highways 89 and 91, which ran north and south along the Wasatch Front. Motels sprang up along Second West and State and Main Streets because they were the major arteries through the city. Highway 40 continued its way east at Twenty-first South Street, and some motels did cater to travelers along that route.
As Salt Lake City became a common tourist destination, the number of motels increased. In 1947 the Salt Lake City directory listed thirty-six hotels (some of them residential like the Belvedere) and sixty-two lodging houses, many of them small tourist homes akin to today’s bed-and-breakfasts. None of them used the label motel; nearly all were listed as hotels. A decade later, the 1957 directory listed lodging under two headings: hotels, and motels and auto courts. The number of hotels had risen from thirty-six to eighty-six, and the number of motels and auto courts nearly doubled to a total of 109. Of these nearly all chose the name motel or motor lodge, which implied a larger motel with a coffee shop. Later on the number of motels decreased and many motel owners put their motels up for sale. If you are considering selling your business in Salt Lake City or considering buying a business that is up for sale in Salt Lake City, speak to an expert Salt Lake City Corporate Lawyer. There are many pitfalls in buying and selling a business. To succeed in the sale or purchase, you need to avoid these pitfalls.
Selling the Business outside the Family
A business has been built over the years. The children have developed their own careers. The owner’s spouse has seen more than enough of this business and would like both of them to retire. This situation is not unusual; it is the norm. Of every one hundred family-owned businesses, by far the dominant form of business throughout the world, only a third are transferred to the next generation of the owner’s family. As most closely held businesses are family owned, this simple statistic reminds us that two-thirds of them change ownership through sales to outsiders, or through dissolution and sales of assets. These sales should be arranged to obtain as much after-tax money as possible for the owners with as little risk as possible.
The first critical question for a buyer is: “Why is this firm for sale?” The second is like unto it: “Who is selling?” The answers to those questions may significantly affect the value a buyer would have to pay, and the negotiating strategy most likely to be effective.
Company Estate Sales
In an estate sale, for example, when the owner/manager has died and no one from the family is taking over, trustees will liquidate the estate’s assets. In many cases, the trustees will not be industry-knowledgeable. That means they may be little help in providing useful information about industry trends, historical meanings of financial records, hidden assets, and so on. Due diligence will need to be more exhaustive, rely more on employees, and be more exposed to competitors. In other words, the risks will go up, and hence the value is likely to go down along with the price. It is also possible that the trustees will be willing to accept a lower price to have a clean, all-cash transaction that allows them to close the books on the estate and distribute the funds to the beneficiaries.
Conversely, some trustees or inheritors are emotionally wedded to their family’s firm, without having the business acumen to understand its value to the buyers—or the expertise to run it competently themselves. They may sell for less than it is really worth, or hold out for more than buyers will pay, eventually damaging the firm’s value that way as well. In both cases, a buyer faces the prospect of having to educate the seller, and that education is likely to have a price as well—if the buyer is even willing to supply it.
Business Retirement Sales
When the owner is retiring in good health, however, the circumstances change. He or she may be available to help with a transition, may even need the emotional progression associated with a gradual change in status. He is likely also to have valuable expertise about the inventory, other assets, employees, suppliers, and customers. If those values can be incorporated in the sale, new owners are likely to pay a higher price, because they would be receiving a more valuable, less risky package. Transition roles, staged payments, performance guarantees, expert consulting, training contracts, and other features may come into play as part of the transfer process. They are likely to affect both price and terms. They do provide many additional ways for the parties to transfer (or withhold) value.
Carefully consider what kind of buyer is the best fit for the business being sold and vice versa. Bad fits will cost both parties money, and often lead to “walk-aways” instead of successful deals. A well-prepared buyer has to know what she has to offer, and what she needs, or what it will cost to buy those additional resources. Then you can begin a useful search and head into negotiations with a workable plan.
Conversely, a smart seller has to target the sale for a market where several possible buyers exist, so some form of auction can be started and the business will be sold to the buyer willing to pay the most. When a sale is targeted for a market of one, the buyer has all the negotiating power. Worse, when the sale is targeted for a market with no likely buyers, not only will a sale not happen, but the value of the business will likely be damaged by a selling period with no takers, and the eventual sale price will be further reduced as perceptions of a damaged property accumulate.
In most markets, there are sources of capital available for a kind of intermediary financing. A third party could have been found to provide the cash the seller needed to exit the deal, in return for the repayment of that investment by the cash-strapped buyer. Neither party had the financial acumen or networks to find such an intermediary. Hardly anyone would think of buying a house this way. We almost always use mortgage financing to allow us to buy a much more valuable house than we could afford in an all-cash deal. The seller of the house gets cash, and the buyer pays down the mortgage over time. Without mortgages and professional real estate brokers, the housing market would be severely constrained. Similar facilities exist in business markets.
The Art of Know What You Are Getting
The first and foremost principle in buying any business is to understand what is really being bought. This includes both tangible and intangible assets. Besides the positive assets, the transaction should also address the existing liabilities that the buyer would have to assume and possible future ones inherent in the deal. It is important to value both assets and liabilities in terms of what it would cost the proposed buyer to replace them. In doing that, one must be careful not to use their book or historical cost accounting values—particularly for real estate—although the history of those book values may be very useful in discovering hidden assets. The firm’s specific assets should be examined and assessed, even if the firm will be valued as a going concern, to be sure these things are as they appear, or at least so the buyer does understand what they represent.
Structuring the Business Sale
One of the important things to consider when structuring the sale is the tax implications. Both the seller and the buyer will have certain tax implications arising from the transaction. An experienced Salt Lake City Utah corporate lawyer can help you structure the sale to deal with the tax implications.
Sellers usually try to structure sales to get the most money, as soon as possible, after taxes. This objective requires careful planning in organizing the business for tax purposes well before it becomes time to consider selling. There are two basic ways that a closely held firm can be structured for taxes. It can be operated as a regular C corporation, which pays taxes as a business before its shareholders pay again on any dividends they receive. Alternatively, the firm can be formed as a single-tax entity, such as a partnership, or Subchapter S corporation. More recently, owners have the additional option of using a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), in which all profits annually flow through to the owners, who then pay the taxes at their personal income tax rates.
At first glance, paying taxes once sure looks better than paying taxes twice. But one must look closely. When taxes are paid twice (regular or C corporation), all the wages and benefits paid to the owner/manager are tax-deductible (for the business)—including medical insurance and contributions to retirement plans. These benefits must also be made available to all employees, however, not just the controlling shareholder, to be deducted by the corporation. Furthermore, the IRS goes to great lengths, particularly with retirement plans, to make sure that they do not just benefit the highly paid workers in a firm, a group that most obviously includes the owner/ manager. Although they can be deducted from taxable income as business expenses, those employee benefits are still expenses, still costs to the business. Do they pay for themselves in reduced taxes and increased employee morale, productivity, and loyalty? That’s the trade-off.
Limited Partnerships
Another option to minimize taxes when transferring ownership is to use a limited partnership. This technique only works when the children do not want to run the business. If they are materially participating in the firm’s operations, the IRS will not recognize this form of transfer for its favorable tax treatment. The original owner/manager remains the general partner, still running the business. Children receive ownership positions, with a minority interest discount even when they have over 50% ownership. Once the ownership position is transferred, the entire business is sold, triggering capital gains treatment.
Good advice on tax strategies is always recommended. U.S. tax laws change frequently, and the Internal Revenue Code has become very complicated. After-tax wealth is one of the primary objectives of a sale; good advisors can be very valuable in helping owners reach that objective. Conversely, bad advice, or aggressiveness to the point of fraud, can be very expensive. Therefore, one should check with an expert on trusts for the latest rulings and corresponding IRS treatment before proceeding. Any lawyer can point to at least a dozen cases in which large sums of money — in taxes and legal and accounting fees — could have been saved if only question had been asked, a single phone call to an expert made. Speak to an experienced Salt Lake City Corporate Lawyer. The lawyer can help you structure the sale or purchase depending on whether you are buying or selling the business.
Whether you are the buyer or the seller of a business, you will need sound legal advice. As a seller you need to be aware of what you are selling and as a buyer you need to be aware of what you are getting in return for the money you are shelling out. There is also the tax implications to be considered. As a buyer, you must conduct proper due diligence before you sign the contract. The last thing you want is to be straddled with liabilities that have nothing to do with you. Speak to an experienced Salt Lake City Utah corporate attorney and get invaluable advice.
Free Consultation with a Corporation Attorney in Salt Lake City
When you need legal help with a company in Salt Lake City Utah, please call Ascent Law for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.
Ascent Law LLC
8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C
West Jordan, Utah
84088 United States
Telephone: (801) 676-5506
Ascent Law LLC
4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews
Recent Posts
How to Fix Real Estate Title Problems in Utah
Corporate Lawyer West Jordan Utah
How Long Does It Take To Get Divorced?
What Is A Trademark?
Slip and Fall Accidents
Divorce With a Child in Utah
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Corporate Lawyer Salt Lake City Utah
Salt Lake City was referred to as the “Center of Scenic America.” Since the early part of the century, when the “See America First” movement was founded in the city, community leaders had promoted it as a tourist destination. It was not hard to find a place to stay in Salt Lake City since motels lined Highways 89 and 91, which ran north and south along the Wasatch Front. Motels sprang up along Second West and State and Main Streets because they were the major arteries through the city. Highway 40 continued its way east at Twenty-first South Street, and some motels did cater to travelers along that route.
youtube
As Salt Lake City became a common tourist destination, the number of motels increased. In 1947 the Salt Lake City directory listed thirty-six hotels (some of them residential like the Belvedere) and sixty-two lodging houses, many of them small tourist homes akin to today’s bed-and-breakfasts. None of them used the label motel; nearly all were listed as hotels. A decade later, the 1957 directory listed lodging under two headings: hotels, and motels and auto courts. The number of hotels had risen from thirty-six to eighty-six, and the number of motels and auto courts nearly doubled to a total of 109. Of these nearly all chose the name motel or motor lodge, which implied a larger motel with a coffee shop. Later on the number of motels decreased and many motel owners put their motels up for sale. If you are considering selling your business in Salt Lake City or considering buying a business that is up for sale in Salt Lake City, speak to an expert Salt Lake City Corporate Lawyer. There are many pitfalls in buying and selling a business. To succeed in the sale or purchase, you need to avoid these pitfalls.
Selling the Business outside the Family
A business has been built over the years. The children have developed their own careers. The owner’s spouse has seen more than enough of this business and would like both of them to retire. This situation is not unusual; it is the norm. Of every one hundred family-owned businesses, by far the dominant form of business throughout the world, only a third are transferred to the next generation of the owner’s family. As most closely held businesses are family owned, this simple statistic reminds us that two-thirds of them change ownership through sales to outsiders, or through dissolution and sales of assets. These sales should be arranged to obtain as much after-tax money as possible for the owners with as little risk as possible.
youtube
The first critical question for a buyer is: “Why is this firm for sale?” The second is like unto it: “Who is selling?” The answers to those questions may significantly affect the value a buyer would have to pay, and the negotiating strategy most likely to be effective.
Company Estate Sales
In an estate sale, for example, when the owner/manager has died and no one from the family is taking over, trustees will liquidate the estate’s assets. In many cases, the trustees will not be industry-knowledgeable. That means they may be little help in providing useful information about industry trends, historical meanings of financial records, hidden assets, and so on. Due diligence will need to be more exhaustive, rely more on employees, and be more exposed to competitors. In other words, the risks will go up, and hence the value is likely to go down along with the price. It is also possible that the trustees will be willing to accept a lower price to have a clean, all-cash transaction that allows them to close the books on the estate and distribute the funds to the beneficiaries.
Conversely, some trustees or inheritors are emotionally wedded to their family’s firm, without having the business acumen to understand its value to the buyers—or the expertise to run it competently themselves. They may sell for less than it is really worth, or hold out for more than buyers will pay, eventually damaging the firm’s value that way as well. In both cases, a buyer faces the prospect of having to educate the seller, and that education is likely to have a price as well—if the buyer is even willing to supply it.
Business Retirement Sales
When the owner is retiring in good health, however, the circumstances change. He or she may be available to help with a transition, may even need the emotional progression associated with a gradual change in status. He is likely also to have valuable expertise about the inventory, other assets, employees, suppliers, and customers. If those values can be incorporated in the sale, new owners are likely to pay a higher price, because they would be receiving a more valuable, less risky package. Transition roles, staged payments, performance guarantees, expert consulting, training contracts, and other features may come into play as part of the transfer process. They are likely to affect both price and terms. They do provide many additional ways for the parties to transfer (or withhold) value.
youtube
Carefully consider what kind of buyer is the best fit for the business being sold and vice versa. Bad fits will cost both parties money, and often lead to “walk-aways” instead of successful deals. A well-prepared buyer has to know what she has to offer, and what she needs, or what it will cost to buy those additional resources. Then you can begin a useful search and head into negotiations with a workable plan.
Conversely, a smart seller has to target the sale for a market where several possible buyers exist, so some form of auction can be started and the business will be sold to the buyer willing to pay the most. When a sale is targeted for a market of one, the buyer has all the negotiating power. Worse, when the sale is targeted for a market with no likely buyers, not only will a sale not happen, but the value of the business will likely be damaged by a selling period with no takers, and the eventual sale price will be further reduced as perceptions of a damaged property accumulate.
In most markets, there are sources of capital available for a kind of intermediary financing. A third party could have been found to provide the cash the seller needed to exit the deal, in return for the repayment of that investment by the cash-strapped buyer. Neither party had the financial acumen or networks to find such an intermediary. Hardly anyone would think of buying a house this way. We almost always use mortgage financing to allow us to buy a much more valuable house than we could afford in an all-cash deal. The seller of the house gets cash, and the buyer pays down the mortgage over time. Without mortgages and professional real estate brokers, the housing market would be severely constrained. Similar facilities exist in business markets.
The Art of Know What You Are Getting
The first and foremost principle in buying any business is to understand what is really being bought. This includes both tangible and intangible assets. Besides the positive assets, the transaction should also address the existing liabilities that the buyer would have to assume and possible future ones inherent in the deal. It is important to value both assets and liabilities in terms of what it would cost the proposed buyer to replace them. In doing that, one must be careful not to use their book or historical cost accounting values—particularly for real estate—although the history of those book values may be very useful in discovering hidden assets. The firm’s specific assets should be examined and assessed, even if the firm will be valued as a going concern, to be sure these things are as they appear, or at least so the buyer does understand what they represent.
Structuring the Business Sale
One of the important things to consider when structuring the sale is the tax implications. Both the seller and the buyer will have certain tax implications arising from the transaction. An experienced Salt Lake City Utah corporate lawyer can help you structure the sale to deal with the tax implications.
youtube
Sellers usually try to structure sales to get the most money, as soon as possible, after taxes. This objective requires careful planning in organizing the business for tax purposes well before it becomes time to consider selling. There are two basic ways that a closely held firm can be structured for taxes. It can be operated as a regular C corporation, which pays taxes as a business before its shareholders pay again on any dividends they receive. Alternatively, the firm can be formed as a single-tax entity, such as a partnership, or Subchapter S corporation. More recently, owners have the additional option of using a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), in which all profits annually flow through to the owners, who then pay the taxes at their personal income tax rates.
At first glance, paying taxes once sure looks better than paying taxes twice. But one must look closely. When taxes are paid twice (regular or C corporation), all the wages and benefits paid to the owner/manager are tax-deductible (for the business)—including medical insurance and contributions to retirement plans. These benefits must also be made available to all employees, however, not just the controlling shareholder, to be deducted by the corporation. Furthermore, the IRS goes to great lengths, particularly with retirement plans, to make sure that they do not just benefit the highly paid workers in a firm, a group that most obviously includes the owner/ manager. Although they can be deducted from taxable income as business expenses, those employee benefits are still expenses, still costs to the business. Do they pay for themselves in reduced taxes and increased employee morale, productivity, and loyalty? That’s the trade-off.
Limited Partnerships
Another option to minimize taxes when transferring ownership is to use a limited partnership. This technique only works when the children do not want to run the business. If they are materially participating in the firm’s operations, the IRS will not recognize this form of transfer for its favorable tax treatment. The original owner/manager remains the general partner, still running the business. Children receive ownership positions, with a minority interest discount even when they have over 50% ownership. Once the ownership position is transferred, the entire business is sold, triggering capital gains treatment.
Good advice on tax strategies is always recommended. U.S. tax laws change frequently, and the Internal Revenue Code has become very complicated. After-tax wealth is one of the primary objectives of a sale; good advisors can be very valuable in helping owners reach that objective. Conversely, bad advice, or aggressiveness to the point of fraud, can be very expensive. Therefore, one should check with an expert on trusts for the latest rulings and corresponding IRS treatment before proceeding. Any lawyer can point to at least a dozen cases in which large sums of money — in taxes and legal and accounting fees — could have been saved if only question had been asked, a single phone call to an expert made. Speak to an experienced Salt Lake City Corporate Lawyer. The lawyer can help you structure the sale or purchase depending on whether you are buying or selling the business.
Whether you are the buyer or the seller of a business, you will need sound legal advice. As a seller you need to be aware of what you are selling and as a buyer you need to be aware of what you are getting in return for the money you are shelling out. There is also the tax implications to be considered. As a buyer, you must conduct proper due diligence before you sign the contract. The last thing you want is to be straddled with liabilities that have nothing to do with you. Speak to an experienced Salt Lake City Utah corporate attorney and get invaluable advice.
Free Consultation with a Corporation Attorney in Salt Lake City
When you need legal help with a company in Salt Lake City Utah, please call Ascent Law for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.
Ascent Law LLC
8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C
West Jordan, Utah
84088 United States
Telephone: (801) 676-5506
Ascent Law LLC
4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews
Recent Posts
How to Fix Real Estate Title Problems in Utah
Corporate Lawyer West Jordan Utah
How Long Does It Take To Get Divorced?
What Is A Trademark?
Slip and Fall Accidents
Divorce With a Child in Utah
Source: https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/corporate-lawyer-salt-lake-city-utah/
0 notes
Text
Corporate Lawyer Salt Lake City Utah
Salt Lake City was referred to as the “Center of Scenic America.” Since the early part of the century, when the “See America First” movement was founded in the city, community leaders had promoted it as a tourist destination. It was not hard to find a place to stay in Salt Lake City since motels lined Highways 89 and 91, which ran north and south along the Wasatch Front. Motels sprang up along Second West and State and Main Streets because they were the major arteries through the city. Highway 40 continued its way east at Twenty-first South Street, and some motels did cater to travelers along that route.
youtube
As Salt Lake City became a common tourist destination, the number of motels increased. In 1947 the Salt Lake City directory listed thirty-six hotels (some of them residential like the Belvedere) and sixty-two lodging houses, many of them small tourist homes akin to today’s bed-and-breakfasts. None of them used the label motel; nearly all were listed as hotels. A decade later, the 1957 directory listed lodging under two headings: hotels, and motels and auto courts. The number of hotels had risen from thirty-six to eighty-six, and the number of motels and auto courts nearly doubled to a total of 109. Of these nearly all chose the name motel or motor lodge, which implied a larger motel with a coffee shop. Later on the number of motels decreased and many motel owners put their motels up for sale. If you are considering selling your business in Salt Lake City or considering buying a business that is up for sale in Salt Lake City, speak to an expert Salt Lake City Corporate Lawyer. There are many pitfalls in buying and selling a business. To succeed in the sale or purchase, you need to avoid these pitfalls.
Selling the Business outside the Family
A business has been built over the years. The children have developed their own careers. The owner’s spouse has seen more than enough of this business and would like both of them to retire. This situation is not unusual; it is the norm. Of every one hundred family-owned businesses, by far the dominant form of business throughout the world, only a third are transferred to the next generation of the owner’s family. As most closely held businesses are family owned, this simple statistic reminds us that two-thirds of them change ownership through sales to outsiders, or through dissolution and sales of assets. These sales should be arranged to obtain as much after-tax money as possible for the owners with as little risk as possible.
youtube
The first critical question for a buyer is: “Why is this firm for sale?” The second is like unto it: “Who is selling?” The answers to those questions may significantly affect the value a buyer would have to pay, and the negotiating strategy most likely to be effective.
Company Estate Sales
In an estate sale, for example, when the owner/manager has died and no one from the family is taking over, trustees will liquidate the estate’s assets. In many cases, the trustees will not be industry-knowledgeable. That means they may be little help in providing useful information about industry trends, historical meanings of financial records, hidden assets, and so on. Due diligence will need to be more exhaustive, rely more on employees, and be more exposed to competitors. In other words, the risks will go up, and hence the value is likely to go down along with the price. It is also possible that the trustees will be willing to accept a lower price to have a clean, all-cash transaction that allows them to close the books on the estate and distribute the funds to the beneficiaries.
Conversely, some trustees or inheritors are emotionally wedded to their family’s firm, without having the business acumen to understand its value to the buyers—or the expertise to run it competently themselves. They may sell for less than it is really worth, or hold out for more than buyers will pay, eventually damaging the firm’s value that way as well. In both cases, a buyer faces the prospect of having to educate the seller, and that education is likely to have a price as well—if the buyer is even willing to supply it.
Business Retirement Sales
When the owner is retiring in good health, however, the circumstances change. He or she may be available to help with a transition, may even need the emotional progression associated with a gradual change in status. He is likely also to have valuable expertise about the inventory, other assets, employees, suppliers, and customers. If those values can be incorporated in the sale, new owners are likely to pay a higher price, because they would be receiving a more valuable, less risky package. Transition roles, staged payments, performance guarantees, expert consulting, training contracts, and other features may come into play as part of the transfer process. They are likely to affect both price and terms. They do provide many additional ways for the parties to transfer (or withhold) value.
youtube
Carefully consider what kind of buyer is the best fit for the business being sold and vice versa. Bad fits will cost both parties money, and often lead to “walk-aways” instead of successful deals. A well-prepared buyer has to know what she has to offer, and what she needs, or what it will cost to buy those additional resources. Then you can begin a useful search and head into negotiations with a workable plan.
Conversely, a smart seller has to target the sale for a market where several possible buyers exist, so some form of auction can be started and the business will be sold to the buyer willing to pay the most. When a sale is targeted for a market of one, the buyer has all the negotiating power. Worse, when the sale is targeted for a market with no likely buyers, not only will a sale not happen, but the value of the business will likely be damaged by a selling period with no takers, and the eventual sale price will be further reduced as perceptions of a damaged property accumulate.
In most markets, there are sources of capital available for a kind of intermediary financing. A third party could have been found to provide the cash the seller needed to exit the deal, in return for the repayment of that investment by the cash-strapped buyer. Neither party had the financial acumen or networks to find such an intermediary. Hardly anyone would think of buying a house this way. We almost always use mortgage financing to allow us to buy a much more valuable house than we could afford in an all-cash deal. The seller of the house gets cash, and the buyer pays down the mortgage over time. Without mortgages and professional real estate brokers, the housing market would be severely constrained. Similar facilities exist in business markets.
The Art of Know What You Are Getting
The first and foremost principle in buying any business is to understand what is really being bought. This includes both tangible and intangible assets. Besides the positive assets, the transaction should also address the existing liabilities that the buyer would have to assume and possible future ones inherent in the deal. It is important to value both assets and liabilities in terms of what it would cost the proposed buyer to replace them. In doing that, one must be careful not to use their book or historical cost accounting values—particularly for real estate—although the history of those book values may be very useful in discovering hidden assets. The firm’s specific assets should be examined and assessed, even if the firm will be valued as a going concern, to be sure these things are as they appear, or at least so the buyer does understand what they represent.
Structuring the Business Sale
One of the important things to consider when structuring the sale is the tax implications. Both the seller and the buyer will have certain tax implications arising from the transaction. An experienced Salt Lake City Utah corporate lawyer can help you structure the sale to deal with the tax implications.
youtube
Sellers usually try to structure sales to get the most money, as soon as possible, after taxes. This objective requires careful planning in organizing the business for tax purposes well before it becomes time to consider selling. There are two basic ways that a closely held firm can be structured for taxes. It can be operated as a regular C corporation, which pays taxes as a business before its shareholders pay again on any dividends they receive. Alternatively, the firm can be formed as a single-tax entity, such as a partnership, or Subchapter S corporation. More recently, owners have the additional option of using a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), in which all profits annually flow through to the owners, who then pay the taxes at their personal income tax rates.
At first glance, paying taxes once sure looks better than paying taxes twice. But one must look closely. When taxes are paid twice (regular or C corporation), all the wages and benefits paid to the owner/manager are tax-deductible (for the business)—including medical insurance and contributions to retirement plans. These benefits must also be made available to all employees, however, not just the controlling shareholder, to be deducted by the corporation. Furthermore, the IRS goes to great lengths, particularly with retirement plans, to make sure that they do not just benefit the highly paid workers in a firm, a group that most obviously includes the owner/ manager. Although they can be deducted from taxable income as business expenses, those employee benefits are still expenses, still costs to the business. Do they pay for themselves in reduced taxes and increased employee morale, productivity, and loyalty? That’s the trade-off.
Limited Partnerships
Another option to minimize taxes when transferring ownership is to use a limited partnership. This technique only works when the children do not want to run the business. If they are materially participating in the firm’s operations, the IRS will not recognize this form of transfer for its favorable tax treatment. The original owner/manager remains the general partner, still running the business. Children receive ownership positions, with a minority interest discount even when they have over 50% ownership. Once the ownership position is transferred, the entire business is sold, triggering capital gains treatment.
Good advice on tax strategies is always recommended. U.S. tax laws change frequently, and the Internal Revenue Code has become very complicated. After-tax wealth is one of the primary objectives of a sale; good advisors can be very valuable in helping owners reach that objective. Conversely, bad advice, or aggressiveness to the point of fraud, can be very expensive. Therefore, one should check with an expert on trusts for the latest rulings and corresponding IRS treatment before proceeding. Any lawyer can point to at least a dozen cases in which large sums of money — in taxes and legal and accounting fees — could have been saved if only question had been asked, a single phone call to an expert made. Speak to an experienced Salt Lake City Corporate Lawyer. The lawyer can help you structure the sale or purchase depending on whether you are buying or selling the business.
Whether you are the buyer or the seller of a business, you will need sound legal advice. As a seller you need to be aware of what you are selling and as a buyer you need to be aware of what you are getting in return for the money you are shelling out. There is also the tax implications to be considered. As a buyer, you must conduct proper due diligence before you sign the contract. The last thing you want is to be straddled with liabilities that have nothing to do with you. Speak to an experienced Salt Lake City Utah corporate attorney and get invaluable advice.
Free Consultation with a Corporation Attorney in Salt Lake City
When you need legal help with a company in Salt Lake City Utah, please call Ascent Law for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.
Ascent Law LLC
8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C
West Jordan, Utah
84088 United States
Telephone: (801) 676-5506
Ascent Law LLC
4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews
Recent Posts
How to Fix Real Estate Title Problems in Utah
Corporate Lawyer West Jordan Utah
How Long Does It Take To Get Divorced?
What Is A Trademark?
Slip and Fall Accidents
Divorce With a Child in Utah
Source: https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/corporate-lawyer-salt-lake-city-utah/
0 notes
Text
Corporate Lawyer Salt Lake City Utah
Salt Lake City was referred to as the “Center of Scenic America.” Since the early part of the century, when the “See America First” movement was founded in the city, community leaders had promoted it as a tourist destination. It was not hard to find a place to stay in Salt Lake City since motels lined Highways 89 and 91, which ran north and south along the Wasatch Front. Motels sprang up along Second West and State and Main Streets because they were the major arteries through the city. Highway 40 continued its way east at Twenty-first South Street, and some motels did cater to travelers along that route.
youtube
As Salt Lake City became a common tourist destination, the number of motels increased. In 1947 the Salt Lake City directory listed thirty-six hotels (some of them residential like the Belvedere) and sixty-two lodging houses, many of them small tourist homes akin to today’s bed-and-breakfasts. None of them used the label motel; nearly all were listed as hotels. A decade later, the 1957 directory listed lodging under two headings: hotels, and motels and auto courts. The number of hotels had risen from thirty-six to eighty-six, and the number of motels and auto courts nearly doubled to a total of 109. Of these nearly all chose the name motel or motor lodge, which implied a larger motel with a coffee shop. Later on the number of motels decreased and many motel owners put their motels up for sale. If you are considering selling your business in Salt Lake City or considering buying a business that is up for sale in Salt Lake City, speak to an expert Salt Lake City Corporate Lawyer. There are many pitfalls in buying and selling a business. To succeed in the sale or purchase, you need to avoid these pitfalls.
Selling the Business outside the Family
A business has been built over the years. The children have developed their own careers. The owner’s spouse has seen more than enough of this business and would like both of them to retire. This situation is not unusual; it is the norm. Of every one hundred family-owned businesses, by far the dominant form of business throughout the world, only a third are transferred to the next generation of the owner’s family. As most closely held businesses are family owned, this simple statistic reminds us that two-thirds of them change ownership through sales to outsiders, or through dissolution and sales of assets. These sales should be arranged to obtain as much after-tax money as possible for the owners with as little risk as possible.
youtube
The first critical question for a buyer is: “Why is this firm for sale?” The second is like unto it: “Who is selling?” The answers to those questions may significantly affect the value a buyer would have to pay, and the negotiating strategy most likely to be effective.
Company Estate Sales
In an estate sale, for example, when the owner/manager has died and no one from the family is taking over, trustees will liquidate the estate’s assets. In many cases, the trustees will not be industry-knowledgeable. That means they may be little help in providing useful information about industry trends, historical meanings of financial records, hidden assets, and so on. Due diligence will need to be more exhaustive, rely more on employees, and be more exposed to competitors. In other words, the risks will go up, and hence the value is likely to go down along with the price. It is also possible that the trustees will be willing to accept a lower price to have a clean, all-cash transaction that allows them to close the books on the estate and distribute the funds to the beneficiaries.
Conversely, some trustees or inheritors are emotionally wedded to their family’s firm, without having the business acumen to understand its value to the buyers—or the expertise to run it competently themselves. They may sell for less than it is really worth, or hold out for more than buyers will pay, eventually damaging the firm’s value that way as well. In both cases, a buyer faces the prospect of having to educate the seller, and that education is likely to have a price as well—if the buyer is even willing to supply it.
Business Retirement Sales
When the owner is retiring in good health, however, the circumstances change. He or she may be available to help with a transition, may even need the emotional progression associated with a gradual change in status. He is likely also to have valuable expertise about the inventory, other assets, employees, suppliers, and customers. If those values can be incorporated in the sale, new owners are likely to pay a higher price, because they would be receiving a more valuable, less risky package. Transition roles, staged payments, performance guarantees, expert consulting, training contracts, and other features may come into play as part of the transfer process. They are likely to affect both price and terms. They do provide many additional ways for the parties to transfer (or withhold) value.
youtube
Carefully consider what kind of buyer is the best fit for the business being sold and vice versa. Bad fits will cost both parties money, and often lead to “walk-aways” instead of successful deals. A well-prepared buyer has to know what she has to offer, and what she needs, or what it will cost to buy those additional resources. Then you can begin a useful search and head into negotiations with a workable plan.
Conversely, a smart seller has to target the sale for a market where several possible buyers exist, so some form of auction can be started and the business will be sold to the buyer willing to pay the most. When a sale is targeted for a market of one, the buyer has all the negotiating power. Worse, when the sale is targeted for a market with no likely buyers, not only will a sale not happen, but the value of the business will likely be damaged by a selling period with no takers, and the eventual sale price will be further reduced as perceptions of a damaged property accumulate.
In most markets, there are sources of capital available for a kind of intermediary financing. A third party could have been found to provide the cash the seller needed to exit the deal, in return for the repayment of that investment by the cash-strapped buyer. Neither party had the financial acumen or networks to find such an intermediary. Hardly anyone would think of buying a house this way. We almost always use mortgage financing to allow us to buy a much more valuable house than we could afford in an all-cash deal. The seller of the house gets cash, and the buyer pays down the mortgage over time. Without mortgages and professional real estate brokers, the housing market would be severely constrained. Similar facilities exist in business markets.
The Art of Know What You Are Getting
The first and foremost principle in buying any business is to understand what is really being bought. This includes both tangible and intangible assets. Besides the positive assets, the transaction should also address the existing liabilities that the buyer would have to assume and possible future ones inherent in the deal. It is important to value both assets and liabilities in terms of what it would cost the proposed buyer to replace them. In doing that, one must be careful not to use their book or historical cost accounting values—particularly for real estate—although the history of those book values may be very useful in discovering hidden assets. The firm’s specific assets should be examined and assessed, even if the firm will be valued as a going concern, to be sure these things are as they appear, or at least so the buyer does understand what they represent.
Structuring the Business Sale
One of the important things to consider when structuring the sale is the tax implications. Both the seller and the buyer will have certain tax implications arising from the transaction. An experienced Salt Lake City Utah corporate lawyer can help you structure the sale to deal with the tax implications.
youtube
Sellers usually try to structure sales to get the most money, as soon as possible, after taxes. This objective requires careful planning in organizing the business for tax purposes well before it becomes time to consider selling. There are two basic ways that a closely held firm can be structured for taxes. It can be operated as a regular C corporation, which pays taxes as a business before its shareholders pay again on any dividends they receive. Alternatively, the firm can be formed as a single-tax entity, such as a partnership, or Subchapter S corporation. More recently, owners have the additional option of using a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), in which all profits annually flow through to the owners, who then pay the taxes at their personal income tax rates.
At first glance, paying taxes once sure looks better than paying taxes twice. But one must look closely. When taxes are paid twice (regular or C corporation), all the wages and benefits paid to the owner/manager are tax-deductible (for the business)—including medical insurance and contributions to retirement plans. These benefits must also be made available to all employees, however, not just the controlling shareholder, to be deducted by the corporation. Furthermore, the IRS goes to great lengths, particularly with retirement plans, to make sure that they do not just benefit the highly paid workers in a firm, a group that most obviously includes the owner/ manager. Although they can be deducted from taxable income as business expenses, those employee benefits are still expenses, still costs to the business. Do they pay for themselves in reduced taxes and increased employee morale, productivity, and loyalty? That’s the trade-off.
Limited Partnerships
Another option to minimize taxes when transferring ownership is to use a limited partnership. This technique only works when the children do not want to run the business. If they are materially participating in the firm’s operations, the IRS will not recognize this form of transfer for its favorable tax treatment. The original owner/manager remains the general partner, still running the business. Children receive ownership positions, with a minority interest discount even when they have over 50% ownership. Once the ownership position is transferred, the entire business is sold, triggering capital gains treatment.
Good advice on tax strategies is always recommended. U.S. tax laws change frequently, and the Internal Revenue Code has become very complicated. After-tax wealth is one of the primary objectives of a sale; good advisors can be very valuable in helping owners reach that objective. Conversely, bad advice, or aggressiveness to the point of fraud, can be very expensive. Therefore, one should check with an expert on trusts for the latest rulings and corresponding IRS treatment before proceeding. Any lawyer can point to at least a dozen cases in which large sums of money — in taxes and legal and accounting fees — could have been saved if only question had been asked, a single phone call to an expert made. Speak to an experienced Salt Lake City Corporate Lawyer. The lawyer can help you structure the sale or purchase depending on whether you are buying or selling the business.
Whether you are the buyer or the seller of a business, you will need sound legal advice. As a seller you need to be aware of what you are selling and as a buyer you need to be aware of what you are getting in return for the money you are shelling out. There is also the tax implications to be considered. As a buyer, you must conduct proper due diligence before you sign the contract. The last thing you want is to be straddled with liabilities that have nothing to do with you. Speak to an experienced Salt Lake City Utah corporate attorney and get invaluable advice.
Free Consultation with a Corporation Attorney in Salt Lake City
When you need legal help with a company in Salt Lake City Utah, please call Ascent Law for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.
Ascent Law LLC
8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C
West Jordan, Utah
84088 United States
Telephone: (801) 676-5506
Ascent Law LLC
4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews
Recent Posts
How to Fix Real Estate Title Problems in Utah
Corporate Lawyer West Jordan Utah
How Long Does It Take To Get Divorced?
What Is A Trademark?
Slip and Fall Accidents
Divorce With a Child in Utah
from Michael Anderson https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/corporate-lawyer-salt-lake-city-utah/
from Divorce Lawyer Nelson Farms Utah https://divorcelawyernelsonfarmsutah.tumblr.com/post/186113615545
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In 1958, Utah Hotel Co. opened the 150-unit Hotel Utah Motor Lodge in Salt Lake City, Utah with amenities such as a modern swimming pool, an exhibit area, an auditorium and a restaurant. It closed in 1980. Source
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Corporate Lawyer Salt Lake City Utah
Salt Lake City was referred to as the “Center of Scenic America.” Since the early part of the century, when the “See America First” movement was founded in the city, community leaders had promoted it as a tourist destination. It was not hard to find a place to stay in Salt Lake City since motels lined Highways 89 and 91, which ran north and south along the Wasatch Front. Motels sprang up along Second West and State and Main Streets because they were the major arteries through the city. Highway 40 continued its way east at Twenty-first South Street, and some motels did cater to travelers along that route.
youtube
As Salt Lake City became a common tourist destination, the number of motels increased. In 1947 the Salt Lake City directory listed thirty-six hotels (some of them residential like the Belvedere) and sixty-two lodging houses, many of them small tourist homes akin to today’s bed-and-breakfasts. None of them used the label motel; nearly all were listed as hotels. A decade later, the 1957 directory listed lodging under two headings: hotels, and motels and auto courts. The number of hotels had risen from thirty-six to eighty-six, and the number of motels and auto courts nearly doubled to a total of 109. Of these nearly all chose the name motel or motor lodge, which implied a larger motel with a coffee shop. Later on the number of motels decreased and many motel owners put their motels up for sale. If you are considering selling your business in Salt Lake City or considering buying a business that is up for sale in Salt Lake City, speak to an expert Salt Lake City Corporate Lawyer. There are many pitfalls in buying and selling a business. To succeed in the sale or purchase, you need to avoid these pitfalls.
Selling the Business outside the Family
A business has been built over the years. The children have developed their own careers. The owner’s spouse has seen more than enough of this business and would like both of them to retire. This situation is not unusual; it is the norm. Of every one hundred family-owned businesses, by far the dominant form of business throughout the world, only a third are transferred to the next generation of the owner’s family. As most closely held businesses are family owned, this simple statistic reminds us that two-thirds of them change ownership through sales to outsiders, or through dissolution and sales of assets. These sales should be arranged to obtain as much after-tax money as possible for the owners with as little risk as possible.
youtube
The first critical question for a buyer is: “Why is this firm for sale?” The second is like unto it: “Who is selling?” The answers to those questions may significantly affect the value a buyer would have to pay, and the negotiating strategy most likely to be effective.
Company Estate Sales
In an estate sale, for example, when the owner/manager has died and no one from the family is taking over, trustees will liquidate the estate’s assets. In many cases, the trustees will not be industry-knowledgeable. That means they may be little help in providing useful information about industry trends, historical meanings of financial records, hidden assets, and so on. Due diligence will need to be more exhaustive, rely more on employees, and be more exposed to competitors. In other words, the risks will go up, and hence the value is likely to go down along with the price. It is also possible that the trustees will be willing to accept a lower price to have a clean, all-cash transaction that allows them to close the books on the estate and distribute the funds to the beneficiaries.
Conversely, some trustees or inheritors are emotionally wedded to their family’s firm, without having the business acumen to understand its value to the buyers—or the expertise to run it competently themselves. They may sell for less than it is really worth, or hold out for more than buyers will pay, eventually damaging the firm’s value that way as well. In both cases, a buyer faces the prospect of having to educate the seller, and that education is likely to have a price as well—if the buyer is even willing to supply it.
Business Retirement Sales
When the owner is retiring in good health, however, the circumstances change. He or she may be available to help with a transition, may even need the emotional progression associated with a gradual change in status. He is likely also to have valuable expertise about the inventory, other assets, employees, suppliers, and customers. If those values can be incorporated in the sale, new owners are likely to pay a higher price, because they would be receiving a more valuable, less risky package. Transition roles, staged payments, performance guarantees, expert consulting, training contracts, and other features may come into play as part of the transfer process. They are likely to affect both price and terms. They do provide many additional ways for the parties to transfer (or withhold) value.
youtube
Carefully consider what kind of buyer is the best fit for the business being sold and vice versa. Bad fits will cost both parties money, and often lead to “walk-aways” instead of successful deals. A well-prepared buyer has to know what she has to offer, and what she needs, or what it will cost to buy those additional resources. Then you can begin a useful search and head into negotiations with a workable plan.
Conversely, a smart seller has to target the sale for a market where several possible buyers exist, so some form of auction can be started and the business will be sold to the buyer willing to pay the most. When a sale is targeted for a market of one, the buyer has all the negotiating power. Worse, when the sale is targeted for a market with no likely buyers, not only will a sale not happen, but the value of the business will likely be damaged by a selling period with no takers, and the eventual sale price will be further reduced as perceptions of a damaged property accumulate.
In most markets, there are sources of capital available for a kind of intermediary financing. A third party could have been found to provide the cash the seller needed to exit the deal, in return for the repayment of that investment by the cash-strapped buyer. Neither party had the financial acumen or networks to find such an intermediary. Hardly anyone would think of buying a house this way. We almost always use mortgage financing to allow us to buy a much more valuable house than we could afford in an all-cash deal. The seller of the house gets cash, and the buyer pays down the mortgage over time. Without mortgages and professional real estate brokers, the housing market would be severely constrained. Similar facilities exist in business markets.
The Art of Know What You Are Getting
The first and foremost principle in buying any business is to understand what is really being bought. This includes both tangible and intangible assets. Besides the positive assets, the transaction should also address the existing liabilities that the buyer would have to assume and possible future ones inherent in the deal. It is important to value both assets and liabilities in terms of what it would cost the proposed buyer to replace them. In doing that, one must be careful not to use their book or historical cost accounting values—particularly for real estate—although the history of those book values may be very useful in discovering hidden assets. The firm’s specific assets should be examined and assessed, even if the firm will be valued as a going concern, to be sure these things are as they appear, or at least so the buyer does understand what they represent.
Structuring the Business Sale
One of the important things to consider when structuring the sale is the tax implications. Both the seller and the buyer will have certain tax implications arising from the transaction. An experienced Salt Lake City Utah corporate lawyer can help you structure the sale to deal with the tax implications.
youtube
Sellers usually try to structure sales to get the most money, as soon as possible, after taxes. This objective requires careful planning in organizing the business for tax purposes well before it becomes time to consider selling. There are two basic ways that a closely held firm can be structured for taxes. It can be operated as a regular C corporation, which pays taxes as a business before its shareholders pay again on any dividends they receive. Alternatively, the firm can be formed as a single-tax entity, such as a partnership, or Subchapter S corporation. More recently, owners have the additional option of using a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), in which all profits annually flow through to the owners, who then pay the taxes at their personal income tax rates.
At first glance, paying taxes once sure looks better than paying taxes twice. But one must look closely. When taxes are paid twice (regular or C corporation), all the wages and benefits paid to the owner/manager are tax-deductible (for the business)—including medical insurance and contributions to retirement plans. These benefits must also be made available to all employees, however, not just the controlling shareholder, to be deducted by the corporation. Furthermore, the IRS goes to great lengths, particularly with retirement plans, to make sure that they do not just benefit the highly paid workers in a firm, a group that most obviously includes the owner/ manager. Although they can be deducted from taxable income as business expenses, those employee benefits are still expenses, still costs to the business. Do they pay for themselves in reduced taxes and increased employee morale, productivity, and loyalty? That’s the trade-off.
Limited Partnerships
Another option to minimize taxes when transferring ownership is to use a limited partnership. This technique only works when the children do not want to run the business. If they are materially participating in the firm’s operations, the IRS will not recognize this form of transfer for its favorable tax treatment. The original owner/manager remains the general partner, still running the business. Children receive ownership positions, with a minority interest discount even when they have over 50% ownership. Once the ownership position is transferred, the entire business is sold, triggering capital gains treatment.
Good advice on tax strategies is always recommended. U.S. tax laws change frequently, and the Internal Revenue Code has become very complicated. After-tax wealth is one of the primary objectives of a sale; good advisors can be very valuable in helping owners reach that objective. Conversely, bad advice, or aggressiveness to the point of fraud, can be very expensive. Therefore, one should check with an expert on trusts for the latest rulings and corresponding IRS treatment before proceeding. Any lawyer can point to at least a dozen cases in which large sums of money — in taxes and legal and accounting fees — could have been saved if only question had been asked, a single phone call to an expert made. Speak to an experienced Salt Lake City Corporate Lawyer. The lawyer can help you structure the sale or purchase depending on whether you are buying or selling the business.
Whether you are the buyer or the seller of a business, you will need sound legal advice. As a seller you need to be aware of what you are selling and as a buyer you need to be aware of what you are getting in return for the money you are shelling out. There is also the tax implications to be considered. As a buyer, you must conduct proper due diligence before you sign the contract. The last thing you want is to be straddled with liabilities that have nothing to do with you. Speak to an experienced Salt Lake City Utah corporate attorney and get invaluable advice.
Free Consultation with a Corporation Attorney in Salt Lake City
When you need legal help with a company in Salt Lake City Utah, please call Ascent Law for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.
Ascent Law LLC
8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C
West Jordan, Utah
84088 United States
Telephone: (801) 676-5506
Ascent Law LLC
4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews
Recent Posts
How to Fix Real Estate Title Problems in Utah
Corporate Lawyer West Jordan Utah
How Long Does It Take To Get Divorced?
What Is A Trademark?
Slip and Fall Accidents
Divorce With a Child in Utah
Source: https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/corporate-lawyer-salt-lake-city-utah/
0 notes
Text
Corporate Lawyer Salt Lake City Utah
Salt Lake City was referred to as the “Center of Scenic America.” Since the early part of the century, when the “See America First” movement was founded in the city, community leaders had promoted it as a tourist destination. It was not hard to find a place to stay in Salt Lake City since motels lined Highways 89 and 91, which ran north and south along the Wasatch Front. Motels sprang up along Second West and State and Main Streets because they were the major arteries through the city. Highway 40 continued its way east at Twenty-first South Street, and some motels did cater to travelers along that route.
youtube
As Salt Lake City became a common tourist destination, the number of motels increased. In 1947 the Salt Lake City directory listed thirty-six hotels (some of them residential like the Belvedere) and sixty-two lodging houses, many of them small tourist homes akin to today’s bed-and-breakfasts. None of them used the label motel; nearly all were listed as hotels. A decade later, the 1957 directory listed lodging under two headings: hotels, and motels and auto courts. The number of hotels had risen from thirty-six to eighty-six, and the number of motels and auto courts nearly doubled to a total of 109. Of these nearly all chose the name motel or motor lodge, which implied a larger motel with a coffee shop. Later on the number of motels decreased and many motel owners put their motels up for sale. If you are considering selling your business in Salt Lake City or considering buying a business that is up for sale in Salt Lake City, speak to an expert Salt Lake City Corporate Lawyer. There are many pitfalls in buying and selling a business. To succeed in the sale or purchase, you need to avoid these pitfalls.
Selling the Business outside the Family
A business has been built over the years. The children have developed their own careers. The owner’s spouse has seen more than enough of this business and would like both of them to retire. This situation is not unusual; it is the norm. Of every one hundred family-owned businesses, by far the dominant form of business throughout the world, only a third are transferred to the next generation of the owner’s family. As most closely held businesses are family owned, this simple statistic reminds us that two-thirds of them change ownership through sales to outsiders, or through dissolution and sales of assets. These sales should be arranged to obtain as much after-tax money as possible for the owners with as little risk as possible.
youtube
The first critical question for a buyer is: “Why is this firm for sale?” The second is like unto it: “Who is selling?” The answers to those questions may significantly affect the value a buyer would have to pay, and the negotiating strategy most likely to be effective.
Company Estate Sales
In an estate sale, for example, when the owner/manager has died and no one from the family is taking over, trustees will liquidate the estate’s assets. In many cases, the trustees will not be industry-knowledgeable. That means they may be little help in providing useful information about industry trends, historical meanings of financial records, hidden assets, and so on. Due diligence will need to be more exhaustive, rely more on employees, and be more exposed to competitors. In other words, the risks will go up, and hence the value is likely to go down along with the price. It is also possible that the trustees will be willing to accept a lower price to have a clean, all-cash transaction that allows them to close the books on the estate and distribute the funds to the beneficiaries.
Conversely, some trustees or inheritors are emotionally wedded to their family’s firm, without having the business acumen to understand its value to the buyers—or the expertise to run it competently themselves. They may sell for less than it is really worth, or hold out for more than buyers will pay, eventually damaging the firm’s value that way as well. In both cases, a buyer faces the prospect of having to educate the seller, and that education is likely to have a price as well—if the buyer is even willing to supply it.
Business Retirement Sales
When the owner is retiring in good health, however, the circumstances change. He or she may be available to help with a transition, may even need the emotional progression associated with a gradual change in status. He is likely also to have valuable expertise about the inventory, other assets, employees, suppliers, and customers. If those values can be incorporated in the sale, new owners are likely to pay a higher price, because they would be receiving a more valuable, less risky package. Transition roles, staged payments, performance guarantees, expert consulting, training contracts, and other features may come into play as part of the transfer process. They are likely to affect both price and terms. They do provide many additional ways for the parties to transfer (or withhold) value.
youtube
Carefully consider what kind of buyer is the best fit for the business being sold and vice versa. Bad fits will cost both parties money, and often lead to “walk-aways” instead of successful deals. A well-prepared buyer has to know what she has to offer, and what she needs, or what it will cost to buy those additional resources. Then you can begin a useful search and head into negotiations with a workable plan.
Conversely, a smart seller has to target the sale for a market where several possible buyers exist, so some form of auction can be started and the business will be sold to the buyer willing to pay the most. When a sale is targeted for a market of one, the buyer has all the negotiating power. Worse, when the sale is targeted for a market with no likely buyers, not only will a sale not happen, but the value of the business will likely be damaged by a selling period with no takers, and the eventual sale price will be further reduced as perceptions of a damaged property accumulate.
In most markets, there are sources of capital available for a kind of intermediary financing. A third party could have been found to provide the cash the seller needed to exit the deal, in return for the repayment of that investment by the cash-strapped buyer. Neither party had the financial acumen or networks to find such an intermediary. Hardly anyone would think of buying a house this way. We almost always use mortgage financing to allow us to buy a much more valuable house than we could afford in an all-cash deal. The seller of the house gets cash, and the buyer pays down the mortgage over time. Without mortgages and professional real estate brokers, the housing market would be severely constrained. Similar facilities exist in business markets.
The Art of Know What You Are Getting
The first and foremost principle in buying any business is to understand what is really being bought. This includes both tangible and intangible assets. Besides the positive assets, the transaction should also address the existing liabilities that the buyer would have to assume and possible future ones inherent in the deal. It is important to value both assets and liabilities in terms of what it would cost the proposed buyer to replace them. In doing that, one must be careful not to use their book or historical cost accounting values—particularly for real estate—although the history of those book values may be very useful in discovering hidden assets. The firm’s specific assets should be examined and assessed, even if the firm will be valued as a going concern, to be sure these things are as they appear, or at least so the buyer does understand what they represent.
Structuring the Business Sale
One of the important things to consider when structuring the sale is the tax implications. Both the seller and the buyer will have certain tax implications arising from the transaction. An experienced Salt Lake City Utah corporate lawyer can help you structure the sale to deal with the tax implications.
youtube
Sellers usually try to structure sales to get the most money, as soon as possible, after taxes. This objective requires careful planning in organizing the business for tax purposes well before it becomes time to consider selling. There are two basic ways that a closely held firm can be structured for taxes. It can be operated as a regular C corporation, which pays taxes as a business before its shareholders pay again on any dividends they receive. Alternatively, the firm can be formed as a single-tax entity, such as a partnership, or Subchapter S corporation. More recently, owners have the additional option of using a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), in which all profits annually flow through to the owners, who then pay the taxes at their personal income tax rates.
At first glance, paying taxes once sure looks better than paying taxes twice. But one must look closely. When taxes are paid twice (regular or C corporation), all the wages and benefits paid to the owner/manager are tax-deductible (for the business)—including medical insurance and contributions to retirement plans. These benefits must also be made available to all employees, however, not just the controlling shareholder, to be deducted by the corporation. Furthermore, the IRS goes to great lengths, particularly with retirement plans, to make sure that they do not just benefit the highly paid workers in a firm, a group that most obviously includes the owner/ manager. Although they can be deducted from taxable income as business expenses, those employee benefits are still expenses, still costs to the business. Do they pay for themselves in reduced taxes and increased employee morale, productivity, and loyalty? That’s the trade-off.
Limited Partnerships
Another option to minimize taxes when transferring ownership is to use a limited partnership. This technique only works when the children do not want to run the business. If they are materially participating in the firm’s operations, the IRS will not recognize this form of transfer for its favorable tax treatment. The original owner/manager remains the general partner, still running the business. Children receive ownership positions, with a minority interest discount even when they have over 50% ownership. Once the ownership position is transferred, the entire business is sold, triggering capital gains treatment.
Good advice on tax strategies is always recommended. U.S. tax laws change frequently, and the Internal Revenue Code has become very complicated. After-tax wealth is one of the primary objectives of a sale; good advisors can be very valuable in helping owners reach that objective. Conversely, bad advice, or aggressiveness to the point of fraud, can be very expensive. Therefore, one should check with an expert on trusts for the latest rulings and corresponding IRS treatment before proceeding. Any lawyer can point to at least a dozen cases in which large sums of money — in taxes and legal and accounting fees — could have been saved if only question had been asked, a single phone call to an expert made. Speak to an experienced Salt Lake City Corporate Lawyer. The lawyer can help you structure the sale or purchase depending on whether you are buying or selling the business.
Whether you are the buyer or the seller of a business, you will need sound legal advice. As a seller you need to be aware of what you are selling and as a buyer you need to be aware of what you are getting in return for the money you are shelling out. There is also the tax implications to be considered. As a buyer, you must conduct proper due diligence before you sign the contract. The last thing you want is to be straddled with liabilities that have nothing to do with you. Speak to an experienced Salt Lake City Utah corporate attorney and get invaluable advice.
Free Consultation with a Corporation Attorney in Salt Lake City
When you need legal help with a company in Salt Lake City Utah, please call Ascent Law for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.
Ascent Law LLC
8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C
West Jordan, Utah
84088 United States
Telephone: (801) 676-5506
Ascent Law LLC
4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews
Recent Posts
How to Fix Real Estate Title Problems in Utah
Corporate Lawyer West Jordan Utah
How Long Does It Take To Get Divorced?
What Is A Trademark?
Slip and Fall Accidents
Divorce With a Child in Utah
Source: https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/corporate-lawyer-salt-lake-city-utah/
0 notes
Text
Corporate Lawyer Salt Lake City Utah
Salt Lake City was referred to as the “Center of Scenic America.” Since the early part of the century, when the “See America First” movement was founded in the city, community leaders had promoted it as a tourist destination. It was not hard to find a place to stay in Salt Lake City since motels lined Highways 89 and 91, which ran north and south along the Wasatch Front. Motels sprang up along Second West and State and Main Streets because they were the major arteries through the city. Highway 40 continued its way east at Twenty-first South Street, and some motels did cater to travelers along that route.
youtube
As Salt Lake City became a common tourist destination, the number of motels increased. In 1947 the Salt Lake City directory listed thirty-six hotels (some of them residential like the Belvedere) and sixty-two lodging houses, many of them small tourist homes akin to today’s bed-and-breakfasts. None of them used the label motel; nearly all were listed as hotels. A decade later, the 1957 directory listed lodging under two headings: hotels, and motels and auto courts. The number of hotels had risen from thirty-six to eighty-six, and the number of motels and auto courts nearly doubled to a total of 109. Of these nearly all chose the name motel or motor lodge, which implied a larger motel with a coffee shop. Later on the number of motels decreased and many motel owners put their motels up for sale. If you are considering selling your business in Salt Lake City or considering buying a business that is up for sale in Salt Lake City, speak to an expert Salt Lake City Corporate Lawyer. There are many pitfalls in buying and selling a business. To succeed in the sale or purchase, you need to avoid these pitfalls.
Selling the Business outside the Family
A business has been built over the years. The children have developed their own careers. The owner’s spouse has seen more than enough of this business and would like both of them to retire. This situation is not unusual; it is the norm. Of every one hundred family-owned businesses, by far the dominant form of business throughout the world, only a third are transferred to the next generation of the owner’s family. As most closely held businesses are family owned, this simple statistic reminds us that two-thirds of them change ownership through sales to outsiders, or through dissolution and sales of assets. These sales should be arranged to obtain as much after-tax money as possible for the owners with as little risk as possible.
youtube
The first critical question for a buyer is: “Why is this firm for sale?” The second is like unto it: “Who is selling?” The answers to those questions may significantly affect the value a buyer would have to pay, and the negotiating strategy most likely to be effective.
Company Estate Sales
In an estate sale, for example, when the owner/manager has died and no one from the family is taking over, trustees will liquidate the estate’s assets. In many cases, the trustees will not be industry-knowledgeable. That means they may be little help in providing useful information about industry trends, historical meanings of financial records, hidden assets, and so on. Due diligence will need to be more exhaustive, rely more on employees, and be more exposed to competitors. In other words, the risks will go up, and hence the value is likely to go down along with the price. It is also possible that the trustees will be willing to accept a lower price to have a clean, all-cash transaction that allows them to close the books on the estate and distribute the funds to the beneficiaries.
Conversely, some trustees or inheritors are emotionally wedded to their family’s firm, without having the business acumen to understand its value to the buyers—or the expertise to run it competently themselves. They may sell for less than it is really worth, or hold out for more than buyers will pay, eventually damaging the firm’s value that way as well. In both cases, a buyer faces the prospect of having to educate the seller, and that education is likely to have a price as well—if the buyer is even willing to supply it.
Business Retirement Sales
When the owner is retiring in good health, however, the circumstances change. He or she may be available to help with a transition, may even need the emotional progression associated with a gradual change in status. He is likely also to have valuable expertise about the inventory, other assets, employees, suppliers, and customers. If those values can be incorporated in the sale, new owners are likely to pay a higher price, because they would be receiving a more valuable, less risky package. Transition roles, staged payments, performance guarantees, expert consulting, training contracts, and other features may come into play as part of the transfer process. They are likely to affect both price and terms. They do provide many additional ways for the parties to transfer (or withhold) value.
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Carefully consider what kind of buyer is the best fit for the business being sold and vice versa. Bad fits will cost both parties money, and often lead to “walk-aways” instead of successful deals. A well-prepared buyer has to know what she has to offer, and what she needs, or what it will cost to buy those additional resources. Then you can begin a useful search and head into negotiations with a workable plan.
Conversely, a smart seller has to target the sale for a market where several possible buyers exist, so some form of auction can be started and the business will be sold to the buyer willing to pay the most. When a sale is targeted for a market of one, the buyer has all the negotiating power. Worse, when the sale is targeted for a market with no likely buyers, not only will a sale not happen, but the value of the business will likely be damaged by a selling period with no takers, and the eventual sale price will be further reduced as perceptions of a damaged property accumulate.
In most markets, there are sources of capital available for a kind of intermediary financing. A third party could have been found to provide the cash the seller needed to exit the deal, in return for the repayment of that investment by the cash-strapped buyer. Neither party had the financial acumen or networks to find such an intermediary. Hardly anyone would think of buying a house this way. We almost always use mortgage financing to allow us to buy a much more valuable house than we could afford in an all-cash deal. The seller of the house gets cash, and the buyer pays down the mortgage over time. Without mortgages and professional real estate brokers, the housing market would be severely constrained. Similar facilities exist in business markets.
The Art of Know What You Are Getting
The first and foremost principle in buying any business is to understand what is really being bought. This includes both tangible and intangible assets. Besides the positive assets, the transaction should also address the existing liabilities that the buyer would have to assume and possible future ones inherent in the deal. It is important to value both assets and liabilities in terms of what it would cost the proposed buyer to replace them. In doing that, one must be careful not to use their book or historical cost accounting values—particularly for real estate—although the history of those book values may be very useful in discovering hidden assets. The firm’s specific assets should be examined and assessed, even if the firm will be valued as a going concern, to be sure these things are as they appear, or at least so the buyer does understand what they represent.
Structuring the Business Sale
One of the important things to consider when structuring the sale is the tax implications. Both the seller and the buyer will have certain tax implications arising from the transaction. An experienced Salt Lake City Utah corporate lawyer can help you structure the sale to deal with the tax implications.
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Sellers usually try to structure sales to get the most money, as soon as possible, after taxes. This objective requires careful planning in organizing the business for tax purposes well before it becomes time to consider selling. There are two basic ways that a closely held firm can be structured for taxes. It can be operated as a regular C corporation, which pays taxes as a business before its shareholders pay again on any dividends they receive. Alternatively, the firm can be formed as a single-tax entity, such as a partnership, or Subchapter S corporation. More recently, owners have the additional option of using a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), in which all profits annually flow through to the owners, who then pay the taxes at their personal income tax rates.
At first glance, paying taxes once sure looks better than paying taxes twice. But one must look closely. When taxes are paid twice (regular or C corporation), all the wages and benefits paid to the owner/manager are tax-deductible (for the business)—including medical insurance and contributions to retirement plans. These benefits must also be made available to all employees, however, not just the controlling shareholder, to be deducted by the corporation. Furthermore, the IRS goes to great lengths, particularly with retirement plans, to make sure that they do not just benefit the highly paid workers in a firm, a group that most obviously includes the owner/ manager. Although they can be deducted from taxable income as business expenses, those employee benefits are still expenses, still costs to the business. Do they pay for themselves in reduced taxes and increased employee morale, productivity, and loyalty? That’s the trade-off.
Limited Partnerships
Another option to minimize taxes when transferring ownership is to use a limited partnership. This technique only works when the children do not want to run the business. If they are materially participating in the firm’s operations, the IRS will not recognize this form of transfer for its favorable tax treatment. The original owner/manager remains the general partner, still running the business. Children receive ownership positions, with a minority interest discount even when they have over 50% ownership. Once the ownership position is transferred, the entire business is sold, triggering capital gains treatment.
Good advice on tax strategies is always recommended. U.S. tax laws change frequently, and the Internal Revenue Code has become very complicated. After-tax wealth is one of the primary objectives of a sale; good advisors can be very valuable in helping owners reach that objective. Conversely, bad advice, or aggressiveness to the point of fraud, can be very expensive. Therefore, one should check with an expert on trusts for the latest rulings and corresponding IRS treatment before proceeding. Any lawyer can point to at least a dozen cases in which large sums of money — in taxes and legal and accounting fees — could have been saved if only question had been asked, a single phone call to an expert made. Speak to an experienced Salt Lake City Corporate Lawyer. The lawyer can help you structure the sale or purchase depending on whether you are buying or selling the business.
Whether you are the buyer or the seller of a business, you will need sound legal advice. As a seller you need to be aware of what you are selling and as a buyer you need to be aware of what you are getting in return for the money you are shelling out. There is also the tax implications to be considered. As a buyer, you must conduct proper due diligence before you sign the contract. The last thing you want is to be straddled with liabilities that have nothing to do with you. Speak to an experienced Salt Lake City Utah corporate attorney and get invaluable advice.
Free Consultation with a Corporation Attorney in Salt Lake City
When you need legal help with a company in Salt Lake City Utah, please call Ascent Law for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.
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from Michael Anderson https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/corporate-lawyer-salt-lake-city-utah/
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Hotel Utah Motor Lodge | Salt Lake City, Utah | Manager: Max Dean
The dramatic entrance leads you into an attractive motor hotel that is also a unique convention center with huge underground exhibit hall and auditorium. Comfortable, TV-furnished rooms, large warm-weather swimming pool, colorful Crossroads Restaurant.
Via
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In 1958, Utah Hotel Co. opened the 150-unit Hotel Utah Motor Lodge in Salt Lake City, Utah with amenities such as a modern swimming pool, an exhibit area, an auditorium and a restaurant. It closed in 1980.
The LDS Church History museum replaced it. Using HistoricAerials as a guide, it appears that the entrance to the parking lot is in the same location as it was when the motel was there. The motel office, with it’s massive mid-century porte cochere, would have been situated to the right as you drive in. Source
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