Life on the Lake - I love my neighborhood!

I wanted to share alittle about my work place as well as my neighborhood I live work and play in McGregor Minnesota which is about 2 hours north of the Mpls Metro area. This past week I recieved a referral from a large company up in my area and was quite pleased by this. They stayed at a resort that is on one of the many lakes in our neighborhood called Big Sandy Lodge we had made arrangements to meet at 9:30 am on Tuesday for coffee at the lodge when I arrived they had already checked out and must have been anxious to get started and so I recieved a call at 9:30 sharp at the Lodge. They had stopped at a local coffee shop call the roasting house.

I let them know I was only a few minutes away, When I arrived they were hunkered down enjoying there coffee and were engaged in real estate magizines and local news papers probably talking about how the day was going to go and what they might be seeing with me on showings. I walked in and knew just about 75% of the patrons, one spoke up and said your clients are waiting for you over there Rick! I thanked him and went to get a cup of Jo! after around 5 minutes in line and alot of short talk I made it to my cheerful clients who I was just meeting for the second time, the first time was the night before at the restrauant were they had a meeting with his future employer so it was a quick hello.

The first thing they asked me was how did the one guy know we were clients and not friends of yours, I quickly replied they do not know you! and you are looking at real estate magazines in the local coffee shop.

They thought that was cool.

I said I love my neighborhood, They asked why.

You see I live in a resort area up on Big Sandy Lake in McGregor Minnesota we sell vacation property up here and all week the locals work hard to survive the winters and when we have a lack of snow business is slow! We all gather as a community to get through these tough times and in doing so you literally know most everyone. So I said to them when the grocery store is just around the corner and it really should take you 15 minutes travel time and shopping time it really takes an hour, not because of traffic but because you run into so many friends that want to see you or tell you about the basketball game and how there son/daughter did at the game or another person gives you a taste of her favorite pie that is sitting on the counter at the gas station and 5 hungry guys are going to town drinking coffee at the cash register with crumbs on there face and whiskers and there buddy is out in the car because he just gassed up and the guy with crumbs on his face was supposed to be getting hot coffee and minnows for fishing! and then I roll in and thank the guy with minnows in his bucket for the referral he gave me the day before.

I went on to say, I love my neighborhood because no matter what day of the week it is people are happy to see me and on the weekends all the weekender's come up from the cities and they want to relax and they are always happy because they are not at work or at home its like they are on vacation..... I mean after-all they bought a cabin to spend time on the lake or out in the woods or a farm to hunt and fish on!!

I love my neighborhood because all of this I get to enjoy every day and when I can help a family enjoy what I do even if it for a couple of days at a time it is truly a blessing and when they come to me and tell me little Johny got some really big Crappies and thanks you for putting them on a good fishing hole they mean what they say when they look you in the eye and tell you Thanks Rick...... your a good friend.