It’s Been A Great Ride! On To The Next Adventure …

After we launched GoPetFriendly sixteen years in the past, our objective was to make it straightforward for individuals to journey with their pets. Maybe you bear in mind what it was like again then … when discovering locations to remain and issues to do along with your pets was HARD.

It wasn’t that the thought of taking your pets with you on trip was a brand new idea. Some individuals had been doing it for years. However they have been the exception. Most individuals believed that touring with a pet was extravagant, or bizarre, or simply too troublesome.

Pet Journey Gained Acceptance

Issues definitely have modified! Maybe creating GoPetFriendly helped sparked a shift in pondering. However, over time, thousands and thousands of pet lovers have visited the positioning to plan journeys with their furry relations, and that completely delights me!

Ultimately, as extra individuals started touring with their pets, companies acknowledged the chance. Quickly inns, eating places, and even total cities started touting the truth that they have been pet pleasant. They added pet insurance policies and pet pleasant directories to their web sites. They splashed it on billboards. And hung indicators of their home windows.

Stroll round most cities lately and also you’re more likely to discover as many companies which might be pet pleasant as those who aren’t. Perhaps much more! It’s precisely what we hoped for after we began the positioning.

And it means there’s not as a lot want for GoPetFriendly’s listing of pet pleasant companies.

Issues Change … And So Do We

Because the world started embracing pet journey, we modified, too. After twelve incredible years within the motorhome, we’re fortunately settled in Bisbee, Arizona. (It’s very pet pleasant, if anybody is searching for a fun vacation destination!)

With on a regular basis I’d spent driving the RV immediately freed up, I went again to high school. Two months in the past, I accomplished a certificates program in AutoCAD (the software program designers, drafters, and designers use to attract constructing plans). I additionally picked up a number of programs in residential building whereas I used to be there. It was a blast!

It wasn’t clear the place all of those programs would take me on the time. It was simply enjoyable to be taught extra about issues that had all the time fascinated me. And whereas I used to be specializing in homework and exams, the web world the place GoPetFriendly exists was altering dramatically.

Expertise Makes A Leap

You’d should be dwelling underneath a rock to have missed the current advances in Synthetic Intelligence (AI). Admittedly, I’ve issues about the way it will impression humanity. However, I additionally bear in mind seeing a self-checkout on the grocery retailer for the primary time. Once I turned and swore to Rod that I’d by no means use one, he replied, “We could be a bit of younger to cease adopting new expertise.” In fact, he was proper. Although I nonetheless use the self-checkout sparingly.

However the truth that AI is already altering how individuals plan journeys is simple. The variety of human beings touchdown on GoPetFriendly has dropped considerably throughout the previous 12 months. Why spend your time looking for choices when typing a easy request will get the reply?

Severely, how handy is that?! In fact, you continue to should confirm that the knowledge offered is right. However you’d have to verify the pet insurance policies discovered on GoPetFriendly, too!

So — as they are saying — all good issues come to an finish.

It’s clear that there’s now an even simpler method to plan journeys with pets. So we’re shutting down the listing of pet pleasant locations on GoPetFriendly on the finish of the month. It served its objective, and it’ll release time for one thing new!

What concerning the weblog?

We’re maintaining the weblog in place for now. Partially as a result of it’s dwelling to the thousands and thousands of reminiscences we made with Ty and Buster. But in addition as a result of it’s not one thing AI can do higher. Our paws-on-the-ground analysis, although a bit dated, nonetheless has worth. Hopefully it’s going to proceed to encourage extra individuals to journey with their pets. And, who is aware of? Perhaps I’ll publish often, if I discover one thing particularly fascinating.

What’s Subsequent?

A number of years in the past, Rod and I purchased a 3-acre lot on a mountaintop in southern Colorado. After we discovered a incredible home on the market in Bisbee and determined to not construct a house right here, the dream of constructing on that lot began taking form.

Out of the blue, all the pieces I used to be studying in my courses turned helpful! And months of analysis went into discovering the easiest way to construct on a slope, in a distant location, the place summer season solely lasts for a couple of months … and winter might be brutal.

We’re planning to interrupt floor in Might — relying on the climate, in fact. The panelized home will likely be delivered in June, and a crew will full the outside of the house. Then we’ll take over, doing the elements we are able to, and hiring sub-contractors to do what we are able to’t.

Be part of Us!

I do know a lot of you studying this publish have been with us for years. The truth that you’re nonetheless right here amazes me. I’m actually touched by the friendships we’ve made. And I hope you’ll be a part of us on this subsequent journey!

I’ve launched a YouTube channel to share our progress. The first video went up yesterday, explaining why we selected a prefab dwelling. And I’ll be posting a brand new video each week. And on the very finish of every one, I’m together with a bit of “deal with” particularly for my GoPetFriendly peeps.

Warning: The video shouldn’t be good! However you long-timers will do not forget that the primary weblog posts I wrote weren’t good both. The whole lot improves with apply.

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