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Bryden
takes a break on the Merced River in Yosemite
Valley.
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Client Name: |
Rex and Joy Soper |
Group Size: |
4 adults, 3 children |
Group Make-up: |
Rex and Joy, their son Nick and his wife
Julie, and Nick and Julie's 3 children,
Bryden, Taila and Madisyn |
Home: |
New Plymouth, New Zealand |
Interests: |
Photography, Christmas, teddy bears, nature,
John Wayne, westerns, military history,
shopping, the outdoors, great cities, World
of Warcraft, Bettie Boop, unicorns... |
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Rex contacted us in the summer of 2007, getting an
early start on planning for a 2008 adventure. With
the children getting to an age when it was going to
be increasingly difficult to get the entire family
to gether for an extended trip, this was to be a family
odyssey to end all family odysseys. When I started
talking about a Southwestern itinerary, including
the likes of Monument Valley, Sedona, the Grand Canyon
and Bryce, it was clear I was heading in the right
direction.
Our first substantial conversation occurred while
I was in Yosemite, on a trip with another client.
After dinner with my client, I drove out to what I've
dubbed "Soper Point," which is the first
point above Yosemite Valley that you can get cell
phone service. I called Rex, and spoke to him and
Joy for a good 30 minutes or so. We batted a few ideas
around and such, and we left with the straightforward
mandate to just make this the trip of a lifetime for
his family. If it was good, they wanted to see it,
and see it right, and if I needed to add time to the
itinerary to see it, then that was just fine.
Email and telephone conversations continued over
the next several weeks, ultimately resulting in a
31 day trip that would cover the Southwest, as well
as the High Sierra and coastal California.
Challenges:
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Keep the itinerary pace reasonable,
partiularly so as not to exhaust the kids.
To accomplish this, we made sure that at least
every other stop had a 2 night stay. |
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Facilitate different
members of the group not always wanting to do
the same things. This is one of the nicer
aspects of our service. We will do our best to
facilitate whatever the needs of the client are,
even if those needs differ with different members
of the group. Taking Nick and the kids to Legoland,
before setting off with Rex and Joy for a trip
to the mountain town of Julian, returning to Legoland
later in the day was just one instance where we
made something happen that wouldn't be feasible
on a group tour. |
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Respond to changing needs. A medical
emergency with one of the children while we
were staying in Monument Valley required a medivac
to Flagstaff for Julie and her oldest daughter.
As a result, we had to make a substantial change
to the itinerary with no warning, cancelling
reservations, and making new ones on the fly.
We ultimately had to split the group up for
a few days, while Taila recovered in Las Vegas,
and Rex and Joy and I rejoined the original
itinerary a couple days later.
A less dramatic chage happened later in the
trip, when the group decided it would like to
see the coast before getting to San Francisco.
Again, we were able to seemlessly make the changes,
and meet the Sopers' needs.
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