It’ s May 29, 2025, and I find myself trying to plan an outfit for an event I am struggling to wrap my head around. It’s hard. It’s emotional. It’s scary. It makes me grateful. I am humbled. I know in my heart it’ s not me. It’s not even us. I am talking about our 20-year anniversary of our business, Bobcat of Salina, Inc. If you would have told me I would be here today, I would have said “no way.” I have always said that this business owned us. In many ways, it has, but not in the way one would think. This business has a personality of its own. The journey in 20 years has been filled with adventures and stories that would rival any book. I can’t count the times when I would say, “You can’t make this shit up.” Not always in a good way.

We moved to Salina in March of 2005 to start remodeling a building that had no shop space, an old office, and a lot of work that needed finished. We are still here! Wally Story found this building for us before it hit the market. I liked the address! It was such a shell that even the Bobcat vice president questioned, “You can make a shop out of this?” to which Mike eagerly replied, “You bet I can!” At Dealer meetings this year in Orlando, Joel reminded Mike of it!

The road to get here was not easy. Before we even had the plans completed to open this dealership, a local businessman, of whom I would love to name, but won’t, called Mike’s cell phone as we stood at the Omaha Airport and told us that if we came to town, he will be sure to put us out of business, that we were not wanted there. We laughed at the time, but it really wasn’t funny. That was quite a welcome to Salina! Let me just say that he didn’t stop there. About 8 months after we opened, he came in the store and tried to intimidate us by saying he would never buy Bobcat again, and how our rentals were too cheap, and how he was still going to run us out of town since we wouldn’t change our prices. How did that work out for you? I guarantee he won’t see this! lol! I will still tell you the same thing I said to him, without the swear words, “We will set our rental pricing to be fair, not collude.” We are still fair. I am proud of that!

My kids were little, Addie was 4, Erin was 10, and Ian was 13. We celebrated Addie’s 5th birthday at Rolling Hills Zoo, with my mom, and the 5 of us. It was sad. We had left our friends and the security of Nebraska, and it was the reality that we were truly alone. That move traumatized all of us. I still dream that I’m hiding in my old house that someone else owns. Ugh. We knew no one and were living at the shop in our camper for months. It was hard. The kids worked right beside us painting, cleaning, riding bikes, and Ian would be out putting attachments together and working next to his dad remodeling. It wasn’t until June that Amber Renfro and Emma Bixby found us a house. We moved in on our 15th wedding anniversary, June 24, 2005. In the early morning, I would make breakfast and then kick them all out! The space was incredibly small after months of living in there!

We officially opened May 1, 2005, however our first customer had already knocked on the camper door during lunch one afternoon! Lucky Keller came up from Medicine Lodge and was our first customer! We still see him from time to time! We had no number in the phone book, (yes, we still used them), no advertising, and zero files in the empty file cabinet. To say that I cried a lot would be an understatement! The fear was enormous; the chances Mike was willing to take were incredible. He is still that way. While we are both dreamers, he is way better at bringing ideas to fruition. His drive is getting slower with age, but he was not letting anything stop him. That’s a characteristic that all 3 of our kids inherited from him, and I couldn’t be prouder. The days were long, the nights were short, the stress took its toll on both of us. Throughout the years we have survived embezzlement, crooked competition, theft, failures, successes, love, loss, grief, joy and everything in between, all of which I am grateful for.

I know one thing; we would never have made 20 years without the staff we have. John has been around for 96% of it, Sheldon has been here 90% of it, my kids, my kid in loves, the newbies, Marty, Brody, and Kaleb, Matt and Jesse. I am so proud of each one of them and love them like my own. We do not take this lightly. Their presence is counted as huge blessings.

Today is bittersweet. The idea that time ran so fast is sad to me. When Mike said to me this morning, “Well Mom, we probably won’t live to see another 20…” kind of hit me in the gut. The odds aren’t great. While we don’t know what the future holds, we live in a place of gratitude and hope. We have made a lot of changes over the years, and there will be more. No road is so long there is not a curve. Our kids literally have lived at our shop. From the shop on Elm Street in Hastings, NE, to now. Now our grandkids spend their days at the shop, trying to make the best of being a shop kid. That is NOT easy for them or for their parents. I know that. Today, I am looking forward to family time, to seeing my Bobcat family, to talking to people, to raffling off a Utility Vehicle, to committing each moment to memory. I look forward to seeing my 4 grandchildren running around the shop just like their Papa, Momma and Auntie did. I am humbled that God would see fit to give us those precious souls. I am grateful for the customers who support the ONLY family-owned Bobcat Dealer in the state of Kansas. I am thankful that they come back even if we make a mistake. I am thankful to those who realize that it takes something to keep the doors open! lol! There are those who won’t! I am thankful for all of my blessings and believe it, I take nothing for granted.

So, with that, I end by honoring the emotions, by allowing some overflow of tears and reflection. We have walked through a lot of fire to get here. I will always be thankful for the Bobcat team of Matthew, Brad, Jim, and the ones who want small business to succeed, the family I have, my kids-in-love, my grandkids, even our pups who are family. Wow! So many people helped and continue to support. I can’t count them all. Thank you. Thank you.

Now to get dressed. Mike celebrated by putting on his Kilt. I think that is appropriate today.

until then,

with absolute gratitude.

e