Chasing A Vision

I don’t know how old you are but I should have made a move many, many years ago before it became to late. My advice is this…..check, double check & triple check that your wife is on-board and knows what she would be getting into. It’s easy now to support her husbands dream (it’s still a dream) but what happens when she actually has to pull roots and move? I’m not saying she won’t, I’m just saying………..

From your point of view you have to understand how many years of working you have ahead of you. If you are 30 and the boys 5 that means another 15 years until they are grown and gone. That makes you only 45. Plenty of time to make a decision.

If those boys hit school and become rooted with their friends it will be all the harder to pull the pin. Your wife becomes involved at school, she makes friends with the other parents, sports.. yada yada yada. You won’t be going anywhere.

I have another angle that I won’t get into online but you seem to have a handle on things pretty much. Where you are at now is make the dream come true or chase the dream?

I wish you luck working through it. Just don’t rush and the answer will show it’s self.

One other thing to keep in mind is the lack of attractions in the Duluth area (compared to the tc). Twins, wild, Vikings, concerts, events. Getting away from these things might be better off for some, some people can’t live without.

On the other hand, it would be great to “have a guy” on the bite. You have my endorsement for your Duluth campaign.

I agree with Dutch. I think my wife would reluctantly go, but life might be hell after a year or two. Make sure she’s 100% on board.

B-man wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Tom Sawvell wrote:</div>
I think I’d wait until after the election in November. You may feel safe right now, but lots of things can happen after an election and lots of negative electricity is flying already.

Yeah I’ve wondered what that could possibly do to the housing market and workforce.

I’d be all for selling high right now and renting a house for a year or two if someone’s crystal ball…

Forgot waiting for the election. Every time there are radical predictions of what will happen if Candidate X gets elected. And every time they are wrong. Go back and look for yourself. Nobody has a crystal ball.

As a charter Captain you’re part of the tourism industry. Why would you want to waste even one day of a good economy? The tourism industry is always best when the economy is at its best.

As an entrepreneur I can tell you you should consider your plan to move north to be a business decision because that’s what it is. Draw up a simple business plan and determine if the business of being a charter captain would really be viable for you and your family.

I’m not saying don’t move if the numbers don’t work out for making it a business. I’m saying then what you have is a lifestyle decision and you have to make it on those terms.

Grouse

Some guys live to ride, some guys live to race, some guys live to hunt, some guys live to play video games.

But this is what I live for…..

I don’t care if I ever reel another fish in again. The excitement, the laughing, and even the crying from our back up net man makes it for me.

We had an exceptional day on the water, and I was stoked that the boys were lucky enough to be with.

It was my buddy’s kids first time ever on Superior (on the left in the video and pic), and man did he ever pick a day to bring him lol

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B-man wrote:

Some guys live to ride, some guys live to race, some guys live to hunt, some guys live to play video games.

But this is what I live for…..

I don’t care if I ever reel another fish in again. The excitement, the laughing, and even the crying from our back up net man makes it for me.

You clearly have your convincing from yourself internally. No more need for our approval here on IDO forum.

Whether you have friends/family (grandparents?) here in the metro, Duluth is what 3-4 hours tops drive distance? Not like you’re moving to Los Angeles. How much would change for that?

What would you and your wife miss if you made the move? Many people make/have friends from their work, wherever that may be.

Duluth is not that far away, you’re not leaving paradise in the TC metro. FWIW, I had 2 separate six week stints working in Duluth and would have no problem living in that area.

Whether the fish chartering works or not, you’ll figure that out. Seems you and your family aren’t sacrificing everything to give this change an opportunity for something new.

Some stay put their entire lives, nothing wrong with that. But they never really live much beyond their backyard.

Thanks for the questions Andy.

We asked ourselves the exact same thing almost a decade ago. Our jobs were in the cities and we lived in Balsam Lake.

The commute sucked, so we jumped the river to save 80 minutes of home life everyday.

A move to the Duluth area would put us 90 minutes farther from family (St. Paul/Western WI), but like you said; it’s not like we’re moving to California.

My wife’s only apprehension is not having any close-ish family support, mainly her sister. Right now she’s an hour away as it sits, a move would obviously increase that.

I have a good friend close to where we live now. He’s a Superior junky too, so I’ll still see him a lot

Over the years I have grown friendships with a few guys in the Duluth area. It will be nice already knowing people in a new town.

The move would also put us a little closer to my Dad’s cabin, where he spends a lot of his time and hosts family/friends gatherings.

The thing I’ll miss the most is my garages

Before we fall in love with a new house, I want to make sure it’s okay with zoning to put up a bigger detached garage. A two car garage with a 7′ door isn’t going to cut it lol

For work, there’s a big road/bridge project in Duluth nick-named the “Can of Worms.” I sent my resume to the prime contractor last night. Hoping to hear from them soon.

Yep the can of worms project starts this spring and is going to create a nightmare moving around Duluth. Wait until Gramma’s!! Not sure if the Tall Ships are scheduled this summer or not but that brings in a insane amount of people.

We generally stay out of Duluth as much as possible. We live close enough to enough shopping that we don’t need to go there. With the exception of a occasional UMD hockey game. We purchased lake property a little over a hour north of Duluth last spring making it even easier to avoid town. That being said there is enough entertainment in Duluth if you want to seek it out with the exception of pro sports. The Amsoil gets some top musical talent and of course UMD hockey games. There’s enough decent eating places both around Duluth and Superior if you enjoy eating out.

As far as your garages go that could be a challenge in Duluth. Zoning can be a night mare and getting plans approved can take forever. I really recommend you look outside the city limits. Hermantown, Esko, Cloquet, Carlton are all a easy commute except on those bad travel days.

Good luck in your job search and hope you get good news from the Can ‘O Worms project!

B-Man,

Another one here where if you have any questions about anything in the Duluth/Cloquet area, let me know!

Also doesn’t hurt that we have the best college hockey team in the state

I don’t want to be a downer and I hope you can make this work. The only thing I see bad about being a charter captain is you will be working most weekends. In a couple of years your boys will be into sports and other activities. You talk about how you miss them whey you are out of town working. Think how you might miss not being able to attend your children’s events because you have to work. The window of involvement you have in your children lives is short and they grow up fast. I am not saying you won’t be able to juggle your schedule so it can all work. Just wanted to point that out.

Only you can ultimately decide what is best for you and your family.

Everyone that knows me, can tell you I’m deep spirited in having life experiences that create memories that I’ll share with people til I die.

But, here are a few things I’ll share from my father while we were talking about his death and final arrangements. He 84 and in failing health. He knows his time is limited and he is accepting of that.
Quotes:
I regret that I never traveled with your mother. I always had something to do then it was too late.

I regret not going on all those hunting trips. I only got to see the pictures of where you went and after going to rmnp, I know it isn’t the same.

I regret all the years I drank. I pissed away so many good years.

I regret …….. this list goes on and on.
When I asked what you think are the best moments in life
When I left home and went in the Stratigraphic Command (airforce)

The day I met your mother

The day you were born and I held you

When I saw how proud you were when your daughters were born

When I hug my grand daughters

When you talked me into retiring and moving to this farm. I’ve had a great retirement here with the animals.

Seeing you take care of your mother to the very end and knowing you’ll take care of me the same way. Just knowing how much you and the girls love me.

I’ll be very lucky if my father is with me for another year or so. Hopefully, but I’m a realist and know he is at end stage of life. For me, it was so tough to hear the jealousy in his voice when he talked about everything he didn’t do. He also added that he believed he couldn’t do many of the things that I have already done. Not everyone can go and make a dream reality. Many can not face the sacrifices that come with the risk/reward. He couldn’t, and that inspired me to be able to. Part of the reason why my father is also one of my best friends!

Good luck in making that a reality or in living with the regret

I prescribe to a forward thinking philosophy in that you can only go forward in life, never back. Instead of thinking about regrets I’m more inclined to think about what opportunities are available to me because I can’t do it all. As people have commented there is no crystal ball. I fully believe it doesn’t matter what path you take, you will always miss out on something because each door of opportunity you take will likely close the door on something else and in this case it’s not just you but also your family. There’s also no way to tell if some of those closed opportunities would have led to an equally profound impact on your life. On the other hand, each door of opportunity you go thru will open new doors that may not have been available had you chose a different path. Regardless of the path it will have both the good and the bad.

My suggestion would be to plan your decision because both working and chartering sounds to me like work and time. I would seriously think about what am I going to have to give up? It’s probably going to be something and maybe something you can’t predict. What will the new schedules be? How will the new schedules impact the family? What are the new costs? What are the new “job” elements you don’t have now? There are a whole host of logistic related things to consider.

I became a guide for a few years and absolutely hated it most of the time. Fishing is a passion for all of us on here I think. But when you have to be out in lousy weather on a birthday party Saturday. With people who aren’t interested in learning anything and expect you to magically put them on fish, and if you don’t have no issue letting you know. It sucks. I started when I was 22, I was done and burnt out by 25. If I have a bad day and don’t catch anything, who cares when I’m fishing for me. When I have people paying me to catch fish it becomes a whole different monster. I started to hate fishing. Once I went back to fishing for fun, it was exactly that again…FUN.

A few things I didn’t think of when I started. Cost of insurance, I did inland lakes most of the year except in fall on Green Bay and then ice time inland again. The insurance was ridiculously high. The amount of gear you need goes way up. You can’t have just one or two of things because if that’s what’s working and your clients snaps it off. They’ll look at you with the where’s the replacement face, and you don’t have it. The time away from your family is crazy. I had one daughter at the time and missed a lot of things, not just on the weekends but during the week. Remember you have to get there early enough to have everything ready to go and have to stay after to clean up and get ready for the next day. There really aren’t sick days in that business, sure the clients can have them, but we are expected to be there since they paid us for the day. The maintenance cost was also a lot higher because now you are using it everyday for 6-10hrs a day.

I live in Port Washington WI right on the lake and have a bunch of friends in the charter business. A few costs that they have also are slip costs for the year if you plan on keeping it in the marina. Fuel costs are another thing that we all deal with, whether it is pulling a rig to and from or running a charter boat for hours on end. Are you going to need a mate to help with fish cleaning, boat prep, and keeping everything organized when you have 6 guys all using their max lines and you get a double or triple.

If you do make the jump let us know so you can book out your first season. I haven’t fished Duluth in a long time.

Your wife has reservations about Family and support. Two very big things. In my opinion, you don’t do anything but dream until she is 100% onboard. These types of things are what can develop into resentments!

Ice Cap wrote:

Yep the can of worms project starts this spring and is going to create a nightmare moving around Duluth. Wait until Gramma’s!! Not sure if the Tall Ships are scheduled this summer or not but that brings in a insane amount of people

Awesome. God bless those tourists, eh?

More is better and every one of them is supporting somebody’s job.

Someday hopefully all of MN will get over b!thing about tourists and see them for what they really are–jobs.

Grouse

Bman,

I’d suggest a big wet board on the fridge with 2 columns. Pro’s/Con’s

Allow the entire family to apply honest input.

Won’t take long and the list will either support your dream, help you make adjustments to get better positioned for this move or kill your dream.

The power of pen and paper is the most effective way to move from emotions to reality.

Best of luck to your entire family. Exciting times!