Mark Long’s Blog

I’ve ridden motorcycles for more than 40 years.

Everything from long road trips to Puerto Vallarta to chasing coyotes on the Utah Desert.

My choice for best all around adventure bike:

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Chad, Dan, Mark and Scott

It has to be a record. Three dune runs in five weeks. What’s the big draw? Ice? Snow? Sub Zero Tempatures? Or is it that fewer things drawing our attention like yard work? Maybe it is the lack of crowds. Regardless of the reason our third memorable winter trip made a great start of the year.

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Sand Mountain

The photo up loader is finally fixed. The old photo up loader crashed. Maybe it was due to the 5,304 spam comments that need came in. Anyways we went to the dunes a week ago. There was a good deal of snow still left. Less than 20 other units was out there. Old Yellow tooth from the State Parks came by to say hi. We had the back side to ourselves. At the rock we ran into some dirt bikers that came in across the desert from Delta.

At “The Rock”

Scott, Trevor, Mark and Cody

There was a lot of slipping and sliding.

Under the snow in may places there was solid ice.

There was all sorts of get offs, bail outs and wished I could have got offs.

Another Fun Filled Day!

YOU TUBE VIDEO: Snow Throwing Contest

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One of the things I was looking forward to doing during our trip to New York City was going to a major league baseball game. We took the subway out from Times Square to Shea Stadium which runs directly to the park. It was a great way to spend the day. The Met’s lost badly it was never close. It was fun though. In twenty years I doubt that Kath, Sonia or I will remember who won or lost but we’ll surely remember going to the game.

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1. Boston is more similar to European cities than Salt Lake City.
2. No matter how many smart people are in the room, I always think I am the smartest one there.
3. Everyone overestimates how smart they are and how much they can accomplish.
4. There are better ways to make decisions than “by the seat of your pants”
5. I want to go back and take more classes.

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Feel free to contact me prior to purchasing any of the following to make sure it would satisfy my standards. I would hate for you to go to a lot of effort and be disappointed that it was the wrong color. If a personal assitant becomes available they can be assigned the task to go shopping with you so that the appropriate purchase can be made. If bought on credit please mark the receipt “gift” so that if you later declare bankruptcy the court won’t take it away from me. As with presdential donations it is implied and expected that personal access will be given to the giver. You will be invited to join in the fun whenever possible and of course recipriocal gift giving can be expected.

10- Utah Jazz Private Corporate Box.

9- 45 Foot Provost RV Bus with matching toy hauler.

8- Ski in/out cabin at Alta.

7- 3 Week vacation in Pantagonia.

6- Fully Custom Harley Touring Bike.

5- His and Hers Honda Personal Water Craft.

4- 4 High Performance snowmobiles with trailer.

3- A personal assitant to take care of those pesky daily chores.

2- A villa on the beach in Peru.

1- A good celular phone with a great plan that doesn’t cheese me off when I get the bill.

If you think that this is asking too much remember that asking has the highest value to effort ratio possible. It take little to no effort with potential hugh returns. It never hurts to ask. (Something Sonia taught me)

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You just might be a dune rat if you skip work to go to the dunes on a 100+ July day.

 Ryan, Chad and Scott

This is one of my favorite Little Sahara action shots. You can see Scott in the distance wheeling right into the turn.

Scott, Ryan, Mark and Chad

High Flying Chad

This was the last shot before Chad went over a small dune that you couldn’t really see due to how flat the light was in the very bright sunlight. This was the same size of dune that I went over and broke my foot. If it was a big dune you can sloe down by the time you get to the bottom and it normally is not an abrudt end at the bottom. I didn’t notice that he was hurt for a few minutes. He was on his machine but he hit his chest hard against the handlebars and sprained his wrist.

Flowers for Chad - Get Well Soon!

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Going to Bear Lake was one of the funnest family vacations that I can remember. The only downer was that there was a lot of mesquitos. We all went to the beach and played in the sand while some went tubing behind the boat. We didn’t see any bear but we did see moose, deer and antelope during our atv rides.

One of the fun activities was hiking up to Bloomington Lakes. To our amasement even Mama Olive made to the first lake. Most memorable might be the food. We all took turns cooking and the meals were 4 star. I didn’t experience a moment of stress. Thanks everyone! Let’s do it again next year.

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Who say’s money doesn’t grow on trees?

July 11th, 2008 is the 15th year anniversary of Hollywood FotoFix. To celebrate we went to Chili’s for lunch. The employees gave me a money tree and two really touching letters. One form the artists in Peru and one from the staff here. Their words really teared me up. I really love working with all them. They are an amazaingly talented group of people. It is really rewarding to finally see everything come together. I have a few people that I need to thank for the success of HFF:

First I need to thank my Mom and Dad. Even though they had passed on before HFF started their influence is one of the biggest parts of why we are still in business. Dad was my true hero. Surviving POW camp in Japan and surviving an accident that crushed his legs taught me mind over matter. Mom taught me to do my best. She taught me that I could sell anything to anyone. She was a perfect Boy Scouts Mom.

Equally as important has been Heavenly Fathers help. There have been several points along the way where if not for heavenly inspiration I would not have been pointed in the right way. I am deepely grateful that I have been able to live out my dream of operating my own successful business. I need to include gratitude to all of the angels that help in HFF’s work from the otherside.

HFF could not have been without the help and support of Sonia. She has always believed and supported my entreprenurial visions. There have been many struggles along the way and she has never once complained. We have shared the journey together. Always being there when I needed.

HFF couldn’t run without Mirtha, Eleazar and Austin. The growth during the last 5 years has been remarkable and they have really stepped up to the challenge. They have tremendous responsibilities and pressure placed on them and perform with flying colors.

I am also thankful to the hundreds of employees and thousands of partners we work with.

WOW… 15 years went by so very fast. What a change in technology. Remember dial up?

Oh… and thanks to all of the millions of people in all those photos over all the years of 160+ years of photos and the fols that restored them and all the Moms that don’t want braces and zits on their kids pics.

What changes will the next 15 years bring?

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Dean, Mark, Trevor and Scott

The four of us started the 4th of July weekend one day early. We picked a ride that we had not been on before leaving from Daniels Summit up around Currant Creek Resevior and along the ridgeline back. None of us had been on this ride before but Scott used Google Earth and Garmin Maps to plot the perfect GPS route for us. Just at the last bend before we got back to the trail head my gas reserve light went on.

Running through Currant Creek

This was a change up from sand throwing contests at the dunes.

The trails were very dusty. We had to keep a good distance between each of us. Everyone took turns as the lead and at the back of the pack and then moving up to the front again as the lead rider would stop and let everyone pass to be sure no one got lost or left behind.

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