It is that time of year again my friends! We are ramping up the preparation for our 3rd annual Fall Outdoor Expo! Last year was such a great success and we are looking forward to an even bigger event this year. Keep checking back for me details and as we add participants, we will update. As before, the Expo is from noon until five at the Shady Hollow Community Center. We are very excited to be partnering with Texas Overland to draw an even bigger segment of the outdoors community - the expedition and overland crowd. Look forward to new and exciting participants and more fun to be had this year! We look forward to seeing you again and want to extend a warm welcome to anyone who hasn't been before! See you soon and remember...#LiveLifeOutside!

Well folks, it's been a little over month since our 2015 Fall Expo and we've had some time to reflect on how successful and fun it was. Before we get into all of that, though, we want to thank YOU for coming and out and supporting us! We could not have done it without you. Just like last year, you folks made us feel like what we are doing is the right thing. It lets us know that we are on the right path and your continued positive feedback only encourages us to keep going. So, again, thank you!

Did I mention it was as success? We more than doubled our participants and almost doubled attendance from last year! We were amazed! We had a great team of participants this year! This includes those that repeated from last year to the many new ones this year. Their goal was the same as ours; to share their love of the outdoors with you and to show how they can help to enhance your outdoor experience. Through everything we do, including these events, our trips and through outreach, we have one binding belief. We love the outdoors and we strive to share that love with you to hopefully inspire you to get outdoors.

Let's get back to the participants! I want to thank them all so bear with me! First, a huge thanks to the Shady Hollow Community Center! The community center makes a great location and as long as we don't outgrow it, we'll continue to host our Fall Expo here.  Next, I'd like to thank our repeat participants. These include:
Cabelas,
YETI coolers,
Pronghorn Overland,
Camper Clinic II,
Topgolf,
Texas Parks and Wildlife,
Texas Museum of Science and Technology,
and Central Texas Offroad.
Thanks for coming back and being such great hosts. Now, please allow me to thank our first time participants! These include:
Ethos Offroad Trailers,
Texas Overland,
Smokey Denmark Food Truck (yum!),
Capital City Kayak Fishing, Fly Lake Austin,
Texas County Parks,
Central Texas Ham Radio,
Austin Slack Liners Association,
Austin Society of Karate,
Ami Defesche Yoga,
Stowcart and last but not least,
Austin Reptile!
I would also like to thank the folks who donated items for our drawing but were unable to attend as participants. Backwoods of Austin and Whole Earth Provisions, thank you very much for your donations. What a great group of folks. We are very happy to be associated with them all.

We couldn't have asked for better weather! From the time the gates open until the last guest left, we were blessed to have great weather. In fact, you might notice that in one of the pictures someone decided to take a little nap in a hammock. That is one of two people that were enjoying themselves so much that they decided a little snooze was in order! Folks having fun was the order of the day and we had that in spades. Everywhere you looked, you saw kids running around and families have a great time. Some of the big hits for the kids was the reptile display, the karate booth and the slackline display. That being said, every participant did a great job of being interactive and kid friendly. Happy sweaty kids were everywhere. 

For those that came with an appetite we had some great options. First, the Smokey Denmark truck was serving high quality bbq that far surpasses the typical hot dogs and hamburgers one might typically see at these type of events. Smokey Denmark is known for not only great tasting food, but cutting edge food as well. Case in point was the Apple Pie Sausage they had for sale! Their food was a big hit with both the guests and the participants. About halfway through the event, we cranked up our traditional s'mores station. This is a big hit for everyone! This year, Frank got everyone going with graham crackers, hershey's chocolate and marshmallows. It was a sticky, melted mess and everyone loved it! For us, s'mores are such a big part of outdoor trips with family that we have to include them. You would think that most everyone has had one a some time in their life, but we had a couple that came down from east of the Dallas/Fort Worth area (repeat guests too!) that the wife had never had a s'more before! Let's just say that she loves them now!

In closing, we are very happy with the turnout, reception, and response for our Fall Expo this year. So many people have let us know how much fun they had; thanking us for hosting this event and asking us to continue. After we announced our first event last year, someone asked what "our angle was" or "what was in it for us". At first I was a little perturbed by the question but as time has gone by, I can appreciate the question because the answer is so simple. There is no angle. We have a love for the outdoors that started early in all of us. We were then fortunate enough to meet each other and form this great organization. No matter what we build Texas Avid Outdoors into, one of our core beliefs is that we want to share our love of the outdoors with you. We want you to get as excited about being outside and exploring as we do. We want you to get your family involved, just like we do ours.  Hopefully, we can pass our appreciation for the outdoors onto the next generation. If we do, then we have truly succeeded. Stay tuned as we have some excited events coming up in 2016. Until next time, remember, Live Life Outside!

iFly invited Texas Avid Outdoors to meet the Red Bull Air Force Flight Team on Oct 21st 2014. This being TAO's first trip to iFly, we were a little green. That's okay. We still had a blast and we can't wait to do it again! 

I want to thank my 7 year old son for being our biggest fan and the camera man for this event.