Many of you have met Laura, Dave's wife, aka Mrs. Cholula. She attended several events with Dave. I have shared this thread with her. She has asked me to respond on her behalf.

"The things that were written about him warm my heart. Please express my thanks and appreciation for the kind words."

I made a video of the Boca DO back in the day. It's almost TOO long, but it does have many of the photos taken there, including several of Cholula. I still like the music! If anyone is interested, here is a link:
https://animoto.com/play/f40f2c7cbda...10dbaf134760b2

I haven't visited FT in years for reasons that don't need to be explained.

I was so saddened the hear from Traveller earlier this week that Dave had passed away. When she sent me the link to this thread, I had to respond.

Dave and I lost contact with each other several years ago. When Traveller told be that he had surgery a while back, I called and spent time with Dave and Laura. I am so glad that I did.We talked on email a few times after that and I thought that he was doing much better. Travellers message to me on another forum was a major revaluation of our mortality.

I am so glad that I knew Dave (and Laura) and retouched base with him over the past year

When Traveller emailed me about this thread, I knew I had to break my self imposed FT boycott and say something about Dave.

I had the great pleasure of meeting the Cholula's several times. Dave kept me in the best hot sauce in the world. When my ex-son in law was deployed with the Texas National Guard to Iraq and Afghanistan, Dave sent cases and cases of Cholula to make their lives better in those miserable countries

He will be missed.

May his life and memory be a blessing. Laura is in my thoughts and prayers. Rest in peace my friend

Mikey1003

PS: See Dave, I still have the giant bottle of Cholula

Very sad to hear of Dave's passing. He made FlyerTalk a better place.

In September 2003, when the referenced thread was started, I had never heard of Cholula Hot Sauce.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholula_Hot_Sauce

Seldom flying Delta (for geographical reasons), I did not come upon that thread until April 2005. My inquiry in Post # 1820 was the beginning of how Cholula Hot Sauce came to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), USA.

+Dave (Cholula) followed up by mailing a carton of one dozen five-ounce bottles to my P.O. Box here on Saipan.

At the time Saipan had a rare Costco franchise, not owned by Costco itself. (That relationship ended after a few years, and the location is now known as the Joeten Super Store, carrying both Costco and Sam's Club products.)

I took six of the bottles to the Saipan Costco store manager, with the contact and ordering information +Dave had provided, and encouraged them to carry this product, and they did. The rest is history.

The Islas Marianas were a Spanish colony from 1565 to 1898. Hot peppers grow wild in the jungle and are part of the local cuisine. Nearby Tinian (TIQ) has an annual hot pepper festival. So it is unsurprising that Cholula Hot Sauce quickly became very popular, indeed, here in the CNMI.

Yet +Dave's friendliness, outgoing nature, and attention to detail here on FlyerTalk all had real consequences around the world. I will miss the pre-Facebook FT OMNI of the mid 2000s.

Prayers for the eternal repose of your soul, +Dave, and for the consolation of your family, friends, colleagues, and fellow FlyerTalkers.

I will say a prayer when sprinkling a few drops of Cholula Hot Sauce on my fried rice, brown rice, Lazi red rice, . . . .

🌴 🎶 🤠 💚 ✈️ 🙏
​​​​​

You and Cholula both made me feel welcome in the Lounge, and honestly, that's part of why I continued to visit FT.

So sad. Dave was great to work with on TalkBoard. He loved this place and never stopped helping his fellow FTers.

Over Christmas, 2008, in Prague WifeMpls V1 & I had dinner in a local Mexican restaurant, where we spotted a bottle of Cholula sauce on the table. I texted jfe a picture of WifeMpls V1 holding the bottle of Cholula sauce. jfe sent back a picture of his daughter holding one as well.



Speaking of the cute daughter, last I heard was that she now rules The Mansion.

With regard to our inflatable alien drinking buddy:

I'm very sorry to hear this news! My thoughts are with his family and friends.

Here's something I posted in one of the DL Lounge threads ten years ago. I was staying at a brand new Hampton Inn out in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming. The had nice Weber grill out back so I hit up a grocery store in town and bought nice steak and a bag of some steamable vegetables. I thought it would be nice to have some hot sauce for the vegs, so I started rooting around the closed breakfast area. I made a major score and took some extras for my rollaboard.

It's been a while since I've posted on FlyerTalk, and I can't think of many more significant reasons than to take a moment to celebrate the life of Cholula.

Many, many, many moons ago Randy asked for volunteers to moderate OMNI. I wrote him a funny note and he responded by pairing me up with Dave (Cholula) to co-moderate OMNI. Until that day I really had no idea who Cholula was. Boy, did we fall in together quickly. OMNI was a roller coaster and he and I took the highs and lows in stride, all the while developing a friendship that was truly special to me.

I can remember Dovster driving him absolutely nuts in the early days of our time moderating OMNI. The three of us would have exhaustive chats "behind the scenes" in DMs, while Dave and I were having a separate chat about how to tame the beast that was OMNI.

To this day, I am incredibly thankful that Randy chose to pair the two of us. In a fateful moment leading up to the Freddie Awards last week, Randy texted me to ask if I had heard of Dave's passing. My heart sank and I got a pit in my stomach. I hadn't heard the news. Upon hearing it, my spirits were crushed. Writing these words now bring a few fresh tears to my eyes.

Dave and I were about as alike in moderating styles as oil and vinegar. And yet, I grew to love him like a brother.

I miss those days of FlyerTalk. I don't regret for a minute starting Milepoint or any of the other things that came after. But, I do miss those days, when someone who started out as a complete stranger came to be someone I trusted and cared about more than folks I had known in person for many years.

I'll always be thankful to this community for those friendships.

I only met him once but his good humor (And amazing hot sauce) will always be remembered, Rest in peace.

The one time I thought we would meet was an ATL do sometime in the mid 00’s. He did not participate, but sent a case of hot sauce for all who attended. I took home several bottles, including the larger size which I had never seen before.

Safe travels, Cholula, wherever you’re headed.

At one of the Florida DO's, Alysia went home with a half-gallon bottle.

He was the guy who very generously introduced me to what is now my favorite hot sauce by way of his famous coupons. Never met him but always had a positive impression of him. From what I've read, that impression was accurate.

RIP, friend.

And the photo jogged my memory as I hadn't thought I'd met Dave but spotted myself amongst the passengers on Dan's BRT bus that year, 2011, so did spend the day with him.

I met a fellow FTer tonight, YEGcited and we hoisted a few pints in Dave & Charles memory.