That's right! I'm finally on vacation!

People asked me, "Why the second week of November?"

I replied, "It's far enough away that the company can make their schedules around it."

See, I have this habit of getting screwed out of my vacations. Mostly due to the fact that we have no employees or something, but this year I decided I wouldn't let that happen. Vacations involves coordinating the schedules of all the other three shops, and it's never incredibly easy. It doesn't help when the district manager ruins the schedule I wrote (which he does on a nearly weekly basis). First, they ask me to write a schedule. Then, they butcher it until it looks nothing like what I had originally planned, if it still even looks like a schedule at all!

But here I am! I've had an awesome time, cruising across the country. My bank even called me, warning me that my credit card number has been popping up in random places all over the nation.

I guess it's pretty close to my dream vacation: Me, my car, and a bottomless tank of gas! I've been subsisting on mostly pretzels (those little square waffle-ey ones!) and dried fruit (with a stray burger or omelet mixed in somewhere), and I'm loving it! My intention was to visit Mt. Rushmore (which I've now done!), but beyond that, I'm making it up as I go along. No hotel reservations, only simple snacks, and quite frankly, no real plans at all.

Maybe I'm just easy to please.

The mountains are beautiful. Driving in the mountains is fun! Twisting and turning, and in the dark there's an added element of danger. Exhilarating!

I spent two and a half days just straight driving. Today I did some sight seeing, and tomorrow, I start the long drive home. I even spent most of today in the car (sometimes headed in the wrong direction...).

I guess what I was looking for was freedom: the freedom to do what I want, when I want... And with it, I've done mostly nothing at all. It's been the best nothing I've ever done! I sometimes think that my shop would explode if I wasn't there to watch it. Well, it hasn't blown up yet! But it's come close. It's in good hands. Remember the girl who "quit" a while back? Yup. That's who's watching over things for me.

Now, about that second week of vacation they owe me...