I don't believe in a lot of things, but I do believe in Duct Tape

On vacation and on the road! Heading to Alliance, Nebraska this time. What's in Alliance Nebraska, you ask. Carhenge! Which is exactly what it sounds like, lol.

There's also a state park in Scottsbluff, NE that's in my National Parks passport book, so I'll be based out of there for a couple of days. Scottsbluff is not too far from Alliance, so it'll be my 'base of operations'.

Also, on the drive home there will be many stops at odd and weird roadside attractions. :)

Also also, the only interstate/highway in Nebraska is I-80. That's it. One. There's like, five or six in Illinois. It's just weird that's only one in Nebraska.

Anyway, need to pack the cooler and get the car loaded up and then I'm on the road! My first road trip in the Element!!

Got home last night, and MAN was it a wonderful thing to sleep in my own bed again. My own bed, my own shower, music that doesn't twang and is from this decade.

The last few hours of driving were rough as far as music in the car went. After a week in the south I'd had more than enough country, but my mom doesn't like the same music as me, so we compromised on oldies/classic rock when we could find it on the dial. Sometimes we'd get modern music, but only until a song came on that was too heavy on the guitars or the 'dance/club' type of beat. Then it would be changed. I was DYING for some Metallica by the end. Or anything other than what we'd been listening to.

But other than all that, it was a great week. Got to see my sister and bil and grandpa. Got caught up on all the family gossip - my one cousin is in jail again for meth-related stuff, another one went out to the west coast for some guy she'd met online only with nothing but the money he'd sent her and he ended up leaving her there alone, brother of the meth-head is doing shit-all ith his life while his bby-mama is God knows where and his parents are raising his kid and his sister's kids. And they (the parents) are such good people, too. They really don't deserve kids like that. They worked several jobs at once to try and provide for their kids, and look how they're paid back. Every time I go down there I am so grateful my parents moved up here to raise us. I shudder to think what my life could be like otherwise.

But Pam and Brock are good, Grandpa's good, and that's all that matters to me.

Now I have two weeks of laundry and teevee to catch up on.

Leaving this morning with mom for North Carolina to visit my sister. We're driving it, of course. The Biltmore Estate has all their Christmas decorations up, I guess, so we're going to hit that again. Pam said that she was going to try and get us onto one of the candlelit tours in the evening. It sounds really nice. It was beautiful when were there earlier this year; I can't wait to see it all decorated for the holidays.

Mom's driving first because, a) her back and hip and everything are better in the morning than later in the day, and b) I was out late last night at an A-Team event on the Odyssey II at Navy Pier. It was a champagne dinner cruise for the MDA, and it was a lot of fun. We got to dress up and get all fancy, lol. The store was having a beauty event that day, with Kathy Snyder, so a few of us got our make-up done at work.

The food was excellent, there was dancing, a silent auction (I bid on a Kate Spade bag. Don't think I got it, though), cocktails, and a wine pull.

I think I only got a few hours of sleep last night. Ugh. But it was worth it because we had a blast. Can't wait to see the pictures, lol. A couple of the younger girls were going out after, and if I didn't have to leave at the butt-crack of dawn this morning, I would have gone with. Oh well.

Gotta go pack the cooler and load up the car.