Road Trip: Take 2.

We woke up bright and early (4:30 am) at the in-laws on May 5th, to begin our journey to Colorado Springs.  Besides the sleepy eyes, we had a great road trip.  Just the two of us.  Right as the sun was rising we turned the corner in the canyon that gave us the first view of Bear Lake.  It was beautiful.  For those of you who haven't seen Bear Lake, you are missing out.  It is such a beautiful deep blue body of water.  Now for those of you who have seen Bear Lake, but haven't seen the sun rising right above it are definitely missing out.  It couldn't have been more perfect timing.  We stopped in little america a few hours later at 8 am and got big ice cream cones.  There is no "right time" to eat ice cream when on a road trip.  Besides accidentally driving to Nebraska (oops, missed our exit about 40 minutes back) it was a pretty uneventful drive, full of good talks, good music, and good company.  We pulled into my sister's driveway at 6 in the evening, unpacked our car, showered, ate dinner, and then we decided to scope out the area before Derick's work meeting at 9.  We were exhausted but so happy to finally be at our destination after weeks of packing, planning, and then hours of driving.

The meeting was...not what we had expected.

At 9 o'clock we had all gone there expecting a meeting where Derick's MSI boss would pump up everyone going out to sell the next day.  He brought the other boss, from Garbage Man, along with some ice cream.  We were all crammed in the hotel kitchen (where everyone else was staying for the night until they could get settled in to their apartments. We were so grateful to be living with my sister). The kitchen was hot, probably 20 degrees hotter than necessary, and everyone was exhausted.  Both of the bosses seemed pumped up and excited to be there.  A few minutes after they started talking, though, we found out Colorado Springs just was not ready for them to sell there.  There had been some third party issues that neither MSI, or Garbage Man, had foreseen, that had come into the equation half an hour before the meeting, and had been completely out of their control, and CS just would not be ready for them to sell until July or August. They started talking about Minnesota, where Garbage Man had originated, saying it was a prime location for selling, trying to convince us Colorado Springs really wasn't a good idea, and that we would do much, much better selling in Minnesota.  Everyone was stunned.  After what seemed like hours of them telling us the pros and cons of selling in either area we all went upstairs into a hotel room and discussed our options without the bosses chiming in.  As a team everyone knew it would be a disaster if we stayed where we were, but we also couldn't fathom the idea of having to drive for 2 more days, and completely going somewhere we had not planned on at all.  The money issue was a complete other side of it.  None of us had planned on spending that much more on gas, hotels, food, and wear and tear on our cars.  We unanimously decided the only way we would be up to it was if Garbage Man or MSI would reimburse us for every cent that it took us to get to Minnesota.  At 2 in the morning Derick and I drove back to my sister's and we told her and my brother in-law the news.  At that point we had seriously started considering just staying there, living with them, and getting jobs as servers or something.  The money wouldn't be what we had expected but we had already left everything back home and there was no way we could go back.  Not yet anyway.   After hardly a wink of sleep, the next morning we drove back to the hotel and found out that Garbage Man was willing to reimburse us for our journey to Minnesota-- we would be leaving that day, in one hour.  Not only had all of our plans changed but I had also been planning on doing an internship for my sister and getting another part time job. Now the legitimate worry of  what the heck am I going to do all day while in Minnesota?? entered my mind.  We got back to my sister's to pack up and I had an extreme, sobbing, emotional break down.  My sister calmed me down and told me it would be ok, and that when the company was ready for us in Colorado she would be waiting.  We packed up our car, once again, and said goodbye.  After a few more emotional break downs on my end, lunch at a chinese restaurant, a car in the group that wouldn't start for 3 hrs in a gas station parking lot, we were finally on the road to leave at 5 that afternoon.  Ready or not Minnesota, here we come.