Batteries Recharged

As my computer informed you a couple weeks ago, I was on vacation—a driving tour of parts of Idaho, Montana, Utah, and a teeny bit of Wyoming (Yellowstone.) Three national parks and 2700+ miles later I’m back with my batteries recharged.

Unlike the Donald*, I’m a firm believer in taking breaks from work. No matter how much you enjoy what you do, I think most people benefit from a change of scenery and not thinking about their job. You come back with a new perspective and new ideas.

I didn’t actively think about my WIP on the trip, but my mind must have been working away because I came up with some new ideas that will make the story much stronger. I jotted them down in the handy-dandy notepad I carry in my purse because otherwise I’d forget them. Since I returned, I’ve begun incorporating the ideas into the book.

I’ll leave you with a few photos from my trip.

Here I am at the Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot, ID. By the way, Idaho has the nicest rest areas of any state in the west. Okay, Oregon has good ones, too. Hey, these things are important on driving trips.

Yep, that’s a real bison wandering around a parking lot in Yellowstone.

Here’s a photo of Glacier National Park in Northwestern Montana. Even with three fires burning in the park, the air was remarkably clear and the scenery beautiful when we were there.

Here are a couple pics of Arches National Park. Much hotter here in eastern Utah and not as clear. The 16 or so fires burning in Washington state were causing bad air in Idaho, Montana, and parts of Utah. (Montana and Idaho seems to have taken the brunt of it.)

*In his book, Think Like a Billionaire, Trump gives ten ways to think like a billionaire. The first one is “Don’t take vacations.” He believes there’s no point to them. “If you’re not enjoying your work, you’re in the wrong job.”