Fucking around and experiencing life.

Man, I don't know where to begin.

I guess it started when I got my truck insured on the Monday morning that was November 23, 2009, as well as deposited two fairly big scholarship checks that most likely won't be spent on post-secondary education. My sister says I'm cheating the system by getting free money whose future probably won't involve college. I'm not going to lie when I say that I hope I won't have to spend anymore money on college, I really don't think it's for me.. we'll see.

The truck was insured so I could drive my sister back to her school. We were both pretty excited to go and spend the day together, just the two of us. We always have fun together. The day was spent going to a mall (which required some city driving. I think I did extremely well driving through the city, it boosted my driving confidence), buying expensive things and watching a movie. I think my sister was a bit embarrassed by my truck at times, but that's okay: I still love it.

(FYI: it's taken me about.. 6 hours to write this much. I've been running back and forth, doing other things. Just though I'd let you know how much effort I put into these things!)

Well, after I dropped my sister off at her college, I started my drive home, alone and in the dark. The thought had popped into my head earlier on the way to Calgary (where my sister goes to school), but as I was driving home, it came again: I was going to be driving over the Trans Canada Highway.
Ah, where does that highway go?
Why, yes, it does go across Canada. But the part where it goes into the mountains is the part I cared about and I wanted to go to the mountains badly. So what did I do?
Well, I sat in the parking lot of the gas station sitting right by the overpass and Highway 1, contemplating the pros and cons of me taking off down the highway instead of going back home. I ended up turning around and started heading home, thinking that I couldn't go driving into the mountains, I had an eye appointment sometime this week and it was too reckless. A Tim Hortons sign caught my eye so I pulled in and grabbed a medium mocha. As I sat in the parking lot, I texted my mom, asking when my eye appointment was. The idea of turning back to Highway 1 was still pounding my mind. She told me it was in two days.
A lot can be accomplished in two days.
More specifically, a lot of driving can be done in two days. I could go on a two day adventure, it's enough time for me go somewhere in the Rockies and satisfy my mountain fixation for a little while at least!
So that's exactly what I did.

The drive was dark, windy and quite exhilarating. I was accompanied by mainly semi trucks and their wickedly bright headlights reflecting in my mirrors. Driving into the Rockies, the first town you go through is Canmore. I've been through the town many times before, but this being the first time I was there by myself, well, it was pretty exciting. It took me a bit longer than I thought to find the information center, where I parked my truck for the night and called my parents. Let's just say they weren't entirely pleased. I think sometimes my dad needs to give the world and I some more credit. It seems that to him, I am next to defenseless and the world is a very dangerous place with mad people wanting to hurt me.
It drives me nuts. Yes, there are some people out there who aren't the nicest, but majority of humans don't want to hurt others! I'm sure they would rather help than hurt. He worries way too much. It's unhealthy to worry too much. Just cut me some slack, please!

Sleeping in the truck was okay; it was hard finding a comfortable position. Not to mention that the heater wouldn't work unless I was actually driving the truck! It was a good thing that Melissa brought one of my blankets that morning or I would have been pretty chilled, even with my big, parka-like coat and gloves. When I decided to start driving again, it was still dark and fairly early in the morning because I didn't want to try and sleep anymore.

That morning I actually drove back and forth between Canmore and Banff quite a few times.. I just couldn't decide where to go. I tried driving down Highway 1, but there was so much snow blowing and I couldn't see, so I turned around and went back to Canmore. Then I tried again as the weather was clearing up and tried to drive up the Bow Valley Parkway but that failed as it was covered in snow and I was sliding all over the place, so I turned around again and went back to Canmore. It came down to the point when I was going to head home, but I saw two guys on the side of the road that looked to be around my age. I turned around and was going to see if they needed help or a ride or something, but they were gone. So, I kept going west on Highway 1 and found that it had cleared up immensely and at least the one lane was mostly free of snow and ice. No more turning around!

Okay, since I'm getting tired of typing this out, I'll make it short and sweet from now on. I didn't stop a lot the rest of the day. I think I probably stopped around 3-4 times between going from Canmore to Golden and back to Canmore. My favourite place I stopped at was Vermillion Lakes (I went there on the way to Golden and then on the way back). It's a small side road that goes along the lakes. Very pretty, it has an awesome view of Mount Rundle. Yeah, I drove all the way to Golden, British Columbia. It was wicked.

The gas prices in Golden was wicked too; it was $109.09 a liter there! The whole trip cost a pretty penny.. that truck sucks gas like you can't believe, but after that trip, I'm sure my truck could drive to hell and back. I was sure pleased with it and glad it didn't fall apart or die on me up there! The only damage it received was from the deer I clipped on the last stretch (not even an hour away from home!). Damn thing jumped out right in front of me from the left, so I braked and went left as it was already on my right and the right headlight and corner got crunched as it hit the deer's flank. Stupid.. I don't even care about the deer; I was sooo close to home and I was tired of driving. But the sunset leaving the Rockies was pretty. It's always pretty in the mountains at sunrise and sunset; the lighting is amazing.

It was a lovely trip. My parents were more happy to see me than angry. Mom was seriously worried about my dad's blood pressure, I guess it's been kind of high lately and me taking off like I did didn't help. My sister told me she was jealous of me. I don't blame her, she's got a lot of school work on her plate. My brother said I was ridiculous and couldn't believe I did that.

Now I feel like I can go anywhere I want, which is awesome. Even though my parents would flip if I took off again. They told me not to do that ever again.. we'll see. They said that they would have let me gone if I had approached it from another way, but I know that's bullshit. They wouldn't have let me go; fat chance. Dad would've said it's not safe and the truck isn't fit to drive in the mountains. Whatever.

My eyes are now sighted on Guatemala. We'll see how this will fly. I have a good friend living down there now and I've been talking with her about it quite a bit. My parents said they'd think about it.
I've already made my decision and I'm sick of waiting for theirs. I've been doing it for 18 years.

Rachel