Before the backcountry comes the road; the more than likely long, grueling drive that takes you to your destination. What excites me the most about the open road is what it offers: possibilities. We plan, we map, we make decisions for this part we normally don't look forward to, but, when the rubber hits the road everything changes. At least it does for me. Maybe it's the vastness of looking at a map or the calling of a cleverly named roadside diner but there is always something that pulls me away from my ridged plans.

Many see this as a negative, a distraction from a goal. But my fondest memories have been simple distractions that have perked my attention. So, as you roll through your busy day today, look around, smell the roses, and embrace the distractions around you! Then get back on the road and suddenly the hard parts of your road will be much easier to drive through.

An unnamed lake of the 396... on of my favorite memories on the road!

For some reason or other, I just can't think about Christmas until after Thanksgiving. It seems like each year the decorations show up in the stores earlier and earlier. As if that poor turkey didn't have enough problems in this world, now he has to compete with ole jolly St. Nick!

However, as is our tradition, the family tree went up on Sunday and the Christmas music is playing in our house and I'm ready.  Apparently so is everyone else, as we are having a record sales season so far and it isn't even December yet! So buckle up, everyone, and get ready, as it looks like we've got a busy few weeks ahead. As a team, we will definitely get through it!

Welcome back, team! I hope you all had an awesome Thanksgiving and successfully maneuvered potholes like who you're dating and politics while at the dinner table.

As I'm sure you've seen if you've been in the kitchen in the past few weeks, we finally go our official ranking for Outside Magazine's list of 100 Best Places To Work. We came in at #29, ahead of some awesome companies that set the standard for great company culture, like New Belgium Brewing and CamelBak.

This is an especially cool honor for me to be a part of because I've used these annual lists when I've been job searching many times in the past. These were always the companies that I read about and thought how cool it would be to work for, and now we're one of them!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I just wanted to reiterate how thankful I am to be a part of a team and a company culture that we already knew was awesome internally, but also one that's now being recognized nationally. For those of you just out of college (or even still in college), this isn't something you find everywhere. Or even just anywhere. It's special and it's unique and it's very rare. And it's all of those things because each of us have committed to ensuring it remains each of those things. It takes an entire team to maintain great team chemistry and an incredible company culture.

So cheers to all of you! *beer cheers emoji*