Day One, Auction One, Company One, State One
The fun begins outside on Thursday.  I’m headed to South-Central Minnesota for a farm equipment consignment auction.  The auction features mainly items to do with large farming operations – tractors, tillage, grain trucks, semi-trucks, et cetera.  This auction should be a fun auction.  It’s close to home and is generally done by mid-day.

Day Three, Auction Two, Company Two, State One
On Saturday, it’s another outside auction and it’s still in Minnesota.  This time it’s a heavy equipment auction in Central Minnesota.  This is a quarterly consignment auction and features semi-trucks, bulldozers, backhoes, road graders, skid loaders, and related items.  We start early in the morning at 8am, but I’m normally done working by 2pm.  This is a large auction and the day normally passes quick.

Day Four – Six, Auction Three, Company Three, State Two
Sunday, I’m getting on a plane headed for Reno where I’ll hop into a car and head for Carson City, Nevada.  Once there, I’m going to take in some of the sights — although I haven’t quite figured out what those sights may be.  Monday, I’ve got some work for our office in Minnesota to complete via the Internet, and I’ve also got to do a site visit at the auction site where I’ll be working on Tuesday.  The auction is a commercial business liquidation auction.  It’s for a company I’ve never worked before – so it should be a fun day.  It’s always fun and interesting to work with new people, and learn how they run their business.  It’s also going to be nice to mix in a little fun and relaxation.

Day Six – Seven/Eight, Auction Four, Company Four, State Three
After the auction, I’m headed over the mountains to Sacramento, California.  It’s there that I’ve got another auction.  This time the auction is on Wednesday – meaning not much free time to explore Sacramento on Tuesday (as I’ll be working in Nevada).  As a result, I’m hoping the drive (about three hours) from Carson City to Sacramento is going to be picturesque.  Best I can tell from my limited online research, it’s going to be a beautiful trip as long as I don’t have to deal with snow! The auction is a commercial business liquidation auction of a bakery production line.  Again, it’s for a company I’ve not worked for in the past – yet another learning experience from a different business perspective.  After the auction, I’m catching a red-eye (leaving at 12:30am on Thursday) home to Minnesota (arriving at 10am) in able to sneak into the office on Thursday afternoon.

It’s going to be a busy seven days starting this Thursday.  However, it’s what I thrive on – mixing work and pleasure for a variety of different companies (four auctions with four different auction companies in three different states).  The time, I’m sure, is going to zip by as it always does.  But, the learning experiences (there are always a bunch) are going to be well worth the time spent.