This past weekend 3 of the 5 of us headed up to Sacramento for the California Trucking Association's Truck "Roadeo" State Finals. Greg, Nicole and I jumped on a plane with a few other FedEx guys Saturday morning.
Nicole was amazing through the whole flight, but I was very thankful it was only a little over an hour to our destination...she does NOT like to sit in one place!!!
One smile and she had every male and female stewardess in love with her...we even got two pairs of wings for her since it was her first time (one for her to play with and one for her baby book!)
She LOVED playing with the bags of animal crackers they were handing out, they kept her entertained for a while - and luckily she didn't destroy the contents of the package too much in the process! We booked a window and an aisle seat for the flight and luckily no one decided to sit between us so we had plenty of room!
Once we arrived we picked up our rental car (it's in a picture down below and I have to say, I really like driving it!!) and headed to the large parking lot where the Northern Regional competition was taking place Saturday afternoon so the guys could see the area and we could see where everything was. Then we went to dinner at Guy Fieri's Restaurant called Tex Wasabi. It was a BBQ seafood place. Despite not having a nap yet, Nicole was a champ and sat in a high chair, gnawed on some chopsticks and just charmed every waitress in that place!
The guys were a blast to hang out with, and real sports for letting "the wife and kid" tag along. We laughed a lot, learned what Donkey Sauce was and watched those guys eat an unhealthy amount of meat and sushi. I had a Cobb Salad with the shrimp left off...I was totally no fun! One of the guys ordered "Jackass Rolls" (seriously...they even came with Donkey Sauce) and on the side of his plate was some Wasabi...Oh the Cars 2 jokes that started from there...it didn't hurt that everyone but Greg and I was already tipsy from cocktail hour at the bar!!
Then we all headed to Old Town Sacramento and walked along the river and checked out the shops and all that was there. It was an interesting experience because there were tons of weirdos...and a school was having their prom nearby, so lots of girls in slutty dresses and heels that even Lady Gaga would roll her eyes at. Enough girls kept tripping on the boards that we started counting and placing bets as to which girls would trip and fall as they came over the railroad tracks onto the boardwalk. Of course, it was the girls in the REALLY short dresses that had the ridiculous heels on...it made for good laughs.
This golden bridge is a real working draw bridge...unfortunately it never was used while we were there, but it was cool to see close up!!
The guys just relaxed and talked, checked out the river and we all had a good laugh when we saw what looked like what we called an "Occupy the River" camp below the bridge. A bunch of younger people with marijuana tattoos and dogs just sitting on the bank.
I have never been to a Joe's Crab Shack, but I hear it's something special...there were at least 100 people outside waiting to be called in and over the loudspeakers they were having raffles and singing...it was kinda weird.
There she is...the Versa. Thankfully they gave us a hatch back because I don't know how we would have gotten our stroller and luggage into anything else!! It was a fun little car to drive!!
And here are all the guys on Sunday at the competition, posing in front of a FedEx Truck...they decided to let go the fact that it was a Freight truck (they are all from Express).
There is Greg driving, he decided to try flatbed this year, but is at a disadvantage since he had never driven a flatbed before the regional competition and the guys at the state level drive them for a living. Look at how long that thing is!!!
Sunday night our plane was delayed until almost 9:00 p.m., and we were at the airport around 3:00 p.m. since we all headed over there after the competition. Everyone else with us got on the earlier flight that had been delayed until about 3:30 because they had no checked bags or kids...and we were stuck there until their plane went to Long Beach, turned around and came back, and since it was already delayed over 2 hours we had a long wait. On the plus side we got to see the Solar Eclipse from a prime spot in the airport where they had a glass wall and a sweet couple who let us borrow their special glasses. This picture was taken from behind the glasses. I didn't get there to see it and take a picture until after it had passed through the center...Greg saw it though in the middle. It was neat to see, so that helped make up for the delayed flight.
After looking at the eclipse we were walking back to wait for 2-1/2 more hours and we saw the FedEx plane outside....we wondered if we could jump on that plane to get home?!?
I also was reminded of how great it was to have a husband who works in the "airline" industry (FedEx is technically an airline)....his security badges for the airports down here let us skip a 45 minutes security wait at the Sacramento Airport....boy did some of the people give us dirty looks when we waltzed past them to the priority line!!
It was a great weekend, we had fun checking out the state capital and just hanging around with some great guys. We missed the kids though and were glad to be back home Sunday night.
