Saturday morning, dad and I headed over to a fellow club member Herb's to convoy down to Dorsett's 221 Truck Stop on IH-35 just South of Austin.  The plan was to meet there, have some food and then convoy down as a larger group to San Antonio.  As me, dad, Herb and his wife Nikki arrived at Dorsett's, so did Toby and Ray.  We had a great breakfast and rolled on down to San Antonio with the threat of wet skies for the 4th year in a row.

Upon arrival at the Alamodome, we all unloaded our trailers and prepared the jeeps for registration.  Low and behold, a registration person was driving around in a golf cart and invited us to register early instead of braving the crowds later.  We all hurried the jeeps into the Alamodome and staged in the proper area then promptly registered and received our tickets for the evening events.  As we were discussing what to do next, John K and his friend Ronnie arrived and John shuttled his jeep in as well and then registered.  Still no sigh of Houston W and his Power Wagon.

With registration behind us it was about lunch-time so we headed over to continue the tradition of eating at Bill Miller BBQ.  We all headed that way and watched the Alamodome parking lot fill up with other show vehicles and the beginnings of the spectator parking for the pit party.  And then the rain started.  We hung out at Bill Millers as long as possible and braved a stiff drizzle back to the 'dome.  

Promptly at 2pm, the pit party started and the lines for Grave Digger began.  Houston arrived with his Dodge Power Wagon and set-up next to our display.  We had a fair amount of people coming through the mil-veh display and as always, the guns are the draw for the kids and picture taking.  As we say each year, "never again will I let a kid in my jeep".  This year was no different in that they still crawled over everything as if they owned it.  With about 15 minutes left in the pit party, an event organizer came over and asked us if we had our speech ready for reading during the "Military Vehicle Parade".  We had no idea what he was talking about but in fine military fashion, I whipped out a 3 page synopsis of our club, the vehicles, equipment, time periods and a salute to our veterans written on the hood of Toby's 1942 Willys MB.

The pit party was over promptly at 5pm and we were shuttled out of the 'dome and into a holding area (or two or three).  Finally, they placed us in a tunnel where we waited for our grand entry.  At the precise moment given, we all headed out to drive the perimeter of the 'dome while the announcer read the script I had just written.  We received a great response from the spectators and put on a good show.  After the parade, we all headed back to load up the jeeps (now in the rain).  I utilized my ramps for all three loadings and all three jeeps were buttoned up and ready to travel within 5 minutes.  It has to be a record!

In the meantime, John had been sequestered to drive the singer of the National Anthem out for the opening ceremony.  At the beginning of the show, sure enough here comes John's 1945 Willys MB with the house lights off and nothing but spotlights on him, the jeep and the singer.  She exited and began singing.  John exited and remained standing with his jeep running.  About half way through, the smooth idle began to 'putter-sputter' a bit and John nearly had a heart attack.  You see, earlier in the evening, the jeep developed a small fuel delivery issue that never quite resolved itself nor was specific in when it occurred.  So, with the National Anthem over, and the jeep still running, they both exited stage left post-haste where John then loaded up his jeep for the night.

We managed to locate our seats and watch the show.  This year was an auto-cross with demolition derby cars, the fire-breathing car robot, remote-controlled car demonstration, quad races, monster truck racing and the freestyle events.  Toby and Ray had too much fun about mid-show and departed for Austin.  After the show around 10:00pm or so, we let the crowds thin out for about an hour and then it time for us to leave.  At 11:00pm, dad and I, and Herb and Nikki headed North to Austin with the plan to meet back at Dorsett's for dinner.  Dad and I made it there around midnight just in time to see John and Ronnie scooting on by.  Herb and Nikki and already passed us on dinner.  So, me and dad had breakfast at Dorsetts and left there about 1am for home arriving about 1:30am while everyone else was sound asleep and dry for the night.

In the end, this is always a fun event to attend.  We didn't have any of our San Antonio folks show up for the Sunday show, but then again - there isn't a pit party on Sunday.  We hope the organizers received a good feeling about our participation and hope to be invited back next year.