What a fantastic event this year!  We had it all together and were a big hit for the show.  About 8:30am Saturday morning, me, Herb T, Glen V, Danny K and Fred H, John K and Ronnie W, and Toby C and Stephan met at Dorsett's 221 truck stop for breakfast.  After some super 'grazing', we convoyed down to San Antonio to the Alamodome for the annual Monster Truck Show.

Upon arrival at our designated place (which was a parking mess by 10:00am), we proceeded to registration before unloading the vehicles.  This was a small departure from years past and it seemed to work just fine.  We waited in line for a bit, received our tickets and wristbands and headed back to unload.  We were told this year we could stage inside considerably earlier than past years so we moved our vehicles to the staging area and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Finally, about 1:30pm, Ronnie and I headed over to Bill Millers BBQ and returned with chopped beef sandwiches and sweet tea just as the group was headed inside!

We got all six vehicles and the bicycle staged and ate lunch.  Now comfortably inside were John's MB, Herb's GPW, Glen's CJ2A, Toby's MB, my M38A1 and Colson bicycle and Danny's M151A2.  Promptly at 2pm, the doors opened for the pit party and the fun began.  Just about everyone had lots of stories to relate to the spectators about the vehicles, the club and what we do.  Danny was handing out fired brass casings to the kids and signing shirts left and right.  I noticed a guy stealing an inert grenade from Danny's vehicle and got it back.  (turns out he was either ejected at minimum or arrested for felony terrorist threat).  The party continued on until 5pm when the Hooters Girls were in striking range.  I ran over and convinced them to get in each vehicle and a pic was taken.  (can you say SCREENSAVER!)

We were told earlier that we would be part of the opening ceremony and again transporting the singer of the National Anthem to center arena at the beginning of the show.  (so john, just how do you get to do that every year???  :-)  )  When the pit party was over, we headed out and back to the trailers where we enjoyed good company and beverage amongst ourselves.  

About 6:15pm, we headed back to the 'dome for staging in the tunnel.  We were going to be part of the ceremony.  At 7pm, the monster trucks headed into the Alamodome.  Then, the lights went down, Lee Greenwood started on the speaker system singing "God Bless the USA" and we were off.  As we entered the Alamodome, we could hear the announcer saying the show was a tribute to the "Armed Forces".  The crowd absolutely cut-loose and was cheering, yelling, whistling and on their feet.  To enter the Alamodome in our magnificent vehicles with the house lights out and nothing but spotlights on us gave everyone driving goosebumps.  We made it half way through the circuit and stopped at which point John headed stage center for the National Anthem.  She sang, and we were off to load up.

Meanwhile, back at the trailers it was a different story.  As mentioned earlier, the parking was a mess at 10:00am with trailers and tow vehicles and others parked in a hodge-podge fashion.  It took a bit of skill for all of us to load up but we did it.  Herb, Toby and Stephan headed back to Austin and the rest came in for the show.

After finding our seats, food was the next item up.  Then it was sit back and watch the show.  As usual, the quads raced and the monster trucks did their thing.  Half-time intermission was a top fuel dragster revving up 7,000 horsepower.  The show continued with the monster truck races and freestyle where Gravedigger won.