Just got back from a spectacular weekend in Vermont with Dawg. We had one goal: Take my dad to the 4-Wheel Jamboree monster truck show at the Champlain Valley Expo on Saturday. Let’s see if we met the goal…

Friday I took a half day off work so that I could shop for kitty food so Mama Dawg could take proper care of the girls while we were away, pack our stuff, and rest up for my leg of the driving to Vermont. After saying goodbye to the girls we dropped off Dawg’s work truck at his parents’ garage then made quick stops to the gas station for snacks for my car and 7-Eleven for snacks for us humans then we were OFF! … Juuuust as the torrential rain started. And all the traffic. A normally 2.5-hour lasting journey to a Cracker Barrel in Massachusetts turned into 4.5 hours of white knuckle stop and start in heavy rain and traffic. When we finally did get to Massachusetts it was 9:30pm and we had to pee! so we did, then we had food — I had the country chef salad with blue cheese dressing, Dawg had the pot roast with a name I don’t remember plus mac and cheese, dumpling, and mashed potatoes with gravy — and went shopping in the store for treats to bring with us for the ride and hotel room.

At this point, around 10:30pm, we switched off driving and I drove us to the gas station for a fill-up then the rest of the journey in… gah, no more rain but such heavy fog that I could only do 40 mph safely for most of the trip. We arrived at the wrong hotel at 1:25am, were told there was another hotel just another driveway down, and arrived at the correct, sold out hotel, at 1:30am. THANK GOODNESS I have done enough travelling to have had my room given away before so I had the forethought to call ahead and tell them we wouldn’t be in until closer to midnight than the check-in time of 4pm (heh). After settling into the room we finally got to sleep for about 2:30am. (I might, maybe have said the words, “I know it’s one-thirty in the morning, but are we gonna have sex?” and since Dawg loves me so very, very much he granted my request. With the condition that he got to sleep in a half hour. :s Eh, totally worth it.)

At 7:30am I got up and got dressed then woke Dawg up so that he could do the same. We made a quick trip to Dunkin’ Donuts for coffees then went to pick up my dad and stepmom for the monster truck show. No hitches there, they were dressed and ready and raring to go. I had left my sunscreen in Dawg’s truck back in NYC so at the 7-Eleven on the way to VT I had picked up Banana Boat SPF 50, but I had forgotten to pack ANY hats so I purchased a Monster Attitude hat from some really nice Canadian girls who were selling Brutus, Spike, and Avenger memorabilia. Dawg bought a red Spike shirt and an orange Brutus shirt then we went in to watch the mud bog. We got confused and thought we weren’t allowed to take photos (some of the signage said we couldn’t) so I didn’t, but it was lots of fun watching the trucks try to get through the 100-ft track of super murky mud. Of course, they had a truck on super huge tractor wheels go through last and clear the mud with ease to get the crowd riled up. Then after the bog we walked around until it was time for the main monster truck event.

We decided we would grab some Al’s French Frys food and bring it back into the grandstand with us since two years ago when my dad and I had tried to get into the grandstand when Grave Digger was there the doors to the stands were shut in our faces just as the event was starting and we couldn’t get in so had to watch from the fenced area. This time we got GREAT seats and Dawg, my dad, and I picked our favorite monster truck. Dawg chose Spike, and since I had been debating between Spike and Brutus it was then an easy choice: Brutus!!!! My dad loves Avenger from all the TV show competitions he’s seen him compete in so he chose Avenger. Little did Dawg or I know that Spike, Brutus, and Avenger are all part of Team Scream.

Spike

Brutus

Avenger

As soon as the first of the monster trucks got out on the field the announcer said, “get out your cameras! This is gonna be good!” so all the people who had been muttering about not being able to take photos went, “HUH? OH! YAY!” and pulled out our cameras! And boy, am I glad I did. I didn’t have my camera out when Spike flipped over onto his roof, but I did when they were flipping Spike back onto his wheels.

Spike on his head

Getting rolled

Back on his feet

And the crowd went WILD when he was able drive off the field!

Well, that’s the way I like to remember it. Actually, the announcer had pumped up the crowd by telling us free t-shirts and cup coozies would be thrown at people who cheered the loudest, but *I* was cheering for Spike.

And since Brutus is Spike’s monster truck brother, and Brutus’s theme song was Who Let the Dogs Out, and he was my choice for favorite, and he was FANTASTIC, I went WILD when he came out…

Brutus tearing up the lawn

and was the only one until he started doing ALL kinds of crazy tricks and dug up the most dirt when spinning around on the ground, then the crowd actually did go wild for him and he got the most applause and cheering as he left the field.

My dad’s Avenger car was pretty great, too. It’s a green 57 Chevy that is pretty famous on the monster truck circuit.

Yup yup, he was good.

AND THEN WE LEFT! And had creemees from the 100-flavor creemee stand near my dad’s home. Dawg has photos of this, all I have is a fresh memory of a chocolate-peanut butter creemee that I couldn’t finish because it was too huge.

Then I was super tired so Dawg and I dropped off the parents and left to the hotel so we could nap before dinner. I woke up at 8:30pm, changed, then woke up Dawg so we could grab some dinner at the yummy steakhouse down the street. Very glad we did, we both had fantastic steaks. Dawg had a steak and rib combo that he enjoyed by making obscene sexual noises while sucking the meat off the rib bones, and I just kept going, “mm, this is AWESOME!” over my New York strip steak.

Dawg’s steak and ribs

My NY strip steak

Chocolate Stampede for 2 (or 12, whichever)

We got dessert to go, bought some plasticware at the grocery store across the street (rather than ask for something they should have given us I felt like going to my old grocery haunt instead…), and went to the hotel for chocolate stampede, a suspenseful 2 hours of Angels & Demons on Pay-per-View, then some angel and demon action in the bed (ooooommmmmmgggggggg wheeeeee), and I was out like a light before Dawg.

Sunday arrived too quickly. We are old so we took our sweet time getting ready, packing, and leaving. We headed for Denny’s for a quick breakfast that turned out to take forever (our waitress had too many tables, not her fault), and I had something new! Pancake Puppies! They are pancake batter fried with a coating of cinnamon and sugar. They’re served with fake maple syrup, but please skip that. It’s the delicious puppies themselves that you want to eat. They are AMAZING, like pancakey donuts that are still fresh out of the fryer delicious. I didn’t have my camera so I can’t show you mine (although some are sitting in my fridge, but I’m old and lazy) but trust me, they are delicious.

After Denny’s we made a stop at the convenience store for more snacks (we really like to have snack options) then a stop to Dunkin Donuts for ice coffees, then I did my leg of the trip in the pouring rain all the way to the same Cracker Barrel but this time we just used the bathroom and ducked back out (heh) then switched drivers and gassed up at the Shell. As soon as I was on the passenger’s side I opened the remainder of my birthday presents from Dawg and the girls: A second camera battery charger for my Canon, and a fur clipping kit with oil and spray for the clippers so I can groom Ripley at home. (I might have had a psychotic episode in front of Dawg where I was irrationally worried that leaving her at an unknown groomer’s to be groomed for the day might result in her being sold to the highest bidder — she’s gorgeous and very friendly!) Dawg drove the rest of the trip in better-ish weather and when we got into town we ordered East Meets West then went to Mama Dawg’s for his work truck so we could drive both vehicles home to the apartment… and here we are! Home! Two pieces! The one goal of the weekend has been met! Yippy!

Here’s the whole set of photos. You will enjoy them comma dammit. I promise!