Barrett Jackson Week

Barrett-Jackson auction was last week. For the last 3 or 4 years, we have gone as bidders, which got us 2 week long passes, got Dave on stage with the cars, 2 tickets to the opening night Gala, 2 tickets to a fashion show, a parking pass, and 10 free alcoholic drinks per day – per person (Needless to say, we didn’t use very many of those) This year, they tripled the minimum deposit right out of our tax bracket! So we resigned ourselves to one - maybe 2 - days this year.

So we started off the B-J week with the Pavillion’s car show the Saturday before. B-J was out there judging the cars. Morgan notices the two guys from the auctions on TV– Steve and Gary – and wanted to get their autographs. So she and I went over. They gave her their autographs, and because she new her name was the same as a car – Steve handed her 2 tickets. Well, Dave had already spoken to Gary about the price increase, and he remembered me, so he said ‘and there’s the dad’. I added ‘and a little sister’. So Steve gave us 4 tickets! Sweet – a whole day for all 4 of us! Thank you very much, Steve. Then he said – “those are week long passes - ”SCORE!!!!!!!!!!!! I could kiss you Steve. So now, Dave could go every day like he so loves to do. (Except for Tuesday – we had tickets to The Lion King (GO IF YOU CAN!!!) ) So Monday comes around and we all go back to work. I don’t know too many gear heads, but I’m able to tell a few people about them and they are so jealous. Dave works with women who barely pump their own gas, so they don’t care. Poor Dave. But Lo and Behold – a friend of theirs comes in with a VIP packet for Dave. 2 VIP passes (for all week), 2 Gala tickets, 2 Fashion show tickets, a parking pass (starting to sound familiar?) and drink tickets for each guest – yup – 10 per day per person. Holy Moly! Everything except the special badge to go on stage! That just made our week –our month! We now had 6 week long passes to B-J plus all the other fun stuff as well. Needless to say – we went Monday night, I took a day off and we both went all day Wednesday, Dave went after work Thursday, took my dad on Friday, his dad on Saturday, me on Saturday night, and all four of us on Sunday. I think we saw everything (and everyone!).

I’ve never gone on Saturday night before. It is a room full of excitement as the highest dollar vehicles are driven over the block. This year, the high dollar one was an airplane, and no it wasn’t flown in. They had 3 or 4 charity cars – where every dime bid goes to the charity, with no premiums paid to B-J at all. Very Cool. They raised over $2M for charities. One of the cars was an old race car of Jeff Gordon, one from Tony Stewart, one from Dale Earnhardt Sr., one from John Force.







Sunday, Rusty Wallace was selling one of his personal cars.


Because of our VIP passes, we were able to get up close and personal.

We had a great time. The girls even seem to enjoy looking at the cars. We all have such diverse taste in cars. Morgan likes the early 60s, I like the 59 and before, Kendra likes the newer models (not sure what kind or year, she’s the most diverse of all!) and Dave likes them all!

After Christmas Fun

We took a little trip up to Overgaard to see what we could see. Actually, to see if we could still find snow. There was some at the trailer,

but Dave needed more. So we took a drive up to Greer, to Montlure - the girl's church camp.

Such a peaceful place anyway,

but to see it all covered in un-walked in snow made the 3' we trudged our way through so worth it.

We, of course, forgot there was a cattle guard at the entrance!

Didn't get pics, but you should have seen our big brown 'bear' (Kody) trying to stay above the snow. It was so funny to watch him squint while jumping over the snow, trying to get to one or another of us. He had to keep us all in check, you know.

We found a hill to slide down and a fun time was had by all.

Kendra,

Morgan

and even Sue

took a turn. Dave did too, but the camera was off at the time - sorry.

New Year's Eve was spent in our 6 or so year long tradition - fondue'ing with the Durrenberger's. Our girls are so loud and crazy, but they have so much fun. We learned to play another game of cards - Wizard. It was a lot of fun! We might just have to play that again. Rummy gets old after a couple of hands! It think that makes - umm - our 4th different kind of card game we can play! Yea for us! Thanks Bill & H! (More Info and pics are here. http://www.azreadinglady.blogspot.com/)

Here's to all good things in 2009! We love you all.