vacation to the nsra western nationals

Reader Beware: this is a recap of a 6 day vacation so it’s LONG!

Wednesday, April 21

Kyle and I both worked Wednesday. He took off work around noon to take the dogs to his parents. 

Zoey and Bruno wanted to go with so they both climbed into one of their travel kennels

When I got home from work we headed to Las Vegas. When we left the house it was hailing like crazy; it hailed and rained so much so fast that our rain gutters had backed up! We drove through the rain, sleet, snow and hail before we made it to Vegas. After all of the weather we hit, I’m glad we didn’t take the Mustang. We would have been swimming in it before we hit Vegas! All we did in Vegas was go to Freemont Street and then to the hotel. We only gambled like 5 bucks and lost it within minutes so we headed to the room. We stayed at Palace Station because it’s just off the strip and has great quality rooms for a great price! We had a petite suite because Kyle found a great deal online!

Check out the view from our suite!

Thursday, April 22

We woke up early and had the buffet breakfast ($4.99, you gotta love Vegas!) at the hotel and headed on our way. It was raining like crazy in the morning. Before we left Vegas, we stopped by the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop from the TV show Pawn Stars. They were filming so it was pretty busy but we saw 3 of the 4 main people on the show (Chumlee, the Old Man, and Big Hoss). A guy had just sold an old cigarette vending machine and said the episode would air in June. We’ll keep the DVR ready! 

The Gold & Silver Pawn Shop

We also went on a tour of the Shelby factory. The tour was okay for me, but Kyle really enjoyed seeing the shops where they make Shelby Cobras and Mustangs. We weren’t allowed to take pictures in the workshops, but we took some in the museum.

Kyle in front of the museum/factory

Shelby Cobras

Shelby Mustangs

Signing the Wall (Carroll Shelby likes all visitors to give him their autographs)

The weather the rest of the way to Bakersfield was pretty uneventful and actually sunny (finally some SUN on our VACATION!) In Bakersfield, we stopped at registration and picked up our packet and then headed to our hotel to check-in. 

Cars in the hotel parking lot
 

They have a welcome party every year at a huge park, and the food was plentiful as well as the people. We ran a few errands and headed back to the hotel so I could work on homework.

Friday, April 23

We woke up and I took Kyle to the fairgrounds where the show was. I headed back to the hotel until noon to work on more homework. When I got back to the fairgrounds, I headed to the Ladies Tea that NSRA holds on the Friday of every show at 1pm. I love going and meeting all of the other hot-rod ladies. I made lots of new friends this year, and I’m glad I’m starting to see some familiar faces. I even won a door prize! After the tea, I walked around Women’s World which is a section of vendors with just girl stuff. The vendors include jewelry, clothing, handmade items, quilts and much more! I really liked the vendors this year and found some crocheted towels for the kitchen and a ring made out of the handle of old silverware.

Where Kyle is the Utah NSRA safety inspector for Utah, he can work a safety shift at a national show and we get free entrance! So he signs up to work his shift from 1-4 on Friday since I’ll be at the Ladies Tea. This show is actually in his division (the Southwest Division) and they did 182 inspections total on Friday and Saturday this weekend! He doesn’t get to count any of his inspections he did there on Utah’s list, but its great experience anyhow. I went over to find him around 3:30 and met a lot of other safety inspectors and state reps! I also got to see Juan and Blondie; Juan is the Southwest regional safety director. We haven’t seen them since this show last year, so it was great to see them again! 

Kyle and I at the safety inspection booth

 (Thanks Blondie for taking the picture!)

That night we went to the mall in town so I could do a little shopping. It was a huge mall with great shops. I didn’t find much, but had fun anyhow! Then we went to dinner at this great steakhouse we found last year. Dinner was excellent; it was also humorous because we were sitting by a table of very old, very deaf people who kept yelling at each other and the waitress. It made for a very amusing (but almost annoying) meal. We went for a soak in the hot tub and the night ended with more homework for me.

Saturday, April 24

We woke up early and headed to the fairgrounds. One of the other NSRA reps was able to get us an exhibitor pass so we didn’t have to pay for parking and could just park on the fairgrounds. It made it so nice to have the car close. First thing we did was meet up with the Washington state rep because he and Kyle were paired up to pick a car for an award. After a lot of walking, and some debate, they chose a beautiful Starfire:

Then we went to the vendors where we picked up parts for the ’33. We bought a radiator overflow reservoir, an aluminum brake fluid reservoir, side mirrors with blinkers in them, and a/c vents. We also bought some oldies cd’s, and of course, event shirts from the show. After that, we walked our legs right off. There were so many cars (at the close of registration Saturday, there were 1,913 registered participants!) Here are some pictures of a few cars we liked:

And look at the cute wagon's and strollers we found!

We even found Kyle’s dads old Willy’s truck!

 (It was yellow when they owned it!) 

(I prefer the yellow!)

A great way to get pictures of cars at these shows is to sit by the exit around 5 and just snap shots as they leave:

We went to dinner at this amazing little Italian restaurant that I am in love with. The food was amazing, the atmosphere was great and the service was excellent! I definitely think we’ll go there again next year!

Sunday, April 25

We woke up, packed, and checked out of the hotel and headed to the show. Not quite as many cars showed up Sunday, but there was still plenty to see. Then we found a bench in a shady spot to sit on for awards. We ended up sitting next to one of the lady’s I met at the tea! Kyle had to go up and present the award he helped pick:

Then we headed out ourselves. We wanted to at least make it to Vegas and we did. We ate at In-n-out and then checked into a hotel. We stayed at Palace station again because we are very familiar with them and like staying there. The only problem was that our room absolutely stunk of fresh (and stale) cigarette smoke, so we had to upgrade to a petite suite to get a fresh non-smoking room. It was worth the extra $20 to breathe easier.

Monday, April 26

More driving today; we stopped in Mesquite for breakfast and then hit the road again. I actually worked on a lot of this blog on the way home!

When we got home, we decided to unload the car and unpack before picking up Zoey & Bruno because they’ll be stuck to us like glue for the next few days! I’m glad we did because they were SO excited to see us!

This was a great vacation (and much needed!) The best thing is that we found out we can go back to the show again next year! We thought my master’s graduation would interfere, but I will graduate April 22, 2011 and the show will be April 29, 30 and May 1! I’m so excited we can go because I love going to this show! (We’ve been really lucky because in 2009 the show was the week before my graduation so we were able to go to that one too!)