Stealin' Away to Steel City!

The NRA Annual Meetings were so close this year, I couldn't pass up seeing what all the hype was about. Seeing as 95% of my department was already there, it wasn't hard to find someone willing to let us bunk with them for the night. Kara pulled the lucky straw of sharing her enormous room with three other visitors! That's love. 

I didn't have any way of getting up there. I mean, I could have left Husband without a vehicle for a few days- but I heard finding parking alone was going to be horrible or expensive so I talked one of my other co-workers who was left behind to make the trek up to Pittsburgh, Pa. via Greyhound. Yes, a dirty, stinky bus ride to a place called The Pitts. 

It was all dandy until we realized that when the ticket said "1 Stop" on it, it actually meant "1 30 minute stop, 10 million 10 minute stops" so 7.5 hours later, we arrived in Pittsburgh around 1:30 in the morning where we were greeted by an extensive welcome committee of the only three people left awake in the town.

And that was pretty much the last time we saw anyone besides random meal times. While everyone else was working, my ride-mate Sisco (Francisco during business hours, Frankie when you want to make him angry) and reoccurring blog star Melissakurs!!! escorted me around the city where we basically, ate. You see I came to see the Annual Meetings and Sisco came to eat all the foods we have seen showcased on Man vs. Food. We did make it to a little of both of what we wanted to check out- but by the end of the day we were pretty much just exhausted. Although, we couldn't really complain because we hadn't even been working all week like everyone else had. 

Blurry photo of Sisco at the famous DeLuca's, where we ate till we had side cramps.

I am usually a picture crazo when it comes to anything slightly unboring, but this was our first meal and I actually ended up leaving my camera on the table and Melissa and Sisco had to go back for it the next day before we headed out of town. So basically, no pictures of the actual events, or the few hot seconds we got to see other people we worked with, or any of the cool people we got to meet. I ended up with the two pictures above and these two pictures:

On our exquisite bus ride to Pittburgh, we got to taste a lot of.... crappy food. But Sisco assured me that Roy Rogers was money in my pocket- you can see I am holding an approving thumbs up in the picture (it was around midnight at this point) but when I got back on the bus with my food, it was anything but tasty. Sisco claimed it a fluke Roy Rogers experience, but first impressions do make a difference! The beef was rubbery and the BBQ sauce was sweet- thumbs down. 

Bettsie did have her camera though, so she got a few shots. She loved my hotel thinking spot- which usually included the sheer curtains being pulled across the ledge too but they were shielding her shot at a good picture so she made me pull them back and look pensive.

And she did get a few shots of the TV Show's biggest fan- Sisco waiting around to meet the stars. I wonder which of the co-hosts is his favorite?

The best part of the whole trip though was that my boss- the top boss- actually let us drive his F150 BACK to Virginia! His wife drove up separately, so they drove back down in her car together.

1. Best person ever!! There are not many bosses that would let their employees drive their brand new truck on a 4.5 hour trip. And he even cleaned it out before we got in it. We left him some fuzzy dice on his rearview mirror as a thank you. 

2. Best truck ever!! It was such a smooth ride, and I forgot how much I miss being in a vehicle that is a lot higher off the ground. I asked Husband if he would buy me one in black, but for some reason he didn't take me seriously.

I didn't realize how bad the bus really was until we drove back in his truck. 

As always though, the highlight of the trip was everyone's favorite guest-- Yoda: