Meeting the Garcia's

For the 4^th of July Jamie and I decided to celebrate by springing a little surprise visit on my parents. Rudy's sister was getting married on Saturday in Reno, so the plan was to drive to the wedding in Reno, then Sunday morning drive over to Elko and surprise dear old dad on his birthday. That was the plan, but things didn't exactly work out that way.

The Fourth is a pretty big holiday for my company with lots of parties and BBQs needing an ample supply of beer. All of our trucks were going out pretty heavy, especially Thursday and Friday as last minute orders came in. Friday I had almost 1,000 cases on my truck which is about double a normal day. I was working pretty hard, but I knew there was no way I was going to finish at my normal time. Jamie and I kept in contact throughout the day, but by the time she was finished at work I still had quite a bit left to deliver, so we decided that she should probably just leave, because if she waited for me we wouldn't be getting to Reno until 2 or 3 in the morning.

about 110 cases of Heineken ready to be wheeled into a store

I finally finished work, and pretty much went home and straight to bed. I had put in almost 14 hours, and I was beat. In the morning I woke up and saw Jamie had sent me a text about 4 AM telling me she had finally arrived in Reno. What the heck!? I knew she should have gotten there about midnight. Why the 4 hour delay?

So I called her, and it turns out Jamie had some car trouble around 10:30 near Hawthorne. Hawthorne is a tiny speck of a town in the middle of no where that hosts an Army munitions Depot. Jamie had to get a tow into town and Rudy came down from Reno and picked her up. Something happened to the fuel pump in Jamie's car, and it shut down or something. I never really got the details of what happened.

Anyway, I still wanted to be in on the surprise with Mom and Dad, but I still had a lot of stuff on my to-do list before I could leave for Elko. By the time I got everything done it was getting pretty late to head out for a 7 hour drive, so I packed my things and resolved to leave super early in the morning.

in 7.7 miles turn left onto the Extraterrestrial Highway

I got up around 3 AM, and I was on the freeway by 3:15. Jamie had told me that she had called the Highway Patrol for help, but they didn't have an officer on duty at that time, so I figured odds were pretty good they wouldn't have any working at 3AM. I drove a bit faster than I normally would have, and made the trip in a little over 6 hours; a personal best for me! I got to my parents house and found no one home, so I figured they were all at church. Randi, my informant, told me that they were planning to leave right after sacrament meeting and drive to Winnemucca to meet Jamie and Rudy and bring them to Elko. So I drove over to the Church and I got there just after sacrament meeting let out and the family was in the truck heading home. My dad was so surprised to see me!

We were all getting ready to drive over to Winnemucca when we got word that Rudy's whole family was going to come to Elko to meet all of us!

We were all excited that we were finally going to meet them. My mom immediately started to worry about what we were going to feed all of them, and we started in on a cooking marathon. My mom came up with some complimentary dishes, and everyone pitched in to help cook. By the time the Garcias arrived we had a pretty big spread ready, the table was set, and we were ready to eat.

After dinner we started presents.

July is birthday month for my family. Mom's Birthday is July 2^nd, dad's is on the 4^th, Randi has her's on the 6^th, and Jamie brings up the rear on the 17^th.

We exchanged gifts, and then Jamie introduced us to one of the Garcia's birthday traditions where everyone tries to guess the birthday boy's favorite color, and hobby, and then he tells us if we were right. Then everyone had to say what they liked about that person. It was pretty funny to have my dad “interview” us and ask us what we like best about him.

He set the stage for everyone else to ham things up when it was their turn to be in the spotlight.

We had a nice chat, and it was pretty hard not to like Rudy's family right away. His grandmother didn't speak a lick of English, but she was just one of those grandma types that you can't help but like. His dad also didn't speak much English, but he was so warm and friendly that I immediately liked him as well. It was pretty much the same for the entire family. It was obvious that Rudy and Sammy were brothers, they both had the same sense of humor. Rudy's little sister was pretty cute, and seems like she is probably a lot of fun to be around. His Mom was nice too, but I didn't get much of a chance to get a sense for her. She was busy making the introductions to my parents, and did a lot of translating, but I did like her, and hope to get to know her a little more after Jamie and Rudy finally get hitched.

I got to spend a little time with Randi and Cassidy too. We staked out our spot to watch the fire works on a hill together, and also ran a few errands for my mom on Monday. The more time I spend with Cassidy, the more I like him. He's pretty quiet and reserved, but when Randi is around he breaks out of his shell and you get a chance to get to know him.

It was a short trip, I had to be to work on Tuesday, but I really enjoyed the trip to Elko.

Audio books are one of the best inventions of all time. On the way to Elko I finished The Ciderhouse Rules (it is pretty good but has some pretty adult themes on sex and abortion), but coming home I started City of Thieves, a book that takes place in St Petersburg during the siege of that city by the Nazi's in WWII. I can't wait to read it again. It's about the friendship of two young men on a mission for a powerful Russian Colonel to find a dozen eggs in their besieged city in exchange for leniency for their crimes of desertion and breaking curfew. Two strangers become best friends as they cross enemy lines in search of their eggs. They meet the peasant resistance to the Nazis, avoid death numerable times, and become heroes. If you're into WWII movies, you will probably like this book.