AFH Blog
On the way to Sonoma…
Alturas and Tahoe!

We left Seattle early Monday morning after the Seattle event with my crew chief Guido and his wife and my PR person Kelly, and hit the road towards Sonoma, our next event on the Western Swing. It was a long trip in our El Monte RV and we actually made a few stops along the way to break it up and enjoy the trip a little!

Our first stop was Alturas, CA where my brother in law Robert Hight, who drives the Auto Club Mustang Funny Car, and who won the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Championship, grew up! His family still lives there and it’s a very small yet very quaint town at the northern tip of California. We called Robert when we were getting close and he said not to blink or we’d miss it and also gave us some tips on where to stop for dinner. It’s so funny to think that a man who goes over 315 miles per hour, who is always traveling and on the road, got his start in such a small town but it was really nice to get to pass through and show Guido, Kelly and Dan where Robert is from. I had been there once before when I was younger and Robert was first dating my sister Adria. We stopped and had some great Italian food and then we were back on the road.

Late that night we got in to Lake Tahoe, where my parents, 5 year old niece Autumn, sisters Courtney and Brittany and Britt’s boyfriend Bobby, along with our marketing person Chad (who is basically our brother from another mother…and father) had flown in to from Seattle that day. The next morning we got up early and spent the day out on the boat and at the beach and it was beautiful there! Tahoe is where Dan and I got married and it is equally as nice in the winter with snow as it is in the summer with the warm weather. Fall is even amazing as all the trees turn bright colors. We love going up there, even if it’s just for a day, and were so happy to have Guido and Kelly along as our guests. That night we all got dressed up and walked up the street to a restaurant on the lake where we had our wedding reception. Autumn wanted to go out back to the pier where we all took pictures for the wedding so we did and then of course she talked me in to walking down and dipping our feet in the water despite our fancy attire. My mom filmed us and low and behold a wave came and soaked the bottom of both of our dresses! I’m pretty sure that Autumn was hoping that would happen from the huge grin on her face!
It was a really great night with my family and friends and one of those nights that we will all look back on and smile about. Everyone was enjoying a little down time in between races, and after the very emotional weekend in Seattle, it was nice to be smiling and laughing together. Now it’s on to Sonoma, and then over to Denver. We are really enjoying our RV-ing and getting to see some great places here in the west. I can’t believe our trip is halfway over! It’s going by quickly but we are enjoying every moment of it.