[shipbldr]

With me I had two people. The first was friend of mine named Johna from the dance studio. The second is my friend Hong. Hong is from a mountainous part of inland China and yesterday was her 16th day here in the US. Hong is fluent in English, but this is her first exposure to all things American. I was counting on the Hummer Happening to be one hell of an intro to life in the states… also a good chance to see the countryside.

We were greeted at the gate and assigned to Charlie Group. They handed us a mad of the off road courses and a page or two of orientation instructions. We also signed a release. There were four off-road groups, each with a different lead vehicle from the dealership. In total there were about 50 Hummers (H1 and H2 only) at the event. We parked with our string of trucks and went over to the hospitality tent.

The hospitality tent was setup next to a carnival midway. There was a country band playing and lots of people hanging out and relaxing out of the sun. There were guys running all over the place serving water and sodas. The grill was going with burgers, hot dogs, and some other goodies.

I was sort of expecting that there might be some sort of a formal gathering or talk… but nope. No formalities. At 1:30 they called the Alpha group to go first. So while they saddled up and headed out for parts unknown, we sat and enjoyed some lunch. Hong had a hamburger and hot dog. I talked with a couple other owners and listened to the band waiting to be called.

About 30 minutes later they called the Charlie and I was quite happy to go to the truck. We got over to the truck where they handed us a radio and gave us a short talk on what to do and not do. Pretty much it came down to listen to the radio and shift to low range when told to do so.