So Much Fun!

My firm's mystery event this year was such a fun time!  We started out at the office at 9 a.m., where we had quiche, coffee cake, and fruit juices; then just about everyone boarded a bus for parts unknown.  But because Hubby uses a wheelchair, we simply hopped into his car with directions, and off we drove to board the Sacramento River Train in West Sacramento.

There were a couple of open air, covered cars, and several standard closed train cars.  The train cars were old ones, though, and the aisles were too narrow to accommodate hubby's wheelchair, so he stayed in the open cars--but it was a beautiful day for it, and he certainly had plenty of company.  I moved back and forth between the various cars, visiting with my coworkers.

I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the scenery we passed.

It took us a little over an hour, I think, to ride to the end of the line; then we reversed back to a park right on the Sacramento River and unloaded for lunch.

Before that, though, on the way to the park, we ran into a little trouble.

There was a band of train robbers looking for a strong box.  They boarded our train with guns drawn . . .

And removed the strong box.

Eventually, the Sheriff and his deputy shot all of them and recovered the valuables.

After we got safely away and arrived at the park, I was too busy eating a wonderful BBQ lunch under the shade of the trees to remember to take photos.  Somewhat miraculously, the dead train robbers reappeared and acted out a couple more little skits for our entertainment.  They also talked about the history of gold in the area.

By the time we reboarded the train, it was starting to get hot out, so I made my way to a quiet, air conditioned train car and peacefully watched the scenery passing by until we reached the station a half hour later.

Again, most of us boarded the bus to travel to the next destination, but Hubby and I took the car and met everyone in Elk Grove at a bowling alley named Strikes.  They had reserved the "back alley" for us--a separate "VIP" bowling space with very cool lighting, sofas, music, and food.  We all bowled on teams of 7 or 8 and each team used two alleys.  The first game was a serious one.  THIS time I didn't pull a hamstring either!

I used to bowl in a league back in the day, and my average was somewhere around 160; in the "serious" game today, I bowled a 101.  Hey, at least I broke 100 and didn't break anything else doing it!  The second game was a "crazy" game where we all bowled with different handicaps each frame--for instance, on the first frame, we all had to bowl with our opposite hand.  There were other challenges, like bowling blindfolded, bowling on our knees, and bowling while a companion linked arms with us.  For that game, I bowled a 97.  Between the two games, we had some dancing and a little dance competition.

One of the really nice things was that they arranged for Hubby to bowl from his wheelchair.  For the serious game, he bowled something around a 35, but by the time he warmed up and bowled the crazy game--where he admittedly had a bit of an advantage--he bowled over 90!  Not too bad!  And the most important thing is that he had a lot of fun doing it.

When all was said and done, it turned out that I was on the winning team for the serious game, and Hubby was on the winning team for the crazy game, so we both came home with a prize--a bottle of jelly beans and a $50 Visa gift card!  Woo-hooo!

Tonight I'm tired.  It was a very eventful day, but it was also a blast!  Hubby and I got home around 6:30 p.m. and we've just been vegging in front of the TV since.  Oh, and I've also taken a nice, cool bath and washed the day off me and out of my hair.  Now I'm ready for bed--and I bet I'll sleep well, too!