Meeting face-to-face

I'd like to begin this post by stating how lucky I feel.

I have "met" the most wonderful people through blogging, people I haven't actually met face to face (though I still hope to!), but still feel like I know nonetheless. Even more wonderful are those handful of bloggers (you know who you are ♥) that I have had the incredible opportunity to meet in person.

Such a meeting happened last weekend and it tickled me beyond all belief. I was able to meet up with Sarah from Between the Fenceposts (<--click this link to visit Sarah's blog). Sarah and her husband, Malcolm, drive an incredibly large truck for a living and just happened to be staying overnight in Portland:

Sarah contacted me to see if we'd be interested in meeting up and I couldn't answer fast enough: "Yes!"

For over a year I have been reading stories from Sarah about life on the road, life inside the cab of a truck and life with three Chinese Crested dogs, Paris, Carly and Ella.

I *loved* the moment I got to meet Paris, Carly and Ella in person:

And, not only did I get to sit in the driver's seat of their very big truck, I received the most wonderful loving attention from all of their pups:

Sarah and Malcolm humored Jim and me by letting us eat at the local truck stop. How often do we normal folk get to eat at truck stops?! Never!
So, Jim ordered the pot roast:

It came with mashed potatoes, a cornbread biscuit and a salad. A real stick-to-your-ribs kind of meal. (Just for comparison purposes - and to show you what an eater my man is-, Sarah and I split a sandwich and Malcolm had the soup and salad.)

We told stories and laughed like we'd known each other for years. It was really fun to sit back and realize, hey, we're only just meeting for the first time, but look how comfortable we are.

After dinner, Sarah's and my team of paparazzi followed us with cameras, shutters clicking, taking hundreds of photos of us:

For two people normally behind the lens, this wasn't a comfortable thing for us:

But we tried to relax and have fun. I love the photo below because 1) we're laughing so hard, 2) I can tell that Malcolm is smiling behind the camera, and 3) I can see Sarah's and my image on the screen of Malcolm's camera:

In the end, we tired before the paparazzi did:

Thank you, Sarah and Malcolm, you cutie pies - hope you come through Portland again really soon!

(Look at those wonderful EARS!!)