So, the 2008 IFBB North Americans have now come and gone. We just got home from Cleveland a short while ago and we actually made good time getting home in just over 4 hours.

Many of you already know the results from the forum updates, but in short we had two girls in the top 5 in their first national shows.

Lisa Peper ended up in 5th place in a good sized D Class and Jennie Hamilton came in at a solid 4th spot in a smaller, but very competitive F class. The overall goal for each was a Top 10 placing, so a final placing inside the Top 5 is icing on the cake.

All in all it was simply a really fun weekend. We stayed with Jennie and Will with was the icing on a great trip, as there was a lot of laughs over the weekend. Will, besides being HUGE, is hilarious. (watch out for the dark horse at the 2009 NPC Junior USAs).

Did you know that in Mississippi they say ole instead of oil? As in, "I think Jennie needs more ole" :lol: Or "I heard they had to eat boled chicken breast." That latter one comes from Jennie ... A CANADIAN who's relocated to Mississippi. Hilarious.

Or the fact that they call every pop (some of you say soda), a COKE. Sprite, Orange Crush, Pepsi, Mountain Dew - it's all Coke.

So Will relays a story relating to the above. I can't remember where he was but clearly not in a place where they refer to pop as coke.

Paraphrasing ...

Will: Can I get three cokes? Two diet and a Sprite.
Server: So you want six drinks?
Will: Huh? Three cokes - two diet and a sprite.
Sever: Yes, I know - so six drinks.
Will: THREE COKES!!!!!
Server: That's six drinks!!!!!

And so on - that's not verbatim but it sums it up. You can imagine Will thinking it's clear as day that he wants three drinks - and then is telling the server what kind of cokes he wants. The server counts six - which is what I'd do as well. We laughed so hard at that over dinner.

Speaking of which, Friday night we hit the Hard Rock as a group of 10 and Neely, Jennie and Lisa went to town on steak and french fries and then some dessert goodies back at the hotel - the Friday Night Fat Load. Lots of fun. I had chicken - dumb.

Saturday night we went out for dinner and waited an hour for food that sucked. :lol:

All in all, a great time and I'm really glad I was there to share in the experience.

Here's a few pictures:

Here's a shot of me and Lisa, me and Jen and then the three of us after the Finals with their trophies.

Posted Aug 31, 2008 by Erik Ledin.
This entry is filed under Contest Prep.