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October 20, 2005
Monster Jam 2005 -- January 22, 2005
(... as we continue to transition from delmer.biz. This is a long one.):
On January 22, 2005 the boys and I shot off to Nationwide Arena in Columbus for Monster Jam -- Monster Trucks and Monster Prices on arena snacks.
The Blue Jacket's events calendar described the event thusly:
2005 U.S. Hot Rod Monster Jam
DESCRIPTION The 2005 U.S. Hot Rod Monster Jam crushes its way into Nationwide Arena Friday, January 21 (8 p.m.) and Saturday, January 22 (2 p.m. and 8 p.m.)for three super-charged shows and these 10,000-pound monsters are on a mission of demolition.
WHEN January 21-22
WHERE Nationwide Arena
Initially only Samson, his pal Alex T (featured in Sam's birthday pictures) and I were going to go. Haydn and Jack, while big on monster behavior sometimes, have little interest in Monster Trucks. Haydn and Jack were going to spend the day with Granny and Big D in Franklin.
As luck would have it the weather got a little odd and it looked like a snow storm and/or ice storm might move into Ohio from at least Cincinnati to Columbus. Well, Granny had a doctor's appointment on Monday – an appointment she'd planned to leave Sunday to make (spending the night with my sister in Nashville) – and it was looking like she and Big D might have trouble getting out of Franklin if they waited until Sunday. It may have also been tricky getting the boys following the Monster Jam. So, I decided to take the bigger boys to Monster Jam and Granny and Big D headed south a day early.
Anytime I think of Monster Trucks I always think of two things. One is a commercial that used to air in Dayton in the early 80's in which a very pumped up announcer all but shouted, “This weekend we're turning Dayton's Hara Arena into a giant muuuuuud piiiiiit!!” Mud and pit were dragged out as if the tape were slowed just a smidgen. (I'd bet $20.00 that if you were to mention Monster Trucks to Jeff Burgess – an old friend of mine – he'd immediately fall into his impression of the announcer doing the above line.)
The other thing I think of is Dale Roberts making a similar tape at a station I worked at in Xenia, Ohio. Monster Trucks were coming to the Dayton area and Dale (his real name is Jason Roberts and I heard him on the air in Columbus not long after I moved here) was in the production room cutting a promo to announce the event. It was one of those “Monster! Monster! Monster! Trucks” things where the “monster” would come out of alternate channels that the “ster” of the preceding “monster” was talked over by the “Mon” of the next “monster.” When Dale worked magic filled the air.
Now that I've typed that all up, there is a chance of some sort that racing was coming to the Dayton area, the promo went “Racing! Racing! Racing!” and the Monster Truck promo was put together by someone else at another station in a galaxy far far away and I never witnessed its production. I'm going go give Dale credit for it anyway.
I'd purchased the first set of 3 tickets on the Wednesday prior to the Monster Jam and had them delivered instantly via the Internet. What a sweet deal. Ticketmaster has to bear neither the expense of having a person sell me the tickets, nor the expense of printing the tickets and I have to pay only and additional $2.50 to have them e-mailed to me.
The second two tickets were purchased the Friday before the Monster Jam. Naturally, the seats were not adjoining.
Weather the morning of Monster Jam (oh, and Quad Wars) could have gone either way. It was cold, windy and there were some flurries. Samson and I went to McDonald's to pick up breakfast and to do some road recon; the roads looked good. (As it would happen the weather would hold until after the Monster Jam. While we were waiting at McDonald's for Alex's ride it started snowing hard enough to cause that ah-here-it-comes feeling. The snow lasted about twenty minutes.)
The trip to Nationwide was uneventful. The roads were in good shape and traffic was light. Traffic was even lighter when we got downtown – of course, what would one expect – it is Columbus, Ohio ... on the weekend. Aside from costing $10.00, parking was hassle free.
We were in the arena about 20 minutes early. Quads were running around the track doing a pre-Jam show. Exhaust filled the air.
I put Jack and Haydn in their seats and purchased some snacks -- bottled water and pizza pretzels. Granny and Big D may someday read this story so I don't dare disclose what I paid four bottles of water and four pretzels ... though I will say it was over 25% of what dad used to bring home in 1966 or just a little more than four bags of kettle corn at the Schottenstein Center or one dollar more than 9 cokes cost out of a machine at the Columbus Zoo. (Okay, $28.00.)
Sam, Alex and I made it to our seats. Sam took the aisle, Alex sat between us, and I sat next to the man nobody knew. We sat in the lower bowl and had a pretty good view of everything. I could see Jack and Haydn off to our right.
What can you say about Monster truck racing in a small arena. It isn't like you see in the commercials – trucks haulin' butt over large amounts of ground -- those commercials are shot in large arenas. Nationwide is a small arena. They play hockey there, you know, in years they have hockey (I found out, just about three weeks ago, that hockey hadn't started this year. I heard it on NPR.)
Still, it was really cool. Sure, Nationwide is small. The Monster Truck drivers have just about enough time to get on the accelerator hard and then hit the brakes hard before the run is over, BUT, you're right there on top of all the action. You always have a good view of the trucks.
Trucks on hand included Brutus, The Safe Auto Monster Truck, and Grave Digger. There were several others, but they didn't have a memorable name (Brutus) a memorable jingle (1-800-Safe Auto, pick up the phone the call is free) or a memorable kid's toy that you'd jammed your toe on.
There were several events held – wheelies, a race, and freestyle. Grave Digger won all three events.
Between the events were Quad Wars. Team Ohio vs. Team Michigan. What are the odds of something like that happening? The quad races had a bit of a WWF feel to them. Before or after the race one of the team captains would run his mouth. There was a fight between the captains before one race. An accusation of equipment tampering following another race. A Michigan racer cut a corner one race and had to forfeit the win only after the foul was pointed out by an Ohio rider (Do you remember a Bloom County in which Opus was watching wrestling – you only see him watching the TV. In the second panel the announcer's word balloon contains text similar to: “The Masher pulls a Chevy truck axle out of his trunks and pummels Killer about the head and shoulders. Amazingly the referee misses the whole thing.” In the last panel you see Opus staring at the TV saying only “foul.”)
Even with the staged drama, Quad Wars was pretty good. Guys on quads racing? What's not to like. Samson and Alex (both 6) did not realize the trash talk was a put on for the audience. By the way, Team Michigan won the War. I'll bet Team Ohio won the tiebreaker at the evening show.
At one of the breaks they ran a bunch of RC cars around the track. This was going on while a couple of ramps were assembled. What were the ramps for? A guy on a small dirt bike did a couple of flips (see the download area for video of this) from one ramp to the other.
The show ended with a Freestyle competition. The trucks came out one at a time and put on a show. The neatest thing that happened all day happened during the freestyle. Unfortunately the memory card on my camera was full and I didn't get a clip. Grave Digger tried to do a donut and ended up going so far over on one side that it should not have been possible to recover ... and yet he did. It was really spectacular.
With the show over I collected the boys and we made our way out into the cold. While still in the area Alex expressed an interest in buying a shirt. Earlier in the day his dad had expressed an interest in seeing some change from the twenty he'd given Alex; the two interests were mutually exclusive. However, all was not to be lost. I'd explained to Alex that he'd be able to find shirts cheaper elsewhere; I didn't realize elsewhere was likely to be 50 yards away.
Out in the cold and wind was a guy selling Monster Truck shirts. “How much,” I asked, hoping they'd be about $10 each. “Eighteen dollars,” he replied, and I gave a shake of my hand and signaled the boys to close ranks for the street crossing. “Three for twenty-five,” he said, and I paused and missed a step before recovering and saying “I appreciate the offer, but I don't think so.”
“Three for twenty.” And he had me. We headed to the garage.
Haydn was pretty sure we'd parked on the fourth floor. Sam, Alex, Jack and I were pretty sure we were on the third. Haydn would eventually climb over the wall where the third and fourth floor ramps abutted to join us. We drove home in a light snow.
Posted by delmer at October 20, 2005 8:48 AM
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Comments
3 for $20 is a great deal.
I didn't realize Monster Truck events could be so expensive...but really, what ISN'T expesnive about going out these days.
One time, at a baseball game, I asked the concession worker if I could put my Hot Dog Meal on layaway.
Posted by: The Phoenix at October 20, 2005 3:55 PM
I once paid $6.00 for Kettle Corn at an OSU Men's Basketball game. I made the guy come up a flight of steps and couldn't bring myself to tell hime $6.00 was too much.
Ah well. As life's lessons go it was fairly inexpensive.
Posted by: delmer at October 20, 2005 4:57 PM
If we ever move to the US, the prime determining factor in where we choose to live will be the proximity of Monster Truck events. Love 'em!
Posted by: Andrew at October 20, 2005 5:28 PM