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January 8, 2007
Monster Jam 2007
Sam, his friend Alex, and I went to Monster Jam at Nationwide Arena this past Saturday. Sam and I go every year; this is the second trip Alex has made with us.
I purchased tickets on Thursday -- two days before the event -- and was torn over whether or not I should buy the higher-priced tickets or the regular-priced tickets. With a coupon from Advance Auto Parts (I picked it up when I got brake pads) my ticket was $11.00 (instead of $15, I think) and the tickets for the boys were $5.00.
There were some limited seats available at a higher rate (Ticketmaster doesn't have the info available anymore, so I'm sort of typing from memory here). I believe the tickets were called Gold Bowl and that the adult ticket was $20; choosing this also pushed the kids' tickets to $20. The adult ticket may have been $25.00.
So, my choice was $22.00 or $60.00. I went with the $22.00; service charges and facilities fees did all they could to get me to sixty dollars, but fell short just a bit.
In the end we sat three rows back from as close to the front as we possibly could have. I looked around for the special seats but didn't see any that were closer than the area we were in.
Anyway, Nationwide Arena is small enough that it would be hard to be too far away.
Wait, I've jumped too far ahead. The boys and I left home just after 1 p.m. for the 2 o'clock show so we'd have plenty of time. I found $5.00 parking that put us a block away from Nationwide. The boys and I got out of the van and, just as my foot hit the pavement, it hit me that the tickets were on the table at home. Fortunately, I live just under 11 miles from the arena.
We were back at Nationwide, having paid $10 for closer parking, just as the National Anthem started.
The Monster Trucks on hand were: Samson (from Circleville, Ohio ... about 45 minutes away ... and our favorite), Grave Digger (he's been around 25 years), FullBoar (from Michigan ... if you were from Ohio and had the insane-sports-fan gene you'd understand the significance) RapAttack, Predator, and the Safe Auto Minimizer.
As is typical, Quad Wars was part of the show. The last time we were at Monster Jam (at least I think it was the last time) Team Ohio was up against Team Michigan which, I thought, was pretty coincidental given Ohio State's arch rival is Michigan (Michigan University or Michigan State -- I'm not sure which. Neither school is my arch rival and, as I've said many times before, I lack the insane-sports-fan gene.)
This past Saturday's Quad Wars battle was between Team Ohio and Team Florida. This struck me as odd since Florida is such a long way away and I wondered how they'd come up in the pairings. As the quads raced around the track I switched my wondering to how I was supposed to tell Team Ohio from Team Florida; the announcer had said something about "colors" but it wasn't like each team had its own color quad. Finally, in the third heat I realized that some of the riders were wearing the same shirts I'd bought and sent to my brother and his family celebrating OSU's trip to whatever bowl it is they're in tonight. I, then, quickly noticed that the Florida guys were all wearing blue shirts with the same picture on them.
Just after I noticed the shirt color one of the Team Ohio guys seemed to have a bit of quad trouble. He had enough trouble that it made me wonder if it wasn't a setup for something. Toward the end of that wonderment one of the Florida guys ran into his rear wheel. Team Florida went on to win the heat.
As happened with the other two races, the captain of the winning team went to the winners circle for some post-race chatter with the announcer. When this race ended the Team Ohio captain rolled into the winner's area as Florida captain was bragging about his guys. Some words were exchanged between the two captains -- something about how the Team Florida guy had crashed into him AND something more about how Team Ohio would come out victorious just as the OSU Buckeyes would during whatever bowl game it is against the Florida Marlins.
And then it made some sense. Team Florida?! Of course! OSU Football sneaks into everything in this city. I will bet you that Team Ohio and Team Florida are all a bunch of local guys that get rounded up whenever something like Monster Jam comes to town or and I think this is less likely, they are a bunch of guys who travel with Monster Jam. I'll also bet that at least one or two of you want to scream Tostitos BCS National Championship Bowl and Florida Gators.
There were also some little kids racing small quads and a couple of fire-breathing machines that made an appearance and had a galactic battle.
It was a pretty full day.
Some Movie Clips and Photos (click to enlarge):
Safe Auto goes over the van : 729kb
Safe Auto Wheelie Competition : 1.6 meg
Grave Digger Freestyle : 4.6 meg
There are more photos in the extended entry.
Posted by delmer at January 8, 2007 7:01 PM
Comments
I take it size *does* matter??
Posted by: Pen at January 9, 2007 10:58 AM
Without endurance, size means nothing.
Predator and FullBoar can attest to that.
Posted by: delmer at January 9, 2007 3:22 PM
Ha ha ha!! Monster Truck Rally!
You really are an Ohioan. *sniff* *wipes tears of nostalgia from eyes*
Posted by: diane at January 10, 2007 12:16 PM
It gets better. In the summer I'm less than half a mile from the county fairgrounds. In the summer I can get the in-your-face feel of tractor pulls without ever having to leave my porch. (Just during the county fair ... not weekly, or anything.)
Posted by: delmer at January 10, 2007 1:57 PM