On Sunday my parents treated all of us (Holly, the boys and I, and Chris and Lisa) to Monster Jam tickets at the Rogers Center. I haven’t seen monster trucks since I was about Roan’s age, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was surprised at how small the track was, and how short the races were, but it was still entertaining. It started with a big introduction and parade around the track. Then they got into the races, which were only one lap. The races went by fast, and weren’t that exciting. After Grave Digger surprised everyone by winning for the 8 millionth time, they did some dirt bike tricks that were pretty cool. Then there was the freestyle truck part, and it all ended with a demo-derby.
On the way up, Roan decided Monster Jam is fixed, but still had fun cheering and watching them crash. He called Grave Digger as the winner, and told me the only truck that could have maybe beaten him was the dinosaur truck that got a flat tire during the races, but most likely, they would have tied.
When I got to the gate I was worried they would confiscate my camera, because there were signs saying so on the walls, so I was very discrete about taking photos and videos. That is until I looked over at my mum and saw her rocking the 1000x zoom lens while sitting next to security (guy in the yellow shirt). I figure they must only care for concerts and maybe baseball games. Either way, that rule is bullshit.
The most entertaining part of the show was the freestyle part. Although the first truck out was kind of lame, the rest got progressively better. One shot flames out the back end, and 3 of them got wrecked. The video above is one of them. The other was a roll over (below), and the third was a hydraulic line that snapped on the guy’s first jump.
Another interesting part of the show was seeing them take the huge tires off and replace them with small tractor wheels. Holly and I discussed that on the way up, and speculated that they had to take the tires off to ship them, but I didn’t expect to see them do it, or how funny it would look when they did.
After the show, we all went to the Gateway in Grimsby for “dinner”. Roan had a tough time deciding what to get, but found some poutine (we didn’t tell him the gravy has meat in it) at NY Fries. After he ate, he bought some Double Sour Skittles and shared one with each of us. Everybody thanked him and he felt good about that, so he insisted I give him enough money to buy everyone a treat. Everybody got Crunchie bars, and I got a box of Smarties. Apparently Roan missed my complaint about there being TOO MANY Smarties in my Smarties Blizzard just two minutes prior. I love that kid.
