Monster Truck Jam

Who goes to these things anyway?

The Monster Truck Jam was in town at Oakland a few weeks ago. We were curious and it seemed like a cool thing to see, so a bunch of us decided to go. The weekend rolled around and it had been raining all week. We had the tickets and the show was on, rain or shine. We were determined to see these trucks!

And so that's how we found ourselves on a cold rainy Saturday night, sitting in our cheap 2nd level seats with no cover at the Oakland Coliseum where the Raiders usually play. It was really pouring! Luckily Andy had brought extra ponchos which Jess put on, and I scrunched my legs under to keep my jeans dry.

We could definitely hear the monster trucks going even from outside the stadium. It was really loud and those earplugs came in handy. They had trucked in a bunch of dirt/mud and from where we were sitting the trucks didn't seem thaaat big (although they sure sounded big).

The first half of the show, trucks raced each other around the course two at a time. It was ok... not too exciting.



Then it was the freestyle 'competition'. Each truck had like a couple minutes to show off in front of the judges. Who knows who these judges were? That's when we got to see some big jumps as the trucks went over piles of old cars. It still wasn't quite like what we saw on tv.

But we die-hard fans (haha) stayed on. It never stopped raining and I had water dripping off my eyelashes. I watched people buy food and try to eat in the rain. Nachos + rainwater = ?

The finale was I believe, the Grave Digger truck. The winning move? When the truck tried to attempt an impossible route over a pile of old cars, couldn't make it... and flipped over on its back... There were some flames coming out from under the truck amid all the cheers. And finally we could go home. What an experience. One I don't think we'll be repeating anytime soon.