After a long weekend of awards banquets, the Badgers losing, and a late-night belated birthday get-together with my sister - Sunday brought an interesting mix of sights, sounds and smells…

After getting to bed around 3am the previous night, I was woke by my cell ringing… it was Heather calling to let me know they would pick me up in about 90 minutes. Elijiah must have woke up that morning as excited as ever… because it was finally “today”… the day of the Monster Truck show!

I was actually kind of excited to go, although Heather doesn’t think so, because I like to do stuff I don’t normally do. So it was Heather, Eli, Heather’s Mom and Stepdad, and me. We entered the Coliseum in Madison and already the bitter smell of rubber and exhaust from the previous shows on Friday and Saturday attacked my sinuses. With Hearos ear plugs ready to go, the entire stadium yelled “start your engines…”

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but there’s basically little mini-competitions between the Monster Truck drivers (one female), with the winners determined by audience applause. My favorite truck (pictured) was Ramunition - just because of the colors I think. So they drive over cars, do donuts, and that’s pretty much it. The tire smoke from the donuts cause enough toxic gas to melt parts of your lungs - and brain. Lucky thing I still have a protective tar layer in my lungs from smoking. It was a little nauseating to be honest… specially after the 3rd or 4th truck did it.

I was shocked to realize how loud it was when I took my ear plugs out every once and a while… it was loud. Those Hearos really do the trick.

Then they brought out a jet-powered jeep, which was the loudest part of the show… pretty amazing little vehicle… I’d like to see that go in a big open space.

My favorite part was probably the hydraulic-dinosaur that pops out of the top of a big van, then pics up a whole car and bites it in half. Pretty amazing…. Eli was a little freaked out at that part though.

Anyway, it was fun overall. Something you don’t get to see everyday!