On Saturday night boyfriend and I headed into neighboring Lancaster County to Buck Motorsports Park in Quarryville, Pennsylvania. It was the last event of the season, and the schedule said we were attending the "Mud Bog Series Finales" which would feature "Pro-Street, Super Street and Street Legal Classes plus Top Dog Showdown, Street Legal Shootout and Tuff Truck Challenge Finals."
I had absolutely no idea what any of that meant. So I was a little disappointed when I realized that this event did not feature any actual monster trucks. So sad! But as it included massive (if not monstrous) trucks with absurdly powerful engines plowing through several feet of mud and tuned up cars smashing into things, including monster truck tires, I'm still totally counting this one as complete.
I snapped some photos, but they didn't truly capture the intensity of this particular backwoods pastime. Fortunately, boyfriend had the good sense to record a quick video.
Some observations on this experience:
- There are a lot of people at these things. I don't know why, but I didn't expect such a large crowd.
- The most camouflage I've ever seen in one place.
- The rivalry between Chevy people and Ford people is serious business.
- I get stupidly excited about powerful vehicles going really fast.
"Bests" of the night:
- Best Family Moment: Driver of one of the huge Tuff Trucks, after having the mud hosed off, putting the baby seat into his truck to drive his wife and baby home.
- Best male-bonding: Dude missing half his middle finger flipping double-birds to pose for a photo with his buddies.
- Best out-of-context comment: "I really blew that tranny out!" Ahem.
The Verdict: I would totally do this again. I expected that it would be a mildly amusing way to spend an evening but I actually really enjoyed the whole thing in a completely genuine, non-ironic way. It was fun! Buy some greasy french fries, turn your brain off and watch overpowered trucks do loud, messy things for a few hours. I wouldn't do it every weekend, but once or twice a summer this is $12 well spent.
Have you ever been to one of these things? Liked it or hated it?
(30 Before 30 is a list of 30 new things that I want to do before my 30th birthday.)
When I was a wee lass my dad took my brother to a monster truck thing where there was a truck that TURNED INTO A FIRE BREATHING DRAGON. You can imagine my levels of jealousy. We did all go to a demolition derby once, though. I miss living in agricultural fair country.
ReplyDeleteOMG that dragon thing sounds awesome. I am definitely going to try to discern which events have actual monster trucks and hit one next summer.
DeleteI went to one when I was really little and I remember enjoying it then. I'd definitely go again, I imagine the people watching is fantastic. :)
ReplyDeleteI could have written an entire post on the people watching alone! But I didn't want to make it sound like I was making fun of anyone. Far be it from me to judge people for liking what they like. They are a very interesting group, though :)
DeleteI went to one when I was very little. All I remember was playing chasey with some funny-looking boys and waking up the next morning to discover I had head lice. If only I had better memories of my one-and-only monster truck ralley.
ReplyDelete