roo: path of destruction: baltimore

yesterday we drove down to baltimore for the first stop on the monster jame path of destruction.

we splurged on the "total access pass" tickets which included "the best seats in the house", plus access to the party in the pits before the show, and an additional hour in the party before the unwashed masses were allowed in. we decided to head straight to grave digger, as his line usually fills to capacity early in the party. we spent more than half of our bonus hour waiting for dennis, but at least we got the biggest one out of the way early.

we had the drivers sign our autograph book as well as Q's drawing.

Q pointed out the appropriate spot to sign to each of the drivers, you know in case they couldn't tell which truck was theirs.

next we headed over to "blue digger", ryan anderson. Q showed ryan the drawing and without missing a beat ryan sais, "wow, your dad did a good job on this!" awesome.

then on to madusa... caroline's favorite. madusa also loved Q's drawing, and she couldn't believe how much pickle had grown since the pictures in the autograph book.

she even took a pic of Q with the poster to post to her facebook. i don't think she ended up posting it, but still cool.

next was iron man. see, he's pointing to iron man.

stark industries sponsors the truck. heh.

iron man also loved Q's art.

he really studied all of the trucks.

and he also thought the autograph book was super cool.

we got in line to meet hotwheels firestorm. he had to take a break for lunch and we were the next ones in line. d'oh. almost. he offered to sign our stuff super fast. so nice. i guess it's hard to walk away leaving two little guys in line.

he obsessively counted how many drivers we had met. and how many we needed to get to round out the 16.

scooby doo was also impressed by the art skills.

and how he got scooby's collar and everything

she was probably more impressed that we went to the show in worcester.

then we employed some strategery. daddy waited in the son-uva digger line while the kids and i went to see monster mutt dalmatian. candice was very impressed by the picture.

she even wrote, "i love this picture!" next to her autograph.

and then she gave the kids paw print "tattoos"

and they did dog tongues for a pic

then we rejoined daddy in the son-uva digger line, where several other daddies were employing the same startegy.

on to el toro loco. see.

el toro loco and el diablo were signing together. 2 for 1. they were super funny. el toro loco was teasing el diablo about his driving skills.

they really studied the book. el toro loco seemed to remember the various action shots we included from monster jams past.

and grinder time

i think Q has a new favorite truck. zombie. later, during the show, they played michael jackson's thriller video as his intro music. Q LOVES it now and insisted on watching it on youtube today.

zombie arms

like the truck (seen here with random ravens cheerleaders)

monster energy time

there was a special baltimore design truck. Q did not want this guy's autograph because he was not in our book.

on to lucas oil crusader

at this point there was only an hour left of the pit party. usually the autograph lines start to close at this point to ensure that the drivers can leave right on time. we only needed two more. we figured we'd try to get the easier of the two, but even if we weren't successful, we would only need to get those 2 next weekend. we headed over toward mohawk warrior. i mistakenly waited in a hair spray painting line for about 10 minutes thinking it was mohawk warrior's line. once we realized this, we went in search of the real line. apparently there wasn't one, so we were ushered straight in.

we only had one truck to go... max-d, the 2nd most popular truck. we figured there was no way in heck we'd get him, but walked over to check anyway. the line wasn't long, but that's because it was closed off. the line manager dude told us and 2-3 other families there that we were welcome to wait because time permitting, he'd let a few more in. it was in the shade and we needed a little break anyway so we hung out. and got in a few minutes later.