Tony Hawk
A month or so ago I took my skater dude to see Tony Hawk at Six Flags in New Jersey.
Okay, so we have a 200 mile trip that is on the other side of NYC -- 3.5 hours with no traffic. We have 5 1/4 hours to get there after leaving 45 minutes late. And it's hot. And raining. And nobody can drive. Traffic jam city and we're not even halfway through CT. Inching down I-95 at 5mph it will take us 42 hours to get there....so I pull out the map and look for a way around NYC. If we go a smidge north, we might can bypass NYC, but who knows what traffic Newark, NJ will bring? As we approach the bypass highway, I'm on the fence -- direct route with a likely bottleneck in NYC? Or around into the unknown? Did I mention it was raining?
Around we go. Hit traffic. Get past that, hit traffic again. Get to the Garden State Parkway, smooth sailing. Until the toll. Okay, knew about those, but the second toll has a huge traffic jam.
Tell Buzz that we're doing our best, but we may not make it. We may get there and find it rained out. We may make it but be too late to get in. We may just plain miss it. So we'll make do and ride a few rides -- at least we tried, right? He was cool about it.
Finally start hitting areas where traffic is moving along more quickly than slowly, and finally make it to the NJ Tpke. Fortunately fairly smooth sailing there. Till we hit another rainstorm. And a traffic jam. And now Buzz has to pee...it's past 4:30 and I have no idea how much farther it really is, how crowded the parking lot will be, how far we'll have to walk...
So we decided that rather than sit in traffic and make our bladders wait, we'd just stop and use the facilities (rest area). When we come out, rain is gone, and so is the traffic. We find we're about 35 miles away. Off we go! Finally smooth sailing. Get to the park at 5:05. It's POURING OUT. Ask the parking attendant if the show is on -- he says if the rain lets up it will be a go. So we park and as we get to the gates the rain lets up. Did I mention it's 85 and 99.999999% humidity? Very thick air, no breeze. Hear some other guys ask where Tony Hawk is, they have VIP tickets (so do we) so follow them. Didn't hurt that one of the guys was really hot... ;) Along the way we accumulated a few other groups of people who also had VIP tickets. Find a line. Somebody asks somebody who was supposedly in charge...told us to 'go up there.' I heard none of this, I'm a sheep following the flock, LOL. Get to the front of the line, mass confusion. Where is the line? Somebody says back there. Somebody says we were told to come here. Security and officials know nothing. They disagree. Some people at the front of the line say they have VIP tickets and they've been waiting 2 hours. Not fair! But by that time, after 10 minutes of bickering, finding this person and that, they just opened the gates and we all just went in. Apparently we all did cut the line, though it wasn't on purpose (misinformation somewhere). Got great seats. Awesome show. Rain holds off. Motocross dudes were cancelled but it dried out enough by the end of the show that they performed. Ever see a guy do a backflip with a motorcycle after flying off a ramp? 20 feet in front of you? Amazing!
After the show we waited for about 30 minutes trying to get an autograph, but Tony Hawk never came out. Some of the other guys did. Finally security said he wasn't coming out and they shooed us away. Buzz was disappointed.
We ended up dropping our stuff in the car, then went back in, grabbed a hot dog, and rode 3 rides, the last one being a flume log ride where we hoped we'd get soaked. Unfortunately that didn't happen. :/ Not sure if we didn't weigh enough? The splash was minimal. Oh well. Got ice cream on the way out.
Driving home I got gas at the last exit in NJ, service area. Only $3 a gallon FULL SERVE!! In my town it's $3.23 SELF serve.
Then the thunderstorm hit. A biggie. Skies opened, lightning bolts, the whole works. Can't see lines on the road, can't see anything. Follow the trucks! Fortunately not much traffic. Unfortunately I stay with the storm as it moves north and into CT. Torrential rains, thunder and lightening all the way home.
Got home at 1:15am. Worth every minute? You betcha! The joy on Buzz's face was worth it all.
Okay, so we have a 200 mile trip that is on the other side of NYC -- 3.5 hours with no traffic. We have 5 1/4 hours to get there after leaving 45 minutes late. And it's hot. And raining. And nobody can drive. Traffic jam city and we're not even halfway through CT. Inching down I-95 at 5mph it will take us 42 hours to get there....so I pull out the map and look for a way around NYC. If we go a smidge north, we might can bypass NYC, but who knows what traffic Newark, NJ will bring? As we approach the bypass highway, I'm on the fence -- direct route with a likely bottleneck in NYC? Or around into the unknown? Did I mention it was raining?
Around we go. Hit traffic. Get past that, hit traffic again. Get to the Garden State Parkway, smooth sailing. Until the toll. Okay, knew about those, but the second toll has a huge traffic jam.
Tell Buzz that we're doing our best, but we may not make it. We may get there and find it rained out. We may make it but be too late to get in. We may just plain miss it. So we'll make do and ride a few rides -- at least we tried, right? He was cool about it.
Finally start hitting areas where traffic is moving along more quickly than slowly, and finally make it to the NJ Tpke. Fortunately fairly smooth sailing there. Till we hit another rainstorm. And a traffic jam. And now Buzz has to pee...it's past 4:30 and I have no idea how much farther it really is, how crowded the parking lot will be, how far we'll have to walk...
So we decided that rather than sit in traffic and make our bladders wait, we'd just stop and use the facilities (rest area). When we come out, rain is gone, and so is the traffic. We find we're about 35 miles away. Off we go! Finally smooth sailing. Get to the park at 5:05. It's POURING OUT. Ask the parking attendant if the show is on -- he says if the rain lets up it will be a go. So we park and as we get to the gates the rain lets up. Did I mention it's 85 and 99.999999% humidity? Very thick air, no breeze. Hear some other guys ask where Tony Hawk is, they have VIP tickets (so do we) so follow them. Didn't hurt that one of the guys was really hot... ;) Along the way we accumulated a few other groups of people who also had VIP tickets. Find a line. Somebody asks somebody who was supposedly in charge...told us to 'go up there.' I heard none of this, I'm a sheep following the flock, LOL. Get to the front of the line, mass confusion. Where is the line? Somebody says back there. Somebody says we were told to come here. Security and officials know nothing. They disagree. Some people at the front of the line say they have VIP tickets and they've been waiting 2 hours. Not fair! But by that time, after 10 minutes of bickering, finding this person and that, they just opened the gates and we all just went in. Apparently we all did cut the line, though it wasn't on purpose (misinformation somewhere). Got great seats. Awesome show. Rain holds off. Motocross dudes were cancelled but it dried out enough by the end of the show that they performed. Ever see a guy do a backflip with a motorcycle after flying off a ramp? 20 feet in front of you? Amazing!
After the show we waited for about 30 minutes trying to get an autograph, but Tony Hawk never came out. Some of the other guys did. Finally security said he wasn't coming out and they shooed us away. Buzz was disappointed.
We ended up dropping our stuff in the car, then went back in, grabbed a hot dog, and rode 3 rides, the last one being a flume log ride where we hoped we'd get soaked. Unfortunately that didn't happen. :/ Not sure if we didn't weigh enough? The splash was minimal. Oh well. Got ice cream on the way out.
Driving home I got gas at the last exit in NJ, service area. Only $3 a gallon FULL SERVE!! In my town it's $3.23 SELF serve.
Then the thunderstorm hit. A biggie. Skies opened, lightning bolts, the whole works. Can't see lines on the road, can't see anything. Follow the trucks! Fortunately not much traffic. Unfortunately I stay with the storm as it moves north and into CT. Torrential rains, thunder and lightening all the way home.
Got home at 1:15am. Worth every minute? You betcha! The joy on Buzz's face was worth it all.
posted by Zany Mom at 9:22 AM
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