Monster Jam - Orlando 2022

 I have been wanting to take the kids to Monster Jam for years. A few years ago I was going to buy tickets but I think we ended up going to SoCal that weekend for Zach's birthday or something. I was on Facebook a couple months ago and I got hit with a Monster Jam ad. I couldn't resist anymore and I bought the tickets. 

Dean was being a real stinker about Monster Jam. He kept telling me Monster Jam is stupid and boring and he doesn't want to go. He would say things just to antagonize me, because that's how Dean is. When we got to Monster Jam he kept saying it's dumb, until the driving started. At one point he started clapping but then looked over to make sure we weren't watching him get excited. After Monster Jam he no longer says it's stupid. Now I catch him playing with his cars saying Monster Jam in the silly voice we use whenever we say Monster Jam.

Everyone loved Monster Jam, even Natalie. She thought it would be meh but ended up really enjoying it. It's not like the monster truck shows of the 80's and 90's with Bigfoot smashing cars. The first part of the event was the races, which were cool but after a while it's all kinda the same. Then they go into a series of tricks followed by intermission and then freestyle. Freestyle was definitely the best. 

We went there rooting for Grave Digger. Well Grave Digger was having a bad night. During the races Grave Digger did what looked like a good jump but the engine stalled and it landed on the roof. They repaired Grave Digger but then freestyle was ended with a flip that landed it on the roof. All of us have a new favorite, Son-Uva-Digger. I had no idea how any of this worked so I was using Google during the show. For one I didn't know that a lot of the trucks have multiple drivers. I was expecting Krysten Anderson to be driving Grave Digger but this night it was Brandon Vinson. All of Dennis' kids have driven for Grave Digger, 3 of them are still on the team, the exception being Ryan. Ryan went off and created Son-Uva-Digger and this guy is in a league of his own. Adam Anderson is supposed to be driving Grave Digger at the next show we go to and they don't have Ryan Anderson scheduled, yet. There is a not that they will add additional drivers and I'm really hoping they add Ryan and Son-Uva-Digger.

https://thenewswheel.com/history-of-grave-digger-monster-truck/

Like I said, freestyle was the best part of the night. They get a couple minutes to do all kinds of tricks. If they don't last at least 30 seconds they don't get any points. A lot of drivers like to make it past the 30 seconds to qualify for points and then they do more daring tricks at the end. 

Well they saved the best for last. Like I said, Ryan Anderson is in a league of his own. No one else even comes close. He goes balls out from the start and just keeps getting crazier. After landing a backflip he went to his side and then managed to do a bicycle and spin out of it. At the very end he lands on the roof of Son-Uva-Digger and he managed to throw it in reverse and flip back out of it. Just look at YouTube videos of Ryan Anderson and you'll quickly learn why he's so popular. It wasn't this show. At every show he does stunts that would end a night for an ordinary driver but he manages to pull out of it. 

Needless to say after a night at Monster Jam this family is a fan. The boys are getting Monster Jam toys for Christmas and all of us are getting tickets for Monster Jam 2023. A couple days after Monster Jam we were watching some videos online. I told the kids we were going to go to the night of destruction in Orlando but it's anniversary week so it's a no go. Well I pulled up videos to show them what that is. Figure 8 bus races and junker trucks pulling trailers in a last man standing wreck race. Some truly redneck stuff. 

Bakugan Dragonoid 

El Toro Loco

They're trying to convince everyone that is a tail on the Dalmatian.

Wild Side doing a back flip.

 

Grave Digger.

This one lost his front tire on the jump.

Grave Digger

End of the night for Grave Digger.

Ryan Anderson tearing it up in Son-Uva Digger. The best part of the entire night. Just wait til the end.

Son-Uva-Digger.

Here comes the back flip.

Bad landing? Nope, he's good.

Landing upright at the end was unbelievable. 

Not my videos, but some other really good videos of Ryan Anderson in Son-Uva-Digger.

This is what ended Dennis Anderson's career in Raymond James Stadium (Tampa) in 2017.

Hurricane Nicole

 The day I posted about Hurricane Ian, meteorologist were warning about another storm coming our way. I was thinking there was no way we were going to get hit twice in one year. We are at the lowest risk part of the state so what are the odds? Well a couple days later they said this storm would definitely develop and was heading our way. At first they were saying it would just be a tropical storm but eventually they changed the forecast to landfall as a strong cat 1 hurricane. The track stayed really consistent the next few days and it kept the path just to our south. I think Nicole ended up passing about 40-45 miles south of us early Thursday morning.

I decided I was going to work through this thing since I work from home. The power didn't go out during Ian so as long as the power stayed on during Nicole I could work. The night Ian hit I was anxious all night about not having plywood to patch a window if it breaks. This time I wasn't going to wish I had plywood. I went to Home Depot and got a couple sheets of plywood, not to board up, but just to have ready in case a window broke. I also picked up some clips so I could just cut the plywood and push against the window without drilling. 

Wednesday night Hurricane Nicole hit. The wind wasn't nearly as bad as Ian. Thursday morning Clermont had the strongest winds in the area but they were only at something like 63 mph. With Ian I think the winds were 70mph with gust close to 100. The damage was a lot less than Ian with only one fence that we could see down from the backyard. Everyone that lost a fence during Ian had them replaced except for one house where they did a really half-assed job at repairing their fence and it blew back over. The water was higher behind our house than during Ian but after the rain stopped it drained within 30 minutes. 

The rain came in hard but the totals were far less than during Ian. With Ian it rained for 40 hours straight. With Nicole it only rained about 12-15ish hours. Nicole got sucked up by a cold front and came in fast. Ian was going 6-10 mph while it was in the Gulf, Nicole was crossing the state at 17mph.  We felt the effects of Ian for 3 days, with Nicole only 2 and the more extreme effects just a few hours.

Projected path just after Nicole made landfall as a Cat 1.There was definitely quite a difference between the two. Nicole brought in some impressive rain and some gusty wind but with Ian I was nervous thinking windows would break. Ian was pushing the limits of my comfort zone living in a house with cheap windows and no shutters. Once Nicole hit it never got bad enough where I thought we could lose a window.

The blue dot is us as Nicole is crossing the state

Early Thursday morning.

Just after the sun came up behind the house.

Natalie woke up to this.....

Most of my plants got moved into the garage. My cone ginger was not happy about being left out.

Polka-Dot Wasp Moth

A couple weeks later I went biking at the preserve. The water is normally about 8-10 feet in front of that bench. After Ian the water was just in front of the bench. It just keeps getting higher. 

After Ian I could still pass here by riding through the bushes on the right side. Not anymore. Had to go around to the main trail.

And the main trail was full of water as well. After Ian this one was dry, not anymore.

This is looking back at the area two pictures up but from the other side. After Ian the water stopped around that post. After Nicole it went from one puddle in that area to a T shape where the roads meet.

Lake Louisa After Hurricane Ian

The weekend after Hurricane Ian we tried to go to Lake Louisa State Park but the park was closed. The gates going in and out were broken and the motors were pulled out of the foundation. There's no way the hurricane could have done that. It looked more like someone rammed the gates, both of them. 

A couple weeks after the hurricane I decided to take a bike ride all by myself around the park and do some exploring. I was warned by the guy working there that a lot of the trails around the creek are flooded. The week before I did a 17 mile bike ride around Clermont. This time I only did 13 miles but it was much harder, so hard my back was killing me the next day. 

The trails would go from hard compact sand to sand so loose I'd have to peddle like crazy to get through it and a couple times I even had to get off the bike and walk. In three places the trails were flooded and I had to turn around. The last time I had to turn around I was really annoyed because it was a couple miles back and the sand was really bad on that trail. 

A couple weeks later we had Hurricane Nicole which made the flooding even worse. I haven't been back to see how much worse but I know from biking at the Crooked River Preserve a couple miles upstream the water has gone up a lot since then and it will likely be at least a month before it goes back down to normal levels.

This was from one of the boardwalks going over the swamp.

One of the four deer I saw that morning.

This looked like a nice trail, until I had to turn around.

Saw Palmetto.

The last trail where I had to turn around. I'm sure the water is all the way up in the trees on the right side after Hurricane Nicole.

41

A few weeks ago was my 41st birthday. A couple weeks before I made reservations for the Hilton at Clearwater beach. Then Ian came through and almost ruined our plans. However, the last minute turn to the south spared the Tampa area and there was hardly any damage. 

The morning of my birthday I woke up and went to the gym. This is my new tradition on my birthday, going to the gym and pretending I'm not getting old. After the gym we packed up my Honda and drove out to St. Petersburg to the Sunken Gardens. I saw someone's post on Facebook about the Sunken Gardens and couldn't think of anything better to do before hitting the beach. 

The gardens were amazing, but a little small. I thought it would take hours to get through the place. When we drove up to the gardens it was right in the middle of the city, kinda in the ghetto, and then there's just a lot there and gardens behind the wall. It took us just over an hour to walk all of it before we headed out to one of my favorite restaurants, The Colombia (Cuban food).

After dinner we went to the hotel. What a different from Miami and the Tampa Bay area this time of year.  We got hit with a cold front and it was too cold to go in the ocean that night so we took the kids to the pool. I got in the heated pool and it was too chilly for me. I ended up just sitting there drinking my cocktail. This was the first week of October and already cold. Today is 11/24 (Thanksgiving). We took the kids to Miami Beach today and it's still really warm.

We spent a couple days at the beach. In the middle of the day it was warm enough to get in the water but cold when we got out. It was windy and the water was not the typical clear blue. It was kind of brown and murky. We had a good time but I think that's the last time I'll go to the part of Florida this time of year for the beach. In the summer the water is warm and crystal clear. I had been talking this place up to the kids and then we get there and I felt like it wasn't even close to what I was expecting.

At the Sunken Gardens.

Zach standing by a huge bromeliad.

I don't remember what this is but the flowers were really weird.

The lily pads with the wall on the top were really cool. I've seen better pictures of them from this garden though. They were kinda small when we were there.

I don't remember what this is but when I find out I want to get one.

The biggest bamboo I have ever seen.

Vines growing up the palms.

This was one of the coolest parts of the gardens. The vines on the palms were so thick.

Clearwater beach.

From the pier. 

We dug a huge hole on Saturday.

At dinner. I was looking for coconut shrimp in a mango sauce but ended up getting it in marmalade. I don't remember where but I had the best coconut shrimp in mango sauce somewhere in that area 15 years ago.

We were worried about bringing Dean to a seafood restaurant but they were really good about cross contamination there. They even gave him a special allergy flag.

Sunset Saturday night.