So, this Saturday while my wife and son left for a friends birthday party at the local bowling alley, I rushed around the house getting myself and daughter ready to head to the Ramp Jam at Busch Gardens here in Williamsburg. The Ramp Jam tour featured many different pro skateboarders, BMXers, and rollerbladers. The only names I knew and really cared about seeing were skateboarders Bucky Lasek and Danny Mayor. Danny is from my hometown of Omaha, NE. I was hopeing to bring a camera for pictures but understandably my wife had it for the birthday party and my son must have brought his along too. My 4 year old daughter was nice enough to offer up her Fisher Price digital camera, but If any of you have used one, you know how horrible the picture quality is, but it was very cute of her to offer. 🙂 So, I get her and myself slathered in sun block before we head out and gather our water bottles and Busch Garden’s passes. I grab my autograph board which is a blank natural wood skateboard deck that I bring with me whenever I have the chance of meeting a pro skateboarder I admire. I’ve got autographs from Andy Mac, Mike V, Hosoi, Sergie Ventura, Kyle Leeper, etc.
So we head out the door at 2:30pm and the Ramp Jam starts at 3:30pm. I figured plenty of time. 20 minutes to get to Busch Gardens and 40 minutes to make our way from the parking lot to the show in the park. No problem, right?
Wrong! We don’t even get to the park ticket booth until 3:30pm! So we huff it through the park which seemed to take forever! Once we arrived at the Ramp Jam location by Festhaus it’s already about 3:50pm. So we sit down in the grass just to hear the announcer say, “well, here’s the final run folks, we apologize that we can’t keep going, but the wind is just too strong.”
My poor daughter whom I dragged through the park on this warm day with her face all flush from the heat. We then go stand in line for the autograph…we waited for 10-15min with no sign of anybody coming out and the line was long! I decide if my daughter is going to have any fun today, I better get her on a ride before we have to leave, so we forget about the autograph and head to whatever ride she picks which was a plane ride. She enjoys the plane ride and we begin the reverse walking marathon we did to get into the park. Poor girl! At least I rememberd to bring the water bottle!
So all that and No Ramp Jam and no autograph. At least my daughter and I got to spend some time together even though it was more like exercise time together! 🙂 And hey, she really got to ride 3 rides at the park. The Tram from the parking lot to the park, the Plane ride, and then the Tram from the park to the parking lot! 🙂
Bucky was at the ramp jam on Mother’s day too, but I know better than to suggest we do that on Mother’s Day. I’m not that crazy! 🙂 The Ramp Jam without Bucky, but the other guys is suppose to coninue for the next couple weekends. More info can be found here.
FYI, We didn't cut the show early, the show started at 3:30, and it was a 20 minute show. It ended at 3:50. Yes it was windy that day, but we never did cut the shows short, because of the wind. I apologize for your lack of autographs. We do the signings about 15 minutes after each show.
I know this post was from 2010, but the Ramp Jam is on again this year. We did last weekend, and this coming weekend (May 7th – 8th) and next weekend as well. Bucky will not be there these next two weekends, but Danny Mayer will be. If you want to come back out, I will make it my personal mission, to make sure you and your daughter get autographs, and a picture with Danny