"Dig This" is a new Las Vegas heavy construction theme-park that gives you the chance to run enormous earth-moving machines. You have to be at least 14 to get behind the controls. Sounds like enormous fun, but with so many Las Vegas mortgages under water, it seems like they might get more bang for buck out of letting punters run wrecking balls and bulldozers on abandoned subprime property than digging the same dirt over and over again.
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The 10-employee park has five pieces of machinery, including a pair of Caterpillar D5 track-type bulldozers and three Caterpillar 315CL hydraulic excavators. Dig This sells three-hour packages that consist of a 30-minute safety and operation orientation followed by two hours of maneuvering either a bulldozer or excavator.
Guests can either dig a trench up to 10 ft deep or build an earthen mound; there are also skill tests like picking and moving 2,000-lb tires or scooping basketballs from atop safety cones.
Packages are priced at $400, which reflects equipment maintenance and insurance costs. Patrons 14 and older can play in the dirt.
"Half of our customers are females, including housewives and grandmothers," says company spokeswoman Cathy Wiedemer. "Throttling up a powerful engine and moving mounds of earth is very empowering."
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(via Super Punch)
