The Journey
Last winter, Eagan facilities superintendent Mark Vaughan finally completed a challenging yearslong quest: He brought ice bumper cars to the metro for the very first time.
“My daughter and I rode in them about a decade ago when we were on vacation in Colorado,” he says. “Ever since, I’ve been like, We gotta bring those to Minnesota. I wanted to be the first, but Virginia got them before we did.”
It took some convincing (both hockey and figure skaters are protective of their ice time, and the city wanted to find a way to add the program without taking anything away), but now, Eagan offers Bump and Skate a few times each week year-round—specific portions of open skate where part of the ice is partitioned off for a ruthless smackdown.
The Cars
The mechanics are simple: Drivers control the light-up, battery-operated cars, which are sort of tubelike vessels with fancier seats (and seat belts, Mom!), with a video game–style joystick that lets them spin and zoom across the ice. During each 8-to-10-minute ride, people of all ages maneuver the studded-tire cars around a section of Eagan Civic Arena’s ice rink, careening off the other cars in the process. Smaller kiddos can ride on a parent’s lap, but anyone 6 and older can get in the driver’s seat…