Looking for a way to reconnect with your inner child? Why not fulfill your lifelong dream of learning to drive heavy equipment? Extreme Sandbox in Minnesota puts you in the driver seat of your childhood fantasy, letting you play with the most powerful tools on the jobsite, including a wheel loader, a bulldozer, and an excavator.
According to Josh Dean for Popular Science: "The history of Extreme Sandbox is short and sensible. Back in 2009, when he was still a manager for Target Corporation, company founder Randy Stenger drove by a construction site with his 9-year-old son. The boy stared at the heavy equipment rolling around in the dirt and asked, 'Wouldn’t it be fun to go drive those things?'
'Yes, it would,' Stenger answered, and the thought stuck. Later, over beers, he mentioned it to his brother. They spent the next year turning the idea into a business, and nearly another year looking for space. They finally opened the first Extreme Sandbox, three rented machines on a leased 10-acre lot outside Minneapolis, in April 2012.
At first, Stenger taught the sessions himself, after getting a crash course from his equipment dealer and practicing for hours. Clients assumed he had a background in construction. 'Absolutely not,' he’d tell them, with a smirk that he often deploys. 'Does that give you a feeling of confidence?'"