Sweet Home Oregon!

Its been a long adventure, but I finally made it home!  Canada was amazing!  I am so proud of the team for making it across the finish line in Calgary! 

Part of the team drove the van straight home and the rest went to the award ceremony at the Calgary Zoo.  We were awarded the smile award for being the happiest team and the Star Trek “going where no one has gone before” award.  Michigan earned the first place trophy, as expected.

After we explored the zoo for a little while we visited Lake Louise.  It was by far the most beautiful place the whole trip!  After eating way too much delicious food we headed back out on the road and stayed at a surprisingly beautiful little motel that night.  In the morning I drank my coffee on the balcony, overlooking mountains.

From there, we went to Vancouver and ate delicious dim sum before crossing the border.  We gave Conrad from the Minnesota team a ride to Olympia and then we were home free, back in Oregon!

More Pictures

Canada!

We made it to Canada!  Crossing the border was really smooth – there was even a special lane for solar cars.  It looks like Oregon since it is green and rainy.  Everyone has been really friendly and interested in the car.  A few people referred to it as a spaceship.  We stayed at Red River College last night and we are staying in Regina tonight.

Sioux Falls

We arrived in Sioux Falls, SD today.  It was a great day despite the cloudy weather.  We drove for a long time then trailered at the end to get to the stage stop.  Our caravanning skills were excellent and we drove safely.  Leif gets to visit his grandparents, who he hasn’t seen in a long time, while we are in Sioux Falls.  It was fun to see the falls and there was a laser show about the history of the city…the laser show wasn’t as cool as it sounds.

Nebraska

We got to the Topeka checkpoint and we are stopped at a hotel in Blair, Nebraska.

Pictures :)

Retraction

Sorry, I was misinformed, it was not the Minnesota team that exploded.  It was Missouri S&T that had battery problems.

Co-ed Showers

So I haven’t been able to write in a few days because I haven’t had internet access. We left Plano but had to pull over shortly after we got on the road for a wiring problem. After fixing the minor problem we continued. Not too long after that it started to rain. We pulled into a church parking lot. They were very generous. We didn’t have a tarp so they gave us vinyl table cloths to cover the array. They welcomed us inside and we hung out in their youth room with a pool table, air hockey, etc. and gave us food and beverages!

After the rain stopped we got back on the road. Unfortunately the weather really set us back and we weren’t able to make it to the checkpoint on time. We trailered it to the checkpoint late and talked to the officials. They said they would talk about it and let us know if they would allow us to still drive since we were supposed to make the first two checkpoints in order to compete.

The next day we made it to the stage stop in Neosho, Missouri. It seemed like we were going to have to go home. They had already given us so many chances and we had barely made it so many times, I thought the team’s luck was running out. The judges came over to us and I thought I knew what he was going to say. Instead, he said we would still be allowed to drive the solar car! We aren’t allowed to compete in the race, but we can still drive across the finish line, and that is all we want. We aren’t here to win, we’re just here to play with all the other cars. As long as the solar car obeys traffic laws such as speed limits and stopping at red lights we can still drive the car. Durham, the English team, is in the same boat as us, so we are pretty much racing against them because we are not allowed to get higher than 14th place out of 15th.

We also made a big accomplishment by traveling 100 miles! Oregon State University promised to give the team $3,000 if we went 100 miles

In Missouri we stayed in barracks originally built during WWII. The sleeping area was co-ed and so was the bathroom. That wasn’t all that weird, accept when I saw the bathroom. First of all, the showers were just one big room with shower heads all around like a locker room.  Second, the toilets didn’t have doors! Nonetheless, it was nice to have a bed to sleep in, for free, and also free dinner.

Today we left from Missouri and headed to the checkpoint at Topeka, Kansas. The sun was shining and the Rain Dancer was flying! We got a top speed of 45mph! We couldn’t make it to the checkpoint though, so we are stopped at an RV park 28 miles from Topeka. We will make it to Topeka tomorrow morning. The next checkpoint is Omaha, Nebraska and then the stage stop is in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Apparently, Minnesota’s car blew up today, so we are at least doing better than some teams. Fortunately no one was hurt.

I like it here in Kansas. It is green and it is not humid. Also they have fireflies!

Six Flags

I took a break from my videographer duties today and visited Six Flags!  Sarah, Leif, Nick, and I all went.  The rides were amazing.  The food was good also – we had turkey legs for lunch, which made me feel like a cave woman.  My favorite ride was the Titan.  I also rode the Mr. Freeze, Tony Hawk, and Superman which were great.  While we were zooming around, the rest of the team was showing off the car to the public.

Tomorrow we get up bright and early and head to the Plano Centre to start the race!

Goodbye Cresson, hello Plano!

Today was full of suspense.  We only had to drive the car around the track to qualify, everything else was taken care of.  We had to do a total of 60 laps and have all drivers participate with 15 laps each.  Plus, the laps had to be done in 4 minutes, 5 seconds.  Michael started out on the track.  Everything seemed good until a tire popped.  The team rushed out to change the tire.  Later on in the day the car had to stop again.  Time was running out.  We knew we weren’t going to get all 60 laps done before 6pm, when the track closes. Our third driver completed 12 laps so we pulled him out and put in our last driver, Jason.  He only had time to finish 6 laps.  We completed 45 laps total.  Since we were so close to completing all the laps, the team was hopeful that the judges would bend the rules to let us still compete.

While the judges discussed the fate of the raindancer, the team waited anxiously to hear the outcome.  The judges came by and said that we are allowed to race with certain penalties.  The main two are that we must make the first 2 checkpoints and Jason is not allowed to drive, in order to qualify.

Tomorrow is the display day in Plano which will give the team a much deserved break before the race starts.