Portland or Bust...

… actually, both.

The team spent the last week or so before we left for competition sacrificing sleep and coursework to complete the vehicle. Even with that, it still required several hours of work each night in the hotel parking lot during competition.

It was an eventful trip. There were ten people (nine team members, one advisor) in a twelve passenger van for a twenty-two hour one-way drive. It was “cozy.” We ran out of gas in the middle of Wyoming. Fortunately, we were only about a mile up the hill from a gas station. Some of my teammates got out and pushed the van up a slight grade. Then it got going down the hill. They jumped in, but the last one missed and hit the asphalt rolling. He was fine, of course, with only a scraped up elbow and knee to show for it.

Our advisor was pretty entertaining, but somewhat like having a teenage girl with on the trip. She texted and talked on her cell phone the whole drive. I about died when one of my teammates was feeling really sick and she said he was walking around like he’d had a man lover the last night. Her boyfriend flew out to meet her in Portland, and once he showed up she all but disappeared.

In competition, our performance was not so wonderful. Our design report scored very poorly, despite some very original features in our design. Our speed in the sprint was not exactly wonderful. We did take third in the utility race. The endurance race was a fiasco. I hit a curb and got a flat tire in the first lap of the race, putting us more than a lap behind. That’s not a good feeling. In the last lap of the race, our steering broke down. We walked the vehicle into the pit.

I visited with a friend while I was there. That wasn’t as much fun as it should have been. She lives in Seattle. I told her about my trip to Portland, and she and her boyfriend planned to spend the same weekend visiting the city. However, she told me that I would have to take public transportation to meet up with them. Apparently, "on vacation" meant that neither of them wanted to stay sober enough to return me to the hotel. Basically, getting drunk was higher on her priority list than seeing me. Ouch.

Using public transportation actually turned into an exciting adventure. Without knowing how to get there, I simply took the last bus. The bus took me to a train, which took me downtown. I found my way by asking directions from nice people. One awesome girl actually was getting off at the same stop and walked with me partway to my destination. It was exciting and fun taking off without a clear idea of how to get there and finding my way by meeting people.

I met them at a bar (surprise?) and we chatted until closing time. Then it was back onto the last train. I reached my stop, but the last bus had been hours ago. Fortunately, the area was quiet and safe. I walked the last two miles back to my hotel alone in the middle of the night. I actually found the walk extremely pleasant.

On the return trip, the trailer door didn’t get shut at one stop. I don’t think we lost anything. At least, it would have meant less to unload. The connector for the trailer also came unplugged at some point and drug for quite a time. It was halfway gone by the time we discovered it. We ran the second half of the trip without trailer lights.

The other senior is done with the team after this semester. It isn’t a moment too soon, either. I am afraid he is literally losing it. He actually said, with sincerity, that he hates the project and that he no longer wanted to be an engineer. Wow. I’m certainly glad it’s over for the time-being. However, I’m actually looking forward to participating in the design of a new vehicle this fall. Thankfully, there will be a nice long respite before the project resumes. We need it.