Hello and welcome to a hot Saturday in Houston here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is April 23rd.
That's right, folks. The WA blog is on the road, this time to Houston, Texas for the 2022 FIRST Championship, but, let me tell you, the expression, "(Insert name of city here) or Bust" took on a whole new meaning on this trip.
First things first, a little explanation. Here's the schpiel from the FIRST Championship website which best sums up what all this is: "Hosted by FIRST headquarters, FIRST Championship is a culminating, international event for our youth robotics competition season and an annual celebration of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) for our community as we prepare young people for the future."
Every year, there's a theme and a challenge. Each team must build a robot to successfully complete the challenge. When it comes time to compete, teams are grouped in trios called alliances. Each team has about 10 qualification matches, each with a different trio (alliance) that has been randomly selected. After the qualification matches are complete, the top eight teams became alliance captains and get to invite two other teams to compete in their alliance in the quarterfinals. The best two out of three matches advance to the semifinals, then the finals. It's riveting. (Ha ha. Pardon the pun.)
Robotics is a big deal at our house. So far three of our five kids and my husband have been part of Team #2883, aka F.R.E.D. aka FIRST Robotics Engineering and Design. Fun fact: The team used to be called Fighting Rednecks Engineering & Design, however, with this year's "Rebuild" theme for robotics, the team decided it was timely to rebrand and move away from the plaid-wearing, mullet-sporting dude of FREDs past. In fact, this transition was the core of their Chairman's Award presentation. Check out their award-winning video here. They have my all-time favorite tagline: Building leaders one robot at a time.
Team 2883 won the Chairman's Award with the above video and presentation at the Great Northern Regional held in Grand Forks, ND March 24-26 (On the WAKWIR's birthday!) which meant they would advance to the championships in Houston. They also have a pretty awesome robot, having made it to the finals at the Minnesota North Star Regional in Minneapolis one week before Easter.
While the kids and dad (a mentor) took a 24-hour bus ride south to Houston, another mom and I were able to score some very affordable plane tickets out of Fargo. But, boy, what a trip.
Leaving Wednesday morning, we started with dry pavement, so we took that as a good sign. On the drive to Fargo we encountered snow, rain, and strong winds, but nothing us hardy northwestern MN'ers couldn't handle. We feasted at an Applebees, filling up on delicious chicken alfredo pasta and five-dollar margaritas the size of small fishbowls. Our plane for Dallas left late, but flying was good. We made it with 20 minutes to spare to catch our flight. We speed-walked through the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, whizzing impressively past slowpokes, easily arriving at the correct gate with enough time to board. Hurrah! We would not miss the connecting flight to Houston. We high-fived and celebrated our awesomeness.
Except that, the board above the gate to the plane didn't say Houston. It said Peoria. Last I checked, that wasn't in Texas. And the only letter in Peoria that might look like Houston was the "o" so we knew it couldn't be a typo. My friend checked her email. "Our flight's been canceled."
The airlines rebooked our flight for the next day at 4:40pm. Qualification matches started Thursday morning. We decided to rent a car and drive the 4 hours to Houston. We easily booked a rental car online - then waited in line for two hours. At this point, I realized how much I appreciated my travel companion. As we navigated these speed bumps in our travel plans, she stayed calm, which helped me stay calm. We chilled and chatted. We had to laugh. After going through snow, wind, and rain, a delayed flight, and a canceled flight - a person just has to laugh and enjoy the company at present.
We saw others lose tempers and throw angry fists into the air, but do you know what we got in return for our kindness and patience - a second driver added for free to our car rental.
At 9:30pm, we hit the road, my friend navigating with GPS while I drove through downtown Dallas at 70mph, because that appears to be the norm. We chatted, no doubt pumped up on adrenaline, stopped at a Burger King at 11pm for two chicken sandwiches, two small fries, and two small drinks for $11. A great deal.
We finally reached the outskirts of Houston around 12:30. We're almost there, I remember thinking, the GPS telling us to go just 10 more miles only to have her tell us 10 more miles three more times. But, made it we did, arriving at our hotel at 1:30 a.m.
Houston or Bust! we joked along the way. Was it worth it? Would we do it again?
As I sit here on Friday night writing this blog post, after having enjoyed two full days of robotics competitions and meeting all kinds of people from around the world who are so nice - yes. Yes, I would do it again. As my friend said, the lesson learned on this trip was this: Be kind. Kindness is the oil that makes the gears in the robot of life run just a little more smoothly.
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| #houstonorbust with the WAKWIR |
On This Day
Historic Highlights (credits)
Happy Birthday to You!🎶
Remembering You
Kim
*Wannaskan Almanac Kid Writer-in-Residence
Travel can be hard. But it's worth it in the end.
ReplyDeleteLook at the fine post you got out of your trip.
so when will the winners be announced? and so brave to drive that late at night in a strange land.
ReplyDelete