Hello and welcome to a happy, sunny Saturday in St. Cloud, here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is April 6th.
We're at another robotics competition, this one the inaugural Granite City Regional. Today's blog post is a team effort by all present in our hotel room, i.e. our family and our friends who came all the way from Minneapolis to St. Cloud.
Your parents used to live in St. Cloud.
No, they used to live in Sartell.
Well, that's St. Cloud.
No, it's five hours away.
No, that's Warroad.
Being in St. Cloud is really fun because we're gonna do a bunch of stuff like go swimming, go to robotics, do stuff at robotics, and play snack poker.
Yes, AND go to Gruber's Quilt Shop, one of the best fabric & yarn stores in the state of Minnesota. This is where Kim learned how to knit back in our Sauk Rapids-Sartell-St. Cloud days.
We've also got our eye out for a Dairy Queen - a travel-must for one of us in our travel party. Travelers should always stick together, so the rest of the group plans to oblige and take a hit for the team. In other words, no matter how hard it's going to be, we're all going to have to get Blizzards. It's a travel-must.
Being in St. Cloud reminds me of the Munsinger Gardens. In Wannaskaland, it feels like winter skips over spring and plunks into summer. Here in St. Cloud, however, with warmer temps and sunnier skies, they just might have some blooms for us to enjoy.
The official first day of Spring is like March 20-something. But summer starts like June 26th.
Yes, and that's actually one of the longest days. Actually, it's June 21st and THAT is the longest day, but it feels like a cheat because you spend so much time looking forward to summer and then it's already fading out bit by bit, tick-tick-tick.
Let's talk about Robotics. I mean the main reason we're here IS robotics.
For Team FRED this is an important regional because it's their last chance to win a trip to Worlds in Houston. At the Great Northern Regional in Grand Forks in March, their robot Isabella performed well in the qualifying matches only to have their roborio give up the ghost in the final matches. When you're used to winning - and going to Worlds - losses are tough. More like stabs to the heart instead of pinpricks to a fingertip. And that's the burden of being "the best" - or, speaking more broadly - being a consistent top performer and winner. I remember years ago, hearing someone say that being at the top is harder than climbing to the top. Once you're at the proverbial top, you need to maintain and keep your competitive edge while beating down those trying to climb to the top. It reminds me of that kids' game King of the Hill I played as a kid and my kids still play.
My sense from the WAKWIR* is that the team is bringing their A-game while trying to manage expectations.
You can watch the teams from the comfort of your Wannaska home right here: https://www.twitch.tv/firstinspires7
We'll also be cheering on fellow Wannaskaland robotics team Team 5172 Greenbush Gators
And big, big, big Wannaska congratulations to FRED's head mentor Jeremy Culleton who received the Volunteer of the Year 2024 award at the Great Northern Regional in Grand Forks.
Go, Robots!
Go FRED!
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