Finally

After a whirlwind past couple days doing last minute preparations, the day was finally here when 3313 could go down to the Twin Cities for our Regional, 10,000 Lakes at Williams Arena. Everyone signed and filled out permission forms and FIRST Consent and Release Forms. We printed the Business Plan, other Judge Handouts, and social media information.

Ryan's dad, Kevin, dropped off the trailer right after school and the team furiously packed it up. We also loaded up the two Sprinter Vans. Bydlon drove one and Mr. Nelson was awesome enough to drive the other down for the team. After spending the past two days packing and organizing and arranging, the actual loading of the robot was fairly simple. Everything had a place and everything was in that place. The drive down was uneventful except there was lots of singing along in Bydlon's van.

We got to Williams Arena and unloaded all of our things. However, the team had a panic attack that we left our safety glasses at the shop or lost them because we could not find them. Turns out, they were in Mr. Nelson's van which had to park somewhere else and wait because the robot unloading area is very small. Otherwise, unloading all of our stuff was uneventful.

We proceeded to our hotel, Best Western Plus in Bloomington. The team checked in and got settled then headed over to the Mall of America which is right across the street. Everyone got their assorted food choices. After that, people split up in small groups to go to the hotel hot tub, walk around Best Buy, go to the Microsoft store and other random places. By the end of the night, most people were hanging out and playing Rock Band or sleeping.

BIG DAY TOMORROW! We have to set up our pit, then replace the wheels and put our new fancy wheels on. The rest of the day will be spent anxiously awaiting and sitting through inspection (scary) and testing our robot and practicing.