Arrival and Settling In

Sorry everyone for the delay in getting this blog up and running. The days have been full and the blog I wrote this morning describing the play by play of our journey to Anaheim disappeared in a flash when I tried to upload a photo. This is attempt number two, which will be posted sans photo. 

Right now the majority of the team members are playing in the hotel pool after a long day, which began at 8:00 with a shopping trip to Target for food and booth decorations, then proceeded until 6:00 setting up the booth at the Anaheim Convention Center. The robots were unpacked from their busted boxes yesterday and prepared for their journey from the hotel to the Convention Center. Both robots seem to be working, though tweaks to the programming and hydraulic systems were in order today and will probably continue throughout the competition. We beat the long lines for the inspection tables by being ready early and though the practice fields were filling up early, both teams took the opportunity to take the robots for a spin. Tomorrow morning we will be arriving at the Convention Center early so that both robots can get in at least one Skills Challenge Round before the Practice Rounds begin at 11:00.

Scouting has also begun in earnest. The scouting teams set up their notebooks yesterday after the divisions were posted online. I will include a link in my next post along with a picture or two. There are 160 Middle School teams altogether and our teams are split between the two divisions. Team 902C is in the Opportunity Division and 902D is in the Spirit Division. You can follow the results of their matches by going to robotevents.com. There are 10 matches in the preliminary round for each team, so the scouts need to gather data on 30 teams right away, ten alliance partners and twenty opposing teams. The scouts' mission is twofold: gather information on the 80 other teams in the division and sell our robots to those 80 teams in case any of those other teams is in a position of choosing a 902 team for an alliance partner in the Championship Rounds.

Everyone seems in good spirits. Hopefully this swim will help them all relax enough to get some shut eye before the real games begin tomorrow.