Camp Jitterbug was fantastic! First of all, my trip isn't over and second is that the trip to and from Seattle was an adventure in itself. Map provided by Google Maps and Anna...
Road Trip A: Picking Ann Sychterz up from the Chicago bus station B: Crashing at Anna's in South Bend C: My parents place D: Mount Rushmore E: Camping in the Black Hills National Forest F: Camping in Shoshone National Forest G: Yellowstone National Park H: Camping near Spokane River I: Visiting Heather Russell and camp Jitterbug in Seattle J: Great Salt Lake K: Crashing at a deserted looking gas station L: Back to my parents place for Anna's brothers wedding
Getting to Seattle
Firstly, my parents dropped me off at the Charles Street Terminal in Kitchener on Saturday morning. I had Greyhound buses from Kitchener to London, London to Windsor, Windsor to Detroit, and then Megabus from Detroit to Chicago. The thing that surprised me the most was the thoroughness of the border security when crossing from Canada to the US via bus. They ask you more questions and search everyone's luggage. Meeting Anna in Chicago, we went directly back to South Bend because the traffic was horrendous from Obama landing in Chicago for the NATO summit. Apparently Anna made a few turns while trying to pick me up that landed her in the middle of a squad of armoured cars and enforcement with machine guns.
Driving to Ankeny, Iowa was no problem, though we ran into traffic in Des Moines than in Chicago, which is unheard of. Getting some camping gear, food bags and such from Anna's parents, we were off the next morning. That evening we went to go see Mount Rushmore and at night we camped in the Black Hills National Forest. Dinner consisted of canned pears and s'mores. The next day we hopped off the I-90 and cut across the Big Horn mountains to the southern part of Yellowstone where we camped (but far-ish away because there were bear warnings). The next morning we drove through Yellowstone National Park and it was gorgeous! It snowed which made it really pretty (for me), we saw Old Faithful, the Obsidian Cliffs, packs of buffalo (some even being a traffic jam on the road), a moose, and the Painted Pots.
That night we headed to a camp site around Spokane, Washington after having passed through the rest of the Rockies. The greenery really started to change and looked more mossy with the occasional waterfall off of the rocks, really pretty! We fell asleep to the sounds of a group of guys camping next to us jamming on a guitar by their fire. The next day was a short hop over the Cascades into Seattle where we met Heather between her many classes and meetings. We had a chance to go shower (which was awesome!) and explore the U district, which was a short hop away from Heather's place. I ended up doing most of the city driving since Anna was not a fan, but I didn't like parallel parking her mom's station wagon, ha. Anna showed me the cool troll under the Freemont bridge, and yes I took a picture of the bridge and not the troll.
That night we had dinner with Heather and her friend Bryce, went back to her place where Anna and Heather geeked out about physics and I worked on my damper research data in the corner. Oh, and Anna gave Heather a refresher lesson for swing in the living room.
Friday came and Anna and I went off to explore Deception Pass (just 1.5 hours north of Seattle), a park that was highly recommended by Heather, and I can see why. Mossy cliffs on one side, a pebbly beach and open blue water of the sound on the other. There was also a really neat bridge.
By the time we got back to Heather's it was time to head to the Benaroya Hall in Pike Place to register and go for the Jump Session show. On the way I got to see the first Starbucks.
In the Jump Show were the instructors like Alice, Max, Mike, Laura, Chester, and some other people around for the weekend like Falty, Lunou, and the main star of the show Meshiya Lake. After the show, there was a dance with music by Meschiya Lake and her Little Bighorns and Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five on the stage of the Benaroya Hall and outside in the lobby. There I was able to meet a whole bunch of people I knew from Vancouver, Victoria, New Orleans, and Montreal. Very much a "getting to know people" type of dance since we were going to be spending the weekend together. Headed out at a fairly reasonable time so we could be awake for the auditions the next morning.
Saturday morning we had the auditions to get into the advanced track, but seeing that people were just jumping in to any audition level, we tried out for the advanced-plus track (the levels being masters, advanced+, advanced, intermediate+, intermediate, and beginner), and we both made it. Saturdays' lessons at the Knights of Columbus were:
Mattias and Hannah from Sweden with some great rhythm work
Chance and Amy from New Orleans with grounding and a type of bal move
Mike and Laura from Austin with an 6-count and 8-count pattern variation
Chester with a solo jazz routine
Anna met her old swing dancing teacher from Grinell so we hung out with him and a few other Seattle people at the park jamming on the guitar and turning pop tunes into swing songs. After dinner we headed to the Temple de Hirsch for the evening dance with Casey McGill. At this point I was starting to get to know people, so I was starting to seek people out for dances. I found some really interesting dancers from Los Angeles, Washington DC, and Germany. There were the finals for the Jack and Jill.
The late night was with Meschiya Lake at the Century Ballroom. Oh man was this a great venue! My favourite of the event, definitely rocked the vintage feeling and we stayed until 4 am ish. Oh yes, and this is when the solo Charleston finals happened, they were off the wall good!
The next morning was a little rough for some people, but classes started again at 11 am at the Knights of Columbus. The lessons on the Sunday were:
Max and Alice from Montpellier teaching a short solo jazz lesson and then movement through a basic pattern
Andy and Nina from NOLA/Baltimore showing how to groove to simple stuff such as touch step and emphasizing different beats.
Justin and Jenn from LA bringing some lindy hop styling from the west coast (read, not west coast swing)
Stefan and Bethany from Portland dished out their masters on us with some wonky timings and triple steps (this couple was the surprise of the weekend because they were so ridiculously fun and I hadn't heard of them before).
The Sunday night dance had Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five playing the quick beats which was great for the "showdown" style couples dancing which was a joy to watch.
The late night was again at the Century Ballroom and this time with the local band the Careless Lovers, which I knew of from Vancouver this fall and have the popular single called 'Black Coffee'. At this point my feet were starting to break my Keds (and vice versa), so I danced a few and enjoyed the music. Everyone stayed until the end, because after the last song and after the encore they played 'Black Coffee'.
The Monday was the last day of classes where we could take electives, so I chose Chester's tap lesson, Hannah's Black Bottom lesson, and Stefan and Bethany and their Charleston tricks (I just watched because there was no room and honestly, I was a little concerned with getting tender feet getting stepped on). The wrap up dance happened at the Knights of Columbus with the Careless Lovers but didn't hang around too long because people were taking off.
I finally got a chance to meet up with Nik afterwards which was really great since we had tried to organize something the entire weekend. We said goodbye to Anna's old instructor and we hung out with Heather for the rest of the evening, which was great fun.
Tuesday morning we took off with some ideas of where we'd be stopping but nothing for sure. On the way home, we took the I-84 and I-80 that went through Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, clipped Colorado, Nebraska, and Iowa. On the way there we did Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington. So...I had an energy drink and some coffee, so 16 hours later, we stopped because I was feeling sluggish. We slept in the car at a quiet gas station off the interstate and I couldn't really sleep. So I got up early again and got Anna to drive for an hour until I fully woke up. We were able to get into Ankeny by the evening after a really wicked storm in western Nebraska.
Tomorrow morning I leave for the Des Moines airport to fly to Rochester for Stompology!
Last week I started working part time at WalterFedy, a consulting engineering firm in Kitchener that I had the pleasure of working with for two of my co-op terms, once in the mechanical department and the other in the civil department. Had I not been able to get NSERC funding for the USRA in the fall, I could have gone back to them for a co-op job since I liked their scope of work, the quality of work, and the office environment. When I had figured out that I'd have some time to spare before and after my travels this summer, I contacted them to some work, provided it would would around travels plans, finishing up my research work with the viscous damper and the new research work concerning the aluminum bridge as my masters' project.
It felt comfortable coming back, so much so that Brian taped a note to my monitor with the projects with work to be done, some of them were the same jobs as I had worked on 2 summers ago, though instead of the prelim design, they are now in the construction addenda stage. I got paraded around with the co-ops so that made me feel a little funny. Civil definitely has a busy summer ahead, I definitely won't be lacking in work despite there being one CAD student and one field/engineering student. The department is about 30% bigger than I remember it 2 years ago and the work is just increasing because they brought in some people with some pretty interesting niche talents.
At the same time, I have been looking to get the lab tests done on the viscous damper at UW. Apparently the department may already have some of the gear so I may be able to just patch the pieces they have rather than ordering all new stuff. Chances are it'd be a shorter wait time, ha.
I had made a quick stop at my office after my physio appointment, and sitting there made me sad that the shelving above my head was so dusty and disorganized. That is no longer a problem :) I like have a clean and organized work space. Taking care of both offices is kinda fun, I'm building up my emergency food reserves, the way I arrange stuff for super maximum efficientcy.
On the topic of arranging stuff, I should start thinking of how to pack smart for my trip... :D I'm so excited it's so soon!
So I finally got to get into the lab to test the viscous damper. Richard and I set it all up on Monday, tinkering and learning the software happened on Tuesday, and legit testing started today.
The general concept of the tests is that the frequency and the stroke (amplitude) with limits based on the fluid flow of the actuator, the maximum force on the damper seals (7000 lbs), and maximum velocity (7 in/s).
The special aspect of this damper is that it has a manual pin valve not normally found on dampers installed in the field. This allows us to control the damping coefficient by opening and closing this bypass valve in addition to the main setup. What was great was that the results when the bypass valve was fully closed were in the correct range as calculated by the imperial equations given by the manufacturer.
This is a video from Tuesday of the damper in the test frame being loaded at 2 Hz and 1 inch stroke.
Something that was interesting was a type of 'shouldering' at the midpoint of the sine wave which reduces the tension force resisted by the damper compared to the compression forces. This was expected by the manufacturer since compression is more of a concern so the mass/piston doesn't slam into the support.
Doing the tests today, I did as many tests as possible before it started getting warm. Best plan of attack was to do two of each valve position for each test, starting with the valve open so that the highest force (most likely to heat) would be last.
After prelim work, seems the temperature of the damper makes a huge difference (not just minor) on the performance, so a sensor or infrared gun from the outside is probably the best that can be done with the time given.
Last and current issue: computer in the lab has Excel 2002, can't be read by Excel 2010 or 2011. Will work with different file format but that's a tomorrow problem!
As the undergraduate classes have now wrapped up forever, there just remains my 3 finals. And then that's it, it's done. Well, only to return late July/early August for grad work, but it's a very different feeling and structure, I'm excited.
I recently had a Skype conversation with Anna regarding our summer plans. So my grand after-undergrad vacation is actually a string of swing dancing workshops across the US.
May 25-28: Camp Jitterbug, Seattle
June 1-3: Stompology, Rochester
June 7-10: All-Balboa Weekend, Cleveland
I would have considered All Balboa Revue in Montreal on June 16 ish, but I'm convocating :P
Planning will go about as such. I leave Waterloo around the 18th, bus to Chicago (eventually South Bend). Stay with Anna for the weekend, go dancing, (possibly join her for Notre Dame lessons). Travel begins Sunday, stop in Des Moines. Day 2 of driving hopefully get to Yellowstone National Park, sleep there, day 3 hike a bit, then drive to perhaps Glacier Lake National Park (weather permitting), sleep and hike there. Day 5 would be driving to Seattle. Insert dancing and drinking coffee here. On the way back from Camp Jitterbug, Anna stops in Des Moines for her brother's wedding, I fly out to Rochester on the 1st for Stompology. Have a blast there, drive back with Julie-Anne. Stay in Waterloo for 2-3 days, then drive out to Cleveland with Dave and Amanda for ABW.
Yes, it's going to be intense, but intensely awesome! In addition to travel, starting grad work, there will of course be UW Swing Club, which will be like a nice 'coming home' kinda feeling I think. :) People are great there.
Oh, and in September will be the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown again because I absolutely adored it last year. So far it seems like Dean, Erika, John, and Mark in the Hamilton/Waterloo area are going, in addition to many Torontonians.
I'm super excited for my summer vacation and everything that coming up, I have a few potential plans, but they're still in the very baby stages, so I want to wait to see if they'll be successful before I announce them.
So, missing my own Iron Ring Ceremony in Waterloo due to Concrete Toboggan, I shipped out this weekend to Montreal to get mine at McGill. Why McGill? Well, I was in Montreal for the Troitsky Bridge Building Competition when UofT had theirs, and my dad's got his bachelor's and master's at McGill for mechanical engineering.
Paperwork was a nuisance, having to fill out my intent to graduate form early and then paying the registrar for a 3 sentence letter saying I'm eligible to graduate this year (finding time to go to a jeweller to get a ring size was a challenge too!)
Having two midterms and my 4th year project presentation on the first 3 days back this week, I really needed my laptop in the car, so it went and got sick last week. Looked like a harddrive failure (I tried repartitioning and reinstalling Lion and Snow Leopard a bunch), took it into the Apple Store, turns out the RAM completely died. Because I had to go back and forth a bit, the harddrive, RAM, and labour were on them, yay! By Thursday evening I had my laptop and had time to transfer my files back and install my programs. I decided to wait on doing the dual boot with Windows 7 for now, just in case that was too taxing on my machine.
Anyways! The ceremony was nice, it was held in Redpath hall which looked great, one of the older buildings on campus, very ornate. Lovely campus too :P
Quick post about the Troitsky Bridge Building Competition. Tim, Griff, Omar, and I went to Montreal to compete in this popsicle stick bridge building competition. Having gone last year, I was super excited for this year because we knew what to expect and I had a plan (since September!).
Rules:
Only materials are popsicle sticks, white glue, dental floss and toothpicks
Pieces must be able to fit into a 500mmx400mmx350mm "box"
Clear span of bridge: 1000mmm to 1200mm
Freeboard of bridge: <= 150mm
Overall length: <=1350mm
Deck height: <=450mm
Mass: <6kg no deductions, 6 < m <10 kg minor deductions, >10 kg you're ridiculous
Back in September, Tim and I made some test popsicle stick pieces to see how to best glue the popsicle sticks together. We waited for the pieces to dry and tried machining them in the band saw and putting them in the lathe, which were all successful and allowed for a more elaborate design. We also took a density test so that we could estimate the weight of the bridge before we even built it.
I drew everything up on Inventor for 3D purposes, made drafting plans of the pieces, and using the density, I tailored it until it was just shy of 6 kg so that we wouldn't go over with the dental floss or accidental extra weight. And then nothing happened until mid February...
Since I was in Concrete Toboggan, I had to wait to work on Troitsky, so once February 12th hit, I was in popsicle mode. Actually, because the week after GNCTR was hectic trying to catch up and write more exams, it started on reading week. So of the 6 days of reading week (closed the family day weekend), I think I spent all but 1 or 2 on campus working to some effect. Tuesday morning I got down to work and started glueing the tension members (the horizontal bar of the 'A' frame). These were some of the highly critical pieces so needless to say I was a little nervous because I didn't know how best to start. Turns out, organizing the first layer is important and tricky since there's nothing to secure them. I was lucky that for the dimensions of the tension members, the width was half a popsicle stick, so all I had to do after I cut off the rounded ends was to pass a few sets through the band saw again to get half pieces. It was basically cross laminated for simplicity. I got help from John in the afternoon which sped up the cutting and gluing process. In order to tie the tension members together, I built a second piece (one popsicle stick long, a 40mmx40mm cross section) that went perpendicular to the member so that the floss had something to wrap around. The tension member was built to have a hole that size to insert it, so at the end…it looked like a set of crossbows. Another thing done during the reading week was the design of the logo and the background for our display. Unlike concrete toboggan, we did not require technical data or analysis, so I took a picture of a ship, "Queen Anne's Revenge", sketched in AutoCAD and colour filled in Photoshop. No copyright issues!
The basic idea of the design was to achieve a quick install time for the day of the competition. The compression members connected to each other (at the peak of the 'A') and to the top of the tension members with dowels. The tension members were also doweled together and to the base plate on the pier. The piers themselves were hollow. The deck was supported on a flattened portion of the compression members and thin deck supports on the ends that were secured with notches into the underside of the deck.
So after spending way too much time in the machine shop cutting, glueing and machining, we were off to Montreal on Thursday after the dynamics class. It was great evening in comparison to last year because we pulled an all nighter trying to build the bridge pieces in our hotel room. This time we were able to go out, but that consisted of hanging around at the hotel for a bit, going with a group of people back and forth on St. Catherines because the events were over or the bars were full. À la GNCTR, we ended up back at the hotel, socializing in the hallway. We got kicked out by security, and Tim and I retreated to our hotel room, we lost Omar to visiting his Montreal friends and Griff to somewhere else in the hotel. Tim shoved himself under a bunch of sheets while he laughed at the audio from me watching anime (Natsume) and talking to John on Facebook about stuff from my applied math biology course. Griff came in much later, proclaimed 'I am so hammered', left again, and then came back 1/2 hour later to say 'I am so wasted' and was back to stay. Crazy times :P
Friday morning we got ready for the competition, sans Griff until a little while later for recovery purposes. Building went really well, We had three boxes of dental floss going together as one strand and being wrapped around the tension member "nubs" in a figure-8. The only thing we had to modify was to increase the height of the piers by one popsicle stick because there was a slight sag in the tension members even after being doweled on its ends and wrapped up in floss. Here's what our bridge and display looked like!
Crushing ceremony came in the afternoon, and some of these bridges did fantastically. Now, of the 34 teams, apparently 27 of them did 'A' frames because it's the tried and true design, so the creativity wasn't always there. As for our team, we got to 288 kg when we got a member failure (the dowels were ripping out of the inner face of the compression members where they meet the tension members). Since the crushing ceremony demands destruction, Tim smashed it on the ground since the "crusher" shaft was getting bent and they no longer were crushing until total failure. The machine still broke on the last bridge, the automatic number one team, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Even though the highest load from another team was 2500kg, they were at 2100kg and no sign of giving up when the "crusher" actuator gave up.
That night was the dinner and awards at La Cage aux Sports at the Bell Centre. The event got the entire bottom floor, so many engineering chants, beer, and popcorn everywhere. Thanks to GNCTR, I knew the cheers and could follow along :P. But after a while I had had enough, so like last year I slipped out after the dinner and headed the other way. A bunch of the Carleton alumni spotted me and asked where I was off to. I said '...out' to which Tim replied "she's going swing dancing" with a very matter-of-fact tone. Apparently that caught the attention of one of the Carleton alumni cause he used to be part of swing Dynamite and does west coast now, so he came with me to Cat's Corner. I had a blast, I just needed a bit of a different vibe than the drinking yelling group and just get to dance a bit.
When I got back to the hotel around 1 ish, I was in the hotel room for a bit but it quickly became busy so I headed upstairs to where Tim and the Carleton alumni were. Locked out of my hotel room, I was forced to be up until 3:30, and after having danced, I just wanted to sleep. First I checked the door, and the bolt was over the door, I go back upstairs in a determined tone saying "Tim, pass me our tension member, I'm getting into that room", but he came with me and so did one of the alumni because he was amused. Turns out people left our room in that time and I was able to curl up and go to sleep finally.
Overall I really liked this year's competition, much less stressful than last year, so more fun! I don't think I'd want to participate again (even if I could), but I'd be totally up for mentoring a group of undergrads if they are interested. They don't need to build a terrible bridge like we did last year. I leave you with our 2010 attempt, oh the colourful horror.
First of all I have to say I am very pleased with my team members who were present in Calgary before Iron Ring Ceremony (Kristen, Jeff, and Tim), those who stayed the entire time (Matt, Brendon, Fraser, and Andrew (Clow not Chow, sooo sorry!)), Ioana for coming out on her co-op in Calgary as a pusher, and those who couldn't make it (Misha, Liz, Terry, and Billy)
Wednesday:
Tuesday had rolled into Wednesday without any sleep because I was hanging out with John and packing, so my internal clock at the start of my trip was already off. At 3:00 I meet Andrew and Jeff at Engineering 5 to get picked up by Fraser. Stumbling into a car that was conveniently partly pre-packed, we swing over to pick up Tim and off to the London airport we went. I had not left from the London airport before, it was small but nice enough. As we waited for Kristen, Matt, and Brendon (late because they were making cookies for the tech exhibit day), the Western team started to trickle in just as sleepily as we were. What was great was to see Kristen with a luggage bag dedicated entirely to bags of sugar cookies.
Landing in Calgary, you could see snow-capped mountains on the other side of the city, which was really exciting because it had been a while since I had seen snow and also our competition depended on it. Welcome to Calgary!
The rooms at the hotel were a bit of a bit of mess because they had the two rooms for the Waterloo team under separate names (from ages ago when I thought someone else was going to use their credit card too. So after waiting about 5 hours for the one room (in my name) to be cleaned, I had to find out what happened to that second room and I was getting worried. Eight people in one room wasn't going to work. Turns out 4 people and making the last part of our costumes in one room was more than full as it was. Since we had no room and waited like hobos in the hall after we registered, we had a very narrow window in which to make our swag. Partying in the rooms began while Kristen and I worked the finishing touches on the bandanas and boxers. The coveralls, sweaters, t-shirts and gloves all looked great. We also had a ton of buttons, keychains, and the special patches that Kristen was going to give to the team as a present. In the afternoon we went shopping for our costumes for the two themed nights (Space cowboys and 'What I want to be when I grow up') and food/drink supplies.
At night was the opening ceremonies where the partying continued even harder and we had our first look into the size and breadth of the teams. Queen's was ridiculously spirited, donned in matching firefighter outfits, University of Calgary in Elvis one-piece suits, University of Alberta in Tron morph suits, University of Manitoba in Winnipeg Jets jerseys, and University of Toronto in vintage pilot/flight attendant costumes. The cheers, chants, and opening exhibitions were fantastic. A lot of them became really short and just turned into a dance party to whatever song they had chosen to do a dance to. We had a cute movie that Fraser made before we left, but to technical difficulties, the video and sound cut out!! :( Here it is actually.
That night we were off to Ceili's, a bar just down the street. This was going to be the first of many clubs/bars on the schedule, and I realized how much swing dancing has changed my expectations of dancing and music in a bar in general, but it was a good time with mainly Brendon, Matt, and Fraser.
Thursday:
As was going to be par for the weekend, we woke up around 5:00 - 5:30 to ship out to Nakiska (for the skiiers/boarders), and Banff for the non-skiiers for curling and a scavenger hunt. The main point of the trip to Nakiska was that our breakfast was a very tiny bagel and an apple when the box we got our breakfast in looked way more promising.
The drive to Nakiska and the hill itself were absolutely gorgeous! It was my first time actually being near the rockies and it was very awesome. The vertical elevation of Nakiska is 2,400 ft, which is about 12 times as tall as Chicopee in Kitchener. I started my morning snowboarding with Fraser and Matt who brought their own board and skis respectively. There was a spirit challenge to form a group of three with people from other universities in order to interact (hence competitor interaction day), but that didn't really pan out because it was way easier to go with people you knew and you matched their ability level. After a little bit, I joined Tim, Jeff, and Andrew for boarding for the rest of the day. I was so happy with all of my team because they were willing to do any hills and were not too far off in the amount of time we took to get down a run. What was noted and appreciated was that a majority of the runs were straight with few splits, which means you wouldn't easily lose people in a group if you lost sight of them. I think the two best times were Tim and I going on the double black diamond that was ridiculously steep and we just went for it and the black diamond run in the middle of the hill with great slopes and conditions (especially in the morning). Below are some pictures of what I saw from the hill, the group, and me at the hill.
Tim, Jeff, myself, and Andrew at the top of Nakiska
After a very awesome day of snowboarding, we got shipped back to the hotel where we were fed pizza from a white unmarked van in the parking lot across the street from the hotel because the hotel had policies against the group officially ordering food outside of their catering services. That night was Ranchman's which didn't turn out so great for me. Since the night before, I started getting congested and weak from a head cold. Regardless, I get dressed up in my outfit for the 'space cowboys', which was a mustard yellow v-neck long sleeve sweater over my black t-shirt and a phaser à la Captain kirk. Once I was done cleaning up money/admin stuff I ran over. I met some cool people from UofT in line…in line outside when it was wicked cold out. One guy was dressed like Matt Smith with a cowboy hat (series 6 premier), so we got on the discussion of Doctor Who and such, yes apparently I do this wherever I go. After waiting in line for about an hour in the freeing cold, and feeling too stuffed up to breathe or think, I just headed back before I got in, which apparently was a mistake because there was a guy doing 2-step in there and spinning his partner. Though to country music, I would have liked to dance with him, ha! Matt found me in the hotel room passed out in front of my laptop…oh ya I rocked Thursday night :P.
Friday:
Tech Ex day! Another early morning, we're bussed over to the University of Calgary with all of our costumes in order to meet up with our crate that we sent away 2 weeks ago. The organizing of crates took quite a while, which didn't really justify such an early wake up call. Being fed a tasty pancake breakfast, that totally kept us going for the day. When it got to our crate, we were at first really worried because the side of our crate fell off due to the pull out of the screws. Everything seemed alright, and the crate could still be used as our exhibit display (part of the plan to win sustainability points. This proved annoying to set up and longer than the rest of the teams…owell. We got our little body shop for the crash test dummies theme and our rotating impact symbol platform to display our toboggan. Due to the line load of the toboggan, the edges of the platform popped up a bit, making the rotating display a bit touch-and -go. It's a fantastic idea, it just didn't work all the time.
After the bit of panic for set up, other teams, visitors, industry people and judges walked around for the day asking us questions, taking a cookie from our giant stash that were made Tuesday night, and taking buttons that we put out for people to take. The main events of the tech exhibit were the Circa/concrete, superstructure, sustainability, and spirit presentations as well as the safety/toboggan weighing. The rest was a bunch of cheering and team spirit, which a bunch of schools (especially Queen's) excelled at. Being a new and very small team, we didn't have that much representation, but we did alright for ourselves, more social than previous years I should think. The safety check required us to pick up some grip tape for Andrew on the back and my feet in the front, and some more insulation foam for the back handle, so while the rest of the team continued to reassemble the crate, I made a trip to Home Depot for materials we were to install tomorrow before our races. This is when Kristen, Jeff, and Tim took off for their flight back to Waterloo. They were going back for their Iron Ring Ceremony, which I'll just have to do at a later time :P. The results from the Tech Ex day, the Circa award presentation when well, the superstructure (brakes, steering, frame) not so well with one of the judges being sure that the bolts onto the frame would shear due to bending (and Jeff sure that they wouldn't), spirit was there but not grandiose. We are only 8 people and on a very limited schedule to come up with cheers and spirited stuff. Much credit to Fraser for all of the spirit stuff we did do.
Coming back to the hotel, it was another of those "totally crash" nights. They took us to this club called Desperados where we had dinner and dancing. It was agreed that it was a first for many people to have dinner in a club, mainly because the lights just made all of the food look the same. This theme night was the 'What I want to be when I grow up'. This got funny with Fraser going as Hairy Potter (beard and moustache holding a pot), Matt being a male stripper, Andrew the Clifford dog walker, and Brendon the hoola girl). I was a conspiracy theorist where I covered myself in tin foil (cookie sheets for breast plate), but I started to get an allergic reaction so I took it off. As before, it was club music, and I was more content at my semi-normal spot just hanging out by the bar. There I met the UofT guy from the night before. So chatted a bunch since neither of us were really interested in dancing to the music. Since we got there at 6, it felt like forever and a day until the first pick up party bus (yes, a party bus with poles for dancing) was to pick us up, I considered going to the weekly Calgary swing dance. Unfortunately there were a few uncertain neighbourhoods I had to walk through, multiple buses taking a total of an hour to the other side of Calgary or take an expensive cab. Funny how at one point I just paused and was staring into space and Brendon's like "you're not going to swing, it's ridiculously far", ha! He hasn't known me long but he's already figured that part out :P.
Saturday:
RACE DAY! By this point, although the snowboarding and tech ex were fun, it felt like it was *finally* what we came for. Shipping out at again at 6:30, we got to the Canadian Olympic Park, which is about the elevation of Chicopee, but full of runs with giant jumps, rollers, and terrain park stuff, plus the traditional large, built-up ski jump. Getting into the chalet, we had our first look at our track…holy shit!
It was built out from a regular ski run on the hill where the top quarter was incredibly steep for our purposes (like blue square on Nakiska). I could see teams starting to shake and not knowing what to think. In a captain's meeting the previous day, we were told that instead of hay bails, there were to be three rows of tires because there was a large drop off after the track onto a highway. As a few from the team went to go unload the crate, there was a captain's meeting where we were shown around the track and to ask any questions. People asked technical questions about starting and such, but no one commented on how the track is still sloped downwards after the finish line, the steepness of that top quarter, the three rows of tires (only one tire high), and the giant ice wall after the tires. Regardless, we assembled our toboggan (with a little difficulty because duct tape doesn't stick well to anything except kinda itself at -20 C.
The first to race were two Alumni teams (UofA and UofC). The first went spectacularly and stopped within the first line of tires, things looked good. Then came the next team, and they overshot the finish line, the tires, and bumped into where the sidewall met the giant ice wall. They got thrown from the sled, but since they had slowed significantly, everyone was ok and they hit a whopping 77 km/h! Our team was working on the finishing touches of our grip tape not even a few meters from where they bumped into the wall, so we had to move just in case it happened again. Next came the first undergraduate team from UofA. Having a successful start, everyone cheered as they crossed the finish line, but cheering quickly turned into gasps as the Tron sled hurdled through the tires and rammed into the giant ice wall, flipped sideways, bounced up and did a 180, landing on the riders.
After the ball of snow cleared, officials ran over to check on them, and called that everyone was ok, though 5 seconds later there was urgent yelling for a medic. One of the riders (Aaron) dislocated his ankle. The front rider was thrown forward and sheard off the steering system without sustaining too much damage, and the other two sustained heavy bruising. Everyone was shaken especially since at a top speed of 67 km/h, it happened in an instant. Everyone was called back to the chalet as discussions began of what to two after two big crashes.
While people were inside, the University of Alberta crash was the topic of everyone's discussions. There was shock, worry, and dread for the racers of teams who were yet to run. After a while, cheering began in order to change the topic and improve people's spirits. The snow groomer and modified the track by opening up the walls about half way up the hill in a much gentler section and piling all of the tires onto one run. Once they were done, there was a general announcement talking about the modified course and how disqualifications happens when the sled hits any tires.
From there on, the race went much better. The speeds were significantly less than the first teams, but the general consensus was that it didn't matter as much, it's better to be intact and safe. Ryerson (the first sled after the break) had a fantastic run! They had a hydraulic release for their brake. Since the crash, our team had someone not comfortable with the idea of racing on the track. Still persistent on staying out, Ioana, who was originally supposed to be on the sled, then decided she didn't want to (weeks before the competition so it's ok), agreed to take his place in the sled. Being in the front, I was going to see everything, for good or ill. As we climbed the hill with our toboggan towed by the skidoo, my heart raced about all the possibilities, contingencies, and what could be done by our driving (Andrew). so we got into our sled, tucked ourselves in, got tucked in and away we went. things seemed good at first, though a bit crooked, we started to veer to the left but was corrected at the last minute as to not hit the wall but we hit the "centering" pylon (point deduction). Partway through there was a gentle roll and I felt my butt lift off the sled and I thought "oh jeez I need to anchor my butt better, I don't want to bounce off'. Then we starting veering to the right wall and bumped it slightly right before getting to the finish line, and I remember wincing a little trying to prepare myself for a jostle but it wasn't really there. Ah, and comes the tires. As the tires came closer, I tried leaning back more and tucking my feet in, but the grip take wasn't giving me much to go off of. One row, then second row, and nudged the third row of tires. We came to a stop with no one hurt or anything, but I remember feeling trapped by the leaning back position from the toboggan and the tires piled up on my lap and legs. Though we were disqualified from taking anymore runs, we hit 45 km/h (maximum ended up being 52 km/h by Ryerson), we still had a fantastic run and enjoyed the fact that we made it, competed and came out the same way we came in. We were able to borrow a GoPro camera from the spirit director by the name of Blackslip, and I'll try and upload that shortly!
The awards dinner was funny because it was supposed to be formal and "clean", though all the normal cheers while standing on chairs ensued. Ryerson University swept the competition with fastest speed, shortest time, best overall design and such. Queen's got the spirit award and best use of fly-ash, and Western got the best concrete mix (having made 25 sample batches). Honourable second place mentions went to Waterloo for the most sustainable sled and for the spirit challenge of the first snack (homemade sugar cookies and chocolate milk). It was unfortunate to come home a little empty handed but considering the circumstances of the team and timing, this was just a learning process for the team members. Firstly, there's co-op, it's terribly disruptive to the design process because civils have September to December in co-op, which is key primary built/test time. Additionally, it wasn't originally set in Calgary, but in Ottawa. Then Ottawa backed out of their offer and the competition ceased to exist for part of the summer. Once we found out that it was going to be in Calgary, it was exam time and the captains didn't see much of each other until more urgent emails started saying we needed to kick this into high gear. Another issue was that the new date for GNCTR in Calgary fell on the same day at the UW Iron Ring Ceremony, which meant that all of the 4th years participating or in captain position (save a few) left the team. This meant we either had to find a new team or not go this year.The competition was something Misha, Kristen and myself didn't really want to die in our year, but we couldn't do it by ourselves. We tried reaching out to all of engineering, especially younger civil students and mech engs. We had a medium-sized group for an information session, but the people who persisted were those who came with us to Calgary. Also, our original mech guys disappeared on us in the fall term, which threw a wrench into Kristen's planning of the technical design. We were lucky to get Jeff (who I went to school with in WCI) and Tim.
After the awards dinner, people went back to their rooms and the hardest partying of the weekend began. The hotel security, lovingly called "the Russians" or "the KGB" roamed the hallways and for the first time tried to actually enforce order. Crazy things happened like the continuation of the 4th floor DJ-ed party in the hall, and a hot tub in a hotel laundry hamper with three people in it, being pushed into the elevator. It was a sight. Also, I gained more realization that men really like to take their pants off and go running around the halls, somehow I forgot about this. It was a wild night where people were also trading shirts and gear with each other. The Queen's fireman hats and t-shirts were desirable, as were the UofT pilot shirts. This is when we traded most of our buttons, extra bandanas, patches, and gave away stickers. The patches were well sought out because they were very well done and our whole logo. People also wanted our safety coveralls, sweaters, and the one extra hat that was in the spirit kit. Since everything was custom made for us in a small team, people didn't really part with the main articles of clothing (especially the comfy sweaters).
Sunday:
We got to sleep in! Bus departure with Western to the airport was for 9:45, but I told them 9:30 just to be safe ;). Brendon had come up to me the night before being all excited that he had found the hot tub in the basement and I was like ya we gotta check it out. So it was decided that we'd go the morning we left. Waking up just a bit earlier than we would have needed to for packing (but later than every other day at the event), Brendon, Fraser, Andrew and I chilled out in the hot tub before our plane ride home. I found that the bus/plane ride with Western was even more enjoyable because we knew the people much better. Western is great, but I really liked this Waterloo team. I know they have a billion of midterms this week that they've had no time to study for, and I wish them the best. I know Kristen, Tim, and Jeff got their iron rings, and I hope that was great. Many silly/awkward/epic times were had, and I'm kinda glad we had a small team so that we could all be there to enjoy those times. I say this as I'm on the plane home with the team and peacefully writing before the week starts anew. Congratulations guys, you all rock!
