Ready to Roll
This morning, we did something we do very rarely: we all got up before eight. That's because we had just one day to get the car ready to go, and we were guests at the mechanic school again, so our usual modus operendi of working nocturnally wasn't going to fly. No more late-night techno at the solar car shop, topped off with the delicious smell of strawberry pancakes when the IHOP finally opens at six AM. Today, we were all business. We connected the top and bottom shells of the car with "the umbilical"--a cable which carries power from the solar cells to the battery pack. We sealed the gaps between the panels with silicone, built some cargo shelves in the truck, aligned the wheels, slapped on some decals, accidentally fried and then unfried some electronics... in short, we're ready to roll!
...born ready. that in the back is us eating chinese takeout. it was spicy and delicious.
solar car is watching you.
In between the car work, we found time to wash the trusty old solar car van, probably for the first time since the 1990s, when it was manufactured. The car wash was one of those manual ones designed for maximum exercise: you throw in Australian dollar coins and each one gets you a minute of wash time. So I tried to scrub down a utility van in two minutes.
...while Ben took pictures. yes, it was that foamy. we ended up doing it in four minutes...
Tomorrow morning, we all breaking our routine again and waking up at six. All of us except Sasha, that is, who is a cyborg whose usual routine involves waking up at five. He doubles as our collective alarm clock. We'll hit the roads while they're still empty and drive to Adelaide. Next stop, the middle of nowhere, and after that, Darwin.
With luck, all this will be our "dress rehearsal" for the race back down to the bottom of Down Under. Wish us luck!
October 15th, 2009 - 04:19
Glad you guys got everything done! And good luck waking up at six…