What a crazy yet awesome day. It started off with a bang, and that was before any of the rockets were ignited. We all got off to a bit of a late start getting away from the house this morning, and as things would be naturally, if you are already running behind, the universe, has its own sense of humor, and says, “let’s see just how behind we can get them.” Steve had left the house earlier to get breakfast tacos for all of us, and as we, being Chelsea and Guy in Guy’s truck and me, in my truck, had finally left the house and made it as far as Kneese Road, my phone rings, and it’s Steve. He informed me that he had discovered that he did not have the keys to the mules, and I would have to go back for them. So I head back and find them, after I do and take off again, my switch on my messed AC system decides to turn to heat, a little Chevy glitch, and the only way to get the heat to stop is to turn the car off and back on. I was about 3/10 of a mile from my house when I stopped to fix this, with only one problem, the car turned off, but not back on. It was at this time that my battery that we thought might be getting a little weak, decided to die. That is right, I am now dead in the water. I call Steve to inform him and luckily he is still in town so he now has to return to get me. I grab all my stuff out of my truck and schlep it as far as my parents’ house where I wait for Steve. Now instead of getting to Willow City by 7:30, it’s more like 8:30.
Some of you might remember that we just replaced the battery in my son, Brett’s truck yesterday. We are now two batteries in two days. Batteries are not cheap!
Luckily, because the day started off cloudy with a low ceiling, we were in a holding pattern for the launches. In fact I believe it was around 11:30 before we actually started sending them up. We may have started cloudy and misty, but we ended up with a beautiful day to launch, although it was a bit hot and muggy at times in some of those dense pasture areas during recovery.
SystemsGo did an amazing job today getting all 19 rockets up. What a great crew and organization they have to make all this happen. Congratulations to all the schools that participated today as well. Every vehicle left the pad and about 15 out of 19 were recovered. The schools there today included Roosevelt High School, New Dianna High School, Kingwood High School, Kingwood Park High School, Union Grove High School, Hamilton High School, Hollenstein High School, Big Spring Charter School, and Fredericksburg High School. Great job to all you students, and getting here and having a successful launch,
The first day out of four, and I really don’t think it could have been much better. Everything seemed to run fairly smoothly, all the crews worked well together, and I believe most if not all of us involved had a great time. I know Mr. Williams was a little concerned that it was only the first day, and some seemed to be having too much fun and goofiness right from the start. We won’t mention any names, but you know who you are. That’s what makes it fun and keeps it interesting though.
Tomorrow, Friday, the schedule shows 8 school launching a total of 22 rockets. The list is posted below for those who would like to see.
| Friday, May 15, 2015 | ||
| School Name |
# 1st Level Tsiolkovsky |
# 2nd Level Oberth |
| Akins High School John Sayce |
5 | |
| Fabens High School Manuel Moreno |
2 | 1 |
| Marble Falls High School Randy Guffey |
1 | |
| Maypearl High School Rebekah Hyatt |
2 | |
| North Lamar High School Kathy Stewart |
1 | |
| RL Turner High School (Carrollton) Karl Gscheidle |
2 | 2 |
| Tom Moore (Ingram) High School David Bunch |
2 | |
| University High School Dennis Oubre |
2 | 2 |
| 8 | ||
| Schools Launching | ||
| Totals | 17 | 5 |
| May 15th Total Rockets | 22 | |
Good luck to all of tomorrow’s schools, and safe travels both here and home. I know it will be another wonderful day. I just have to remember to put on the sunscreen tomorrow because I got a little toasted today. So if you see me, remind me. That is how I will know who reads this blog!!!!Well I captured so many cool pictures of workers, students and rockets today, but at the end of the day, nature’s beauty won out by giving us a glorious sunset over the launch site, so that’s my featured picture for this blog. I think I might show some of the high lights on my face book so keep an eye out there as well. Good night all, see you at the launch site in the morning. Once again here is the place to go for information on the launches and the Livestream Link.www.systemsgo.org
On the Wings of Angels 