South Dakota

Greetngs from South Dakota! Our team is in Sioux Falls for the night, but our car still has a little ways to go before we clock in there. We put in a pretty decent day today, if I do say so myself, and seem to be getting closer to eliminating the greater electrical gremlins.

We still have many minor electrical gremlins, as evidenced by our observer recording forty electrical problems since leaving Omaha, Nebraska this morning. The nice thing was, however, that one of these recurring bugs involved the array putting so much energy into the batteries that the power trackers got tricked into thinking they were running over and shutting off, which we solved by driving faster! Best... Solution... EVER!

Anyhow, we ended up putting in a decent day despite an overcast and slightly rainy morning between our stopover near Nebraska City, and our checkpoint in Omaha. Late morning and afternoon brought some gorgeous clear skies that powered us pretty well, leaving us just shy of our stage stop in Sioux Falls. We should be able to get charged and roll into the stop first thing tomorrow morning, giving us another day like the one in Neosho, where we can hopefully re-tune electrical systems and get a little rest before we head out to Winnipeg.

I just have to say, I am super excited about the Iron Man Challenge which is supposed to take place at this stop (after being postponed in Texas and in Neosho); about finally getting to go to Canada and breaking an international boundary with a new generation of Minnesota solar cars, and just basically to be a part of our amazing team. It's been really fun getting to know the guys and girl on the team, especially the ones from different design teams that I don't always get a chance to talk to in the shop back at home. Altogether, they're some of the hardest working and most dedicated students I could ever hope to work on a project with, and they're funny to boot. Like, riot funny. My quotebook has grown by leaps and bounds, and I have two notebooks standing by as I near the last pages of the one I started the rayce with.

Speaking of, here are a few gems from the day before I crash for a few hours before a 5:15am departure to get on the road.

"It's like Jurassic Park - when it rains, all the electrons escape, and everyone dies."
-Konrad (Strategy; Aero Team)

"I've lost a couple set screws on this trip... I'm a few set screws short of a full array stand."
-Tyler (Strategy; Aero Team)

"You need to find some lazy farmer to build your array stand. It'll be light, easy to use, cheap as hell... and probably made of chicken wire and manure."
-Luke (Iowa State University)

"As far as Iron Range accents go, I'm about in Brainerd."
-Towey (Crew Chief; Aero Team)