[Al Skierkiewicz]

Team 111, Wildstang has bused it to Atlanta for the last four years with no real problems. It's about a 12 hour ride with stops for meals and different driver. This year we shaved a little time off the departing time by meeting at Motorola only and not at the school to pickup students. We leave northwest suburbs of Chicago at 4:30 in snow and limited visibility with students and some mentors. Remaining mentors have decided to fly leaving mid to late morning and arriving in the afternoon. Somewhere between Merrilville and Indianapolis the bus breaks down and can't go faster than 20 MPH so we call for another bus. When that bus arrives 1.5 hours later, we move all the tools and luggage in the rain and get on the road again. South of Indy we get caught in some heavy traffic and a truck driver points out that there are several belts hanging out of the back of the bus. The driver continues to drive for another 30 minutes or so to meet the next driver and hopefully some spare belts. In the meantime, one of the belts feeds the alternator so the battery is dead when we pull in for lunch and driver. A couple of hours later, the belts have been put back on and the battery is charged by a truck service vehicle. (a story for another time). We get on the road at almost 3 when we should be in Chattanooga. This time things go OK, we drive out of the rain and get to Atlanta about midnight. In the mean time, those flying are stuck in the major snow storm and only make it to town a few hours before the bus.