Travel Stories

[Nick Seidl]

Three good travel stories:

1) Regionals: Out engineers had to drive because we took company owned vans. They insisted on playing trucker with their CB radios, and drove around with a Hooters bobblehead doll on the dashboard.

2) Nationals: Our resident Chinese native didn't spend a whole lot of time thinking about what should and should not go into a carry on bag. It's amazing what kind of a fuss a foreign kid with a stash of screwdrivers and some fighter jet magazines can cause in an airport.

3) Missions to the GM Tech Center: Our short bus in a drag race on I-696 against a short bus from the YMCA.

I could add a few Model UN stories too, but most of you probably don't want to hear about that (hint: porn in the USA Today box at Midway Airport)

[Cory]

Originally posted by BBFIRSTCHICK
On the way back down from Nationals to Miami it was around 7pm and we were already running late....half of us were dead asleep and the other half watching whatever movie they had playing! our bus driver had been driving like a bat out of hell.....when all of the sudden the bus like takes a swerve off the road and we all get sent flying to one side of the bus..and we were like "what in the world just happend".... Throughout the rest of the bus ride everyone was holding on to dear life! it was funny

So what happened anyways? Driver fall asleep?

Cory

[BBFIRSTCHICK]

It was in 2001, the KSC regional and my team mate Danny and I were running around and chasing each other with silly string. I had just been around the pool area so my socks were soaking wet.......I had been chasing him and when I caught up to him I lunged at him with the bottle of silly string. He moved and my foot slide on the tile and went straight under the air condition vent that was in the hall way....I was in soooooo much pain afterwards...Never wear wet socks while running around on tile trying to chase someone.

[Specialagentjim]

Originally posted by Shelley_delphi chick
Actually I'm alittle embarrassed by the whole situation. My whole team still laughs about it and makes fun of me. It's rather embarrassing sitting in the middle of a hotel lobby in a yellow monkey robe in front of bunches of guys, who you think are starring at your legs?!? Anyone that was there...... were you?? I surly hope not!! I just thought that other people would look at their silly stories and notice that there always could be wrose!! All and how would you like it if people asked you if you were wearing clothing under your robe. I turned all red and ran up stairs as soon as they said we could, after we got our key because we locked ourseleves outta our room!!

Oh wow...i feel sooo badly for you...I'll make sure to keep this post away from my team...some of them would be the kinds of people to ask you the question, regardless of if they were there...(YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!)

[Sean_330]

One year our hotel was next to a busy (loud) fire station, under the flight path for an airport, and not in the nicest part of town so we heard police sirens all night. We learned the real meaning of "who needs sleep anyway."

[Macdaddy549]

We were at a rest stop in Whites Plain New York. All of the team was getting a bite to eat. Well my son went to the rest room. While he was in there we decided to get on the bus. Know one knew he went in there. Well the teacher who was counting heads counted wrong. As the bus pulled and proceded down the on ramp someone said "WHERE"S JIMMY". At that point I looked around fast and then out the window. Well there he was running after the bus 200 yards back. Well we all had a laugh and thank god we were not miles away. Hopefully that doesn't happen again.

Time will tell.

[Lora Knepper]

Mmmm...2001. I took a greyhound bus from Boston to New York City to meet up with a friend in FIRST...we then took another bus from NYC to Orlando.

This in itself wasn't strange... but anyone who's gone a distance on a greyhound knows what a lession in sociology it can be! Strange bus driver quirks, dangerous parts of town to stop in... the random truck stops in backwater towns in the South....

30 hours later, we got picked up at the Orlando station by the mother of a friend on team 168. Team 168 was nice enough to room me - a total stranger - with them so I could attend Nationals.

Definately the most memorable trip to Nats I ever had!

~ l

[Josh Fritsch]

Ok ok our story takes the cake over everyone else's. How should i start? Well we were on our charter bus 2 years ago comming from the Hartford Connecticut regional. Most all of us were sleeping on the because it was a long trip for us to go back to michigan and it was about 2 in the morning. Ok, now it gets good, so were driving down I-75 and we all wake up at once to hear this horrible scraping noise along the side of the bus. When we looked out the window, we saw this old junker of a car with 3 wheels driving along the side of the bus. At first we all thought it was the most hilarious thing that we have ever seen in our life, wouldnt you? well after awhile, about 30 minutes of this constant noise it, he finally passed us, and none of us expected what would happen next. The car starts slowing down and trying to stop the bus. Whenever we would try and pass this guy he would block us and keep slowing down. He succeded in getting us to stop a few times, but our expert bus driver would just pass him again and this would start all over. By this time our team leader, Kyle Hughes, had called 911 to get some police to help us get rid of this idiot. The ironic thing about this call was that this guy had already called in to 911 and told them that our bus had sparks comming out of the back. Well we knew that nothing was wrong with the bus, and it seemed kind of suspicious to us so we didnt stop. A few minutes later, 5 squad cars had came to our rescue and started chasing this guy down, when he cut accross the median, right in the middle of I-75 and started going the opposite way. The police finally caught him and explained to us that he was trying to hijack our bus because he was running from the police. Our bus then got escorted to the Park and Ride where our parents waited for us. Needless to say it was a very interesting ride home, and will never be forgotten by the members of the team who experienced this. We had a great story to tell our parents and all our classmates on monday for school!!!

[OneAngryDaisy]

Man, I have a tough act to follow... I'll make my case for the craziest story

Last year we went to the VCU regional- a 6 hour drive down.. We booked in the Holliday Inn (I believe)..

there was some athletic conference- the MEAC conference or something.. those guys sure knew how to have a fun time- I swear they stayed up all night, drinking and laughing and rapping in the hallways.. some guys were even drumming- on the walls! from what I heard, it was extremely loud and nobody could sleep- I fortunately missed this event..

also- did anyone at the VCU regional notice this- we were drving back from the gym one night when I noticed this enormous factory- it looked really old.. it had huge red letters that said- cookies and crackers.. however, the letters ers in crackers were burnt out, so it looked like this- cookies and crack.. we still laugh about that one

[Patrick Duffy]

I duno man, just driving with our old school sponsor Mr. Tab is about the worst experience ever. This wasnt to robotics, but to a programming competition. So me, Mark and Renji are in the car watching Rush Hour 2 on Marks laptop, when Mr. Tab decides its a great idea to watch it with us! So he starts swirving and crap. Wasn't very good hehe. Then he almost feel asleep while driving

[Cipher X]

Oh yeah i remember that. God i swear he looked liek every 2 seconds and i almost thought we were gonna drive in to the ditch. we finally said you can see it when we get up there and made him look straight. and even better when we actually get there. He walks around lke a dang tourist with his bag and a map and we were still in florida. but it was funny to see a floridian be a tourist in florida.

Another interesting story same guy.. last year when we went to the NASA regional. we stayed in some hotel soo far from the actual competition and we go to a restaurant and he starts to hit on the waitress and he asks if he can get her ribs {when the waitress said that we have ribs sir} and then tries to eat the whole thing. Seriously this man is like a 120 pounds and i dont think he could finish a whole Burger King whopper. And it was funny the waitress kept spilling everybodys drinks.

Cipher X