So this is it. It’s 4am, jetlag still playing a part in our Roboteers life and in a few short hours we will leave the hotel, walk half a mile through a parking lot next to the Kentucky Kingdom theme park and enter the grand and imposing Kentucky Exposition Centre.
It’s the Vex Robotics World Championships and our little band of Roboteers from a small town centre school, in a small town on the east coast of a small island 4,100 odd miles away aree preparing for the competition…admittedly most of them are doing that by sleeping soundly, oblivious to the fact this blog is even being written.
Yesterday (Saturday) our team had a day off, so took the opportunity to visit the sights of Louisville. We walked along the river, crossed the mighty Ohio into Indiana (no passports required), enjoyed a wonderful afternoon of fun, laughter and built new friendships with fellow UK primary school, Howes all the way from Coventry and a school very similar to our own.
It was important to squeeze that downtime in as Friday was simply a day of travel as we left the school gates at 4am, all aboard a minibus bound for Heathrow T3 and 19 hours of departure lounges, inflight movies, homework and snatched meals. Touchdown in Louisville was bumpy (to be polite) but the sun was shining, the airport gleaming and the people incredibly helpful, as we strolled outside and boarded a public bus to take us the couple of miles to our hotel…the Super 8.
And there dear reader is where you find us now. It’s Sunday morning, 4 Roboteers, a pelicase full of bits of a robot, not so much a million dreams, rather a shed load of opportunities to exploit. Fun to be had, Friends to be made. Experiences to be enjoyed. All in an unfamiliar country, full of warm and welcoming people. This is the Vex Worlds…let’s do it!
North School Roboteers 