We left on Tuesday night at 8PM after a long day of school and work. It takes a lot of teamwork to load up the bus!  Thanks to all who came to see us off.  We’re glad of the support of our family, friends, and mentors who were not able to join us.The bus ride was pretty fun, until ….…there was a problem.  The bus was making a strange noise, and the drivers were sure that they could not continue.We had to get a new bus.  Luckily we were near Lambeth, which is apparently just outside of London, and a new bus could be arranged quickly.We unpacked all of our gear at the side of the road, and transferred it to the new bus.This bus had fewer seats for us.  It’s ok….JNo and Henry are good friends….they were excited to share seats.We stopped for breakfast at McDonalds before the sun came up.  It was there  that we discovered that size large is really big here in the states!Here’s our new bus in the daylight!  It’s pretty nice.We stopped for lunch, but we weren’t sure where we were–somewhere in Illinois.On the bus we played lots of video games…….and had quality time with our friends.We slept for a lot of the trip too!  It was a thrilling moment to see the arch and know that we were really close to St. Louis.Five of our team members went directly to the Edward Jones Dome to set up our pit area and get our robot inspected.  The rest of us checked into the hotel, which took a bit of figuring to get the rooms sorted out.  We’re thankful that our team is so patient!The rooms we got have some fantastic views!  Some see the arch.  Others see right into Busch Stadium. We had a few moments to relax before meeting our groups for dinner.  Some of us enjoyed a quick swim.At dinner time, we were pretty excited to eat.  Some of us enjoyed the “burger buffet” at the hotel.We ate very fancy hamburgers…with pinkies up!  FYI: Russell is feeling better now, after a bit of a rough patch on the bus.After dinner we split into groups to explore the downtown area.  In St. Louis the fountains are pretty colours.  We got up close and personal with the Gateway Arch.It is a very large structure!We counted about 190 paces between both ends of the arch….…and we noticed that it looks almost on fire when the sun sets.We also had a close enounter with a “crocogator” which may or may not exist in that pond.As the sun set, we returned to the hotel to do some homework and then have a meeting.After the meeting we had a game of “guess the ref signals” for identification of cards and fouls.  Do you know what these mean?

It’s an early night tonight.  We’re waking up at 5:15AM tomorrow!