Rocketry Road Trip

Just before we left for San Diego I got an email from the rocketry club leader about an event in Pasco the weekend after we were getting back from California. It mentioned G by name, so I forwarded to him with a slightly panicked "do you need to go to this and why am I just now hearing about it???" message. Initially the answer was no - he hadn't finished his rocket and wouldn't have time to before the event. Then a couple days later it changed to yes because he was going to be able to squeeze in one last rocket building session.

Then I realized there was no useful information in the initial email aside from the dates of this event, so asked him to get that info. Which led to a second email that contained the broad times and details on when the club adult was going to be at the launch site, but no specifics about when the kids were expected to arrive. I eventually decided that none of us would want to be up at 3 or 4 am on a Saturday to drive out to Pasco, so would be best to just book a hotel and head out Friday evening.

Ryan had done all our driving in California and understandably wasn't eager to do another road trip, so this trip ended up being me and G. We forgot it was Labor Day weekend and that would mean more traffic headed east than usual, especially since it was nice weather and not smoky, so what maps had previously told me would be a 3.5 hour drive was now going to be more like 4-4.5 hours. And of course I'd come home from work late in my effort to get things taken care of before the holiday weekend/before everyone's schools start and we both left our packing to the last minute, so my plan of leaving Seattle right after G finished up an appointment at 6pm didn't pan out. And we still had to eat dinner sometime as well. We did find somewhere to stop for dinner and aside from some overly aggressive drivers wanting to go 90+ in 70 zones and everyone's headlights being so bright they blind you these days, it was an uneventful drive. We got to our hotel about 11:30, watched some Derry Girls, then slept. Not my best sleep ever as the hotel didn't do a great job at preventing a pervasive manure odor from leaking into the building.

I half-heartedly tried to get us going at a reasonable time the next morning, thinking we should get to the launch site about 9-9:30. But G wasn't as eager to wake up and it was their event so I let him dictate the pace a bit. We got checked out and then remembered that we needed $5 in cash for this event. I almost never have cash on me! So we made a last-minute run to a bank, got some cash, then headed back out to the launch site. All this meant it was closer to 10:30 before we got there and G was the last student in their group to arrive. Launches are really boring if you're not actively involved. It was hot and sunny, so I spent the day trying not to burn. Most of the rockets are loud as well, so the rest of my energies were spent attempting to protect my hearing. The whole point of this trip was to attempt to get some certification to be able to do high powered rockets. G had his built and finally got the motor and such attached and shot it off. Unfortunately, the motor wasn't attached quite well enough so while the rocket went quite high it lost the motor coming down and I guess that means you fail your certification. They had some extra motors so he could attempt again, but had to wait around for another student (whose rocket just failed to launch several times) to finish so they could use their motor casing. This meant that we were there much later than I'd planned and there was much drama as it was doubtful for a bit if he'd even get to attempt a second launch - they only had permits to do the high powered launches until 5pm. There was a mad rush as maybe he could do it still but with a different type of motor, so they were all working together to change that out, then they were told they could actually keep the original motor so it was a frenzy to get that back in and attached securely. 

Rockets set up to launch

After all that drama, it was a big letdown when the motor failed completely - his rocket barely made it off the launchpad. Nothing he could have done about it, just a faulty motor and no way to know that until you try to launch it I guess. So he was pretty down about that because without the certification there isn't as much of interest for him to work on in rocketry this year once they've built their team rocket. And this location is the only one he's aware of that holds events where you can get this certification (you need a big open field away from major air traffic and of course all the special permits to launch these off). Overall very frustrating that achieving the certification can come down to something that's completely out of your control.

Once G helped to clean up their club area at the field, we found some dinner - neither of us had eaten since breakfast! - and then got back on the road to head home. G did slightly overestimate their appetite, but managed to get through about 2/3 of this burger.

About 45 minutes into our drive home we suddenly heard a splat on the windshield - no big deal, just a bug. Then there were a few more - is it raining? We didn't remember rain being in the forecast. Followed by rapidly increasing splats and a pass of the windshield wipers made it clear these were bugs, not rain. Thousands and thousands of bugs. Before long I could barely see because there were so many dead bugs on the windshield. We managed to find a quiet side road and were able to clear some with the wiper fluid and G found a nearby gas station about 10 minutes away, which felt like a very long time when you're worried about dead bugs limiting your visibility. So we cautiously made our way to the gas station, wincing with every new splat. Thankfully it was almost dark at this point and we were getting further and further away from the body of water where this had all started, which we were hopeful would resolve the bug issue. Several others were also stopped at this station, scrubbing bugs off their cars. The entire front bumper was a horror scene, but we left that for later, scrubbed the windshield as best we could, and got back on our way.

Thankfully that was the worst part of the drive home. We were both exhausted, but it was so much fun to get to spend hours with G, chatting about anything and everything and introducing them to Carole King's Tapestry album in our efforts to build a good road trip playlist. And, in good news, one of the other rocketry parents was kind enough to offer to drive him (and their kid) back out there last weekend, where G successfully passed their certification - using a different brand of motors this time.