Happy Halloween

October 31st, 2009

Halloween in Mojave - and a full moon tonight.  One of the waitresses at the local Denny’s was in full regalia this morning, dressed up as how a Native American woman  might appear in an old Western movie.  All she needed was a papoose…

Oh Gods of Weather, oh rulers of the fates, please, please, PLEASE keep the weather here JUST LIKE THIS for the next several days!

It’s 60-65 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, no wind to speak of - it’s absolutely beautiful.  If we have weather like this during the Competition, it would be WONDERFUL!

I thought the Broomstick graphic was appropriate.  It kind of looks like the Competition racecourse - the tripod at the bottom linked to the cable heading up into the sky.  No?

The picture is of the local train station, closed as you can see, but the trains keep rolling through.  I can hear them from my room as I sit here and work with my computer.  I’m sure they came through last night, but I slept so soundly, they didn’t wake me.  You can see a bunch of windmills in the far background of the picture - they’re everywhere around here…

Things get started in earnest here tomorrow morning.  We’re supposed to be at the Edwards Air Force Base at 8:00am to get badged.  TRUMPF will be there to start setting up their laser.  USST is supposed to arrive at 9:00am.  I’m not sure when the other two teams are coming in.  USST has set up their own Twitter account - you can access it here.  Their latest entry (from several hours ago) is that they made it through US Customs in ‘record time’.

Tonight we switch from Daylight Savings time back to ‘normal’ time.  Everyone has been reminded but I’ll lay cash on the proposition that someone will forget…

Only 3 more days!

03NOV09 - Update - Alan Brown of NASA informs me that the picture is NOT of an abandoned train station but rather an abandoned gasoline service station (he thinks it used to be an ARCO station).  Alan tells me that the ‘old train station’ (which was some blocks away) was torn down ’several years ago’.  Thanks Alan!

Entry Filed under: News / Announcements, Elevator2010