Good morning to my readers,
First, I want to apologize for the lack of posts recently. I truly try to post often, however I do have a lot of work and school work nowadays. In fact, I have work later today! Anyway, let me get into today's topic: snowmobiling!
I had never been snowmobiling until yesterday. One of my robotics mentors owns four snowmobiles, and has ever since I joined the team. Or at least four. I'm not exactly sure. Anyway, yesterday, he pulls up outside our house in one and asks my brother if we'd like a ride. After a quick, suspiciously quick, tutorial on how they work, we had our helmets on and our butts on the seat.
We took off down a small path, across a road, and into a large basin. As soon as I got moving, I fell in love with it. It was the coolest experience I have had in a long time! The highest speed I could get the one to was 55 miles per hour or so. This is really fast for a snowmobile in my opinion! My brother and I did this for a large period of time that afternoon.
We liked it so much however, that we decided to do it again that weekend! As long as our mentor allowed it of course (which he did). This time, we got our dad to try it! After he drove several laps, I think it's safe to say that he liked it! We also convinced a few of our friends to come over and go snowmobiling with us! Unfortunately, the day ended in tragedy and bloodshed . . . not really, but there was some tragedy.
When our three friends arrived, we gave a quick demonstration and tutorial, and then threw them on it! One of them did not like to go fast at first, one found the acceleration of the vehicle the best part, and the last one only cared about drifting. I eventually named him the "Drift King"; this youngster was well-known for his high speed turns and drifts, earning him this name. He continued to prove himself worthy of this title, until we had an accident. The accident came while using a small sleigh that was meant to be pulled along by a snowmobile that does not like to perform insane turns paralleled with incredible speed. I was the first one to ride in this sleigh with him, since nobody else really trusted him after riding on a snowmobile with him. I figured, "Why not? More space and I'm not going to fall off, right?". Wrong. He does one lap at a decent pace, and then decides to pick it up and go nuts. A little past our halfway point, he does too sharp of a turn too fast, and the sleigh flips while moving thirty some miles per hour. Note that the snowmobile suffers no damage and does not flip. The driver is quick to slam on the breaks once he hears the rolling of the sleigh, but he was not quick enough. I skidded a little bit on the ice, but was able to crawl out and pull myself up. Thankfully, I escaped with only a few bruises and a lot of snow covered body parts. If you're wondering how I did not get a head injury, it's because I was wearing a helmet. In fact, my head is what hit the ground first!
So, as I just stated, I crawled away with nothing too serious. The sleigh however suffered damage to its windshield; by this, I mean it broke! So, the driver and I are paying for the part replacement, which isn't too bad since its just about $32. Our mentor is a very handy guy, and will surely be able to fix it right up once we pay him!
You might be thinking this brought a screeching halt to the activities, but it did not. Rather, I climbed back on the speedy snowmobile and accelerated down my hill, doing some more drifting and driving.
We wrapped up once it got dark out. We drove the sleds back to our mentor's house, gave him some gas money, and hiked back through the snow. When I went inside, my parents said someone called the HOA, and said we had gotten too close to kids. I panicked after hearing we had a $100 fine, and quickly went to tell my friends. I stated that I would pay 3/4 of it, since it was typically me who went over there. What can I say, I liked speed. But then, my mom walks out and said it was a joke. We weren't charged, nor did anyone have a problem with us. I took a sigh of relief, and then collapsed in the snow! We all then said our farewells, and that was the end of this adventure. Hopefully we'll be able to do this some other time!
This also made me look at Michigan Tech a little more closely. Michigan Tech is a school that gets a lot of snow, and I have been considering them my number one pick for a long time. They participate in and host the SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge, a challenge that focuses on redesigning a snowmobile to be cleaner, quieter, and more efficient. This is the place to be if you love snowmobiles! They used to make a 100% electric snowmobile, and I wish they would bring that back, but it's alright. Ideally, I'd be able to do some electrical work on the team if that is were I choose to go and that is the team I choose to join.
But that discussion is one for a later date.
I hope you enjoyed reading, although I know my stories and blogs aren't the most exciting.
Now, I have to get back to class!
Thanks for reading,
The Questionable Programmer
