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Gadgetoff 2007!
This is my longest story/blog/whatever I
have put up on this site. Enjoy it, hate it or just move on to the photos.
Being the geek that I am this whole
concept really intrigued me. When Barry first got his invite with Patriot
for the 2007 Gadgetoff gathering he didn't really tell me what it was other
than we would be bringing Patriot to somewhere in New Jersey for an
appearance at a symposium of sorts for adults that liked 'cool stuff'. We
would have Patriot there as an exhibit and he would do a short film in case
of inclement weather.
Barry got me up at about 5:00 AM to
drive to North Jersey. Jersey City in fact. Turns out this little trip is to
Liberty State Park. For those of you that don't know what that is, allow me.
We had this amazing view of Manhattan on one side, Ellis Island and The
Statue of Liberty on the other. Too cool to really comprehend as this is
just little us, Barry & Teri with their balloon in the midst of all of this.
Alright, we are there, Tom Robins who got us into this mess is already there
with his crew and waiting on the field assuring us that he has acquired the
necessary waivers. We weren't really worried about waivers. We were more
concerned with things like too much wind, rain in the future and not having
enough crew. We laughed all of that off and Tom got busy on the walkie
talkie he had with the organizers. They assured us that we might have enough
crew. Barry being the ever optimist, said ok. I shook my head as I usually
do. I resigned myself to a LONG morning/afternoon with no chance of getting
anything to eat. I went and took some nice photos of the scenery around me.
Well, the crew situation in number of
bodies never really got over 10 people, but the Gadgetoff organizers did put
in an ok effort to get us more. I'm always the conscience in the background
saying, "You really don't want to make these few people work as hard as they
don't know about yet that you are going to make them do it? Right?" Well, as
usual, I was overruled. Oh, I have not mentioned the wind yet have I? On
this little piece of real estate, the wind was not light or not even
questionable.. it was too windy to even take the cart out of the trailer.
Then there was the approaching rain.
Ok... so .. . at this point we have about
10 people. 4 of those people were there to cater the event. We had those
wonderful people for the inflation only. They had to leave once it was
inflated to go feed the 300 or so people coming to see us and the other
wonderful vehicles and crazy things that were there for a select few. Good
guys all and they are welcome back to help any time!
As we were inflating Patriot in the
wind (notice I didn't say breeze), there was a beautiful blimp approaching.
He flew around Ellis Island a few times and then came to visit us. Hopefully
he was taking photos in the hopes of catching a tragedy on film as it was
pretty windy. But, we didn't have a tragedy so instead I took a bunch of
photos of him in the air. Balloonists are strange that way, we all have a
freakish fascination with airships/blimps/dirigibles etc... So there are a
bunch of pics of the blimp. Ok,
so far we have wind. Now for the rain. We started getting sprinkled on and I
asked Barry what he would like to do. He said, "We are pretty much stuck at
this point. We will have to wait it out." I'm thinking and who will help us
put this monster away? Luckily, the wind kept drying out the balloon. This
was a blessing. So, after the ferry with all of the people came out, we
started to take Patriot down. At that point, we had about 10 people as the
caterers had to leave and the Gadgetoff people sent out these fantastic
Masters Students! We had 3 new people and were very happy to have them.
Actually, through the whole day we had one crew person that was there from
the start. I don't know his last name, but his first name is Paul. He is
also the first photo in the series. His back anyway.
Alright. Now we are at the packing up
stage. We started packing up and it wasn't cooperating in the wind, so we
got about halfway through and my hunger pains weren't going to take anymore
of this! I talked to one of the organizer guys and he sent me to the tent to
get a bit of food. I was supposed to send the crew to the building. But, as
luck would have it, the caterers had already known who we were and they
brought us out several trays of food and beverages for all of us! Praise the
caterers!!!!!!! We all had a good meal even though I only brought out ham
sandwiches. I was horribly thoughtless in my neglect of the vegetarians now
in our midst. The ham was great though and the vegetarians came back to help
in spite of my thoughtlessness.
We packed up the balloon and then
helped the rocket-powered motorcycle put their equipment into their truck.
See photos below.
We then went to the next phase of
Gadgetoff and looked at all of the amazing exhibits including Zeno! the most
realistic of robots. I will be putting up some movies of him in action
shortly.
After an exciting day, Barry & I spent
from 5:30 PM to 9:30 PM getting back home. Barry knows that this is a huge
problem on a Friday evening as for me, this is SCI-FI Friday and this
particular day is the premiere of Stargate Atlantis... I am doing this page
while missing Dr. Who and Atlantis. I digress... (don't worry though, we
have satellite and I can watch the West Coast airings).
Enjoy the photos and remember to click on
them to get a bigger view.
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