Day 2: Notes from camp
They don't stop running till the sun goes down.
Around 5 p.m. every evening, the U-M Solar Car team starts looking for an open, flat plot on the side of the road to temporarily call home. Someplace free of rocks and termite mounds. (These bugs are industrious! Most mounds are a couple feet high.) Then the team treats the time before sunset like a control stop -- running to position their car in as little shade as possible between the trees. They recharge and cool the solar cells.
A team member gets out the grill and starts dinner. (On day one, it was Spam, pasta and beans.) Others set up giant tents for bedrooms. One's for the early risers that will set up the car before sunrise. The other's for the drivers who get up "late" at 6:20 a.m. Radios get charged and bags unpacked.
As the moon rises, the semi truck that carries everyone's camping gear pulls up near the shoulder to send a message to other truckers that this spot's taken. Australian "road trains" can be three or more trailers long. As the country's main way to ship goods coast-to-coast, they're the most common company on this lonely road.
Around 8:30, under lights that lure the Outback's aggressive moths and flying beetles, the team holds a meeting. These can get tense, but last night's was easy. Students who've hardly relaxed their furrowed brows for months were grinning big. It was the end of Day 1 racing and they had finished it in first place.
Leaders warned the students not to let their guard down.
"We're just five minutes from second place," said crew chief Arnold Kadiu. "And eight minutes from fifth."
It's a tighter race than it's been in a long time.
"Michigan just lost a game in the last play," team leader Pavan Naik added, referring to the weekend's painful upset by Michigan State. "Let's not do that."
The team talked some more, then huddled for a "Go Blue" chant.
Camping not far down the road were their rivals from the Netherlands.
"Nuon could probably hear us," a team member said.
"That's how sound works," another chided.
Everyone laughed.
Students started heading to bed. Even though the tents were hot and cramped, the southern stars were big and bright. (You could see them through the mesh wall panel while you weren't sleeping.)
Morning came in a whirr of light and motion. Charge the car. Check the weather models. Run simulations. Pack the tents. Load the luggage. Eat chocolate cereal. Share any coffee you can procure. The running had begun again.
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