Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Now that we are back home and we have let it all sink in we are ready to post about this once in a lifetime opportunity that we were given. FIRST gives us all so many opportunities and experiences but none like the one that five teams got to experience on that cold Thursday, November 28, 2013.

Back in September we were invited to participate in the 87th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, we had a lot to do to get Daisy Thunder ready for the 2.5 mile parade. We needed to figure out a confetti shooter and our wheels, since they are meant to drive on carpet indoors not on the rough, pot hole streets of Manhattan, New York. 

Connor recalls his thoughts about being invited to the parade "When I first heard the news that our team was selected I was thrilled, but the team quickly realized that we would need to make some modifications to the robot before Thanksgiving.  We decided to use three batteries connected in parallel, and were satisfied after some testing.  To shoot confetti, we purchased a confetti launcher, mounted it to the robot, and rewired it to use our robot’s power distribution system rather than an internal battery.  After more testing we were ready to crate up the robot for New York."

Daisy Thunder about to be shipped off to The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Thanks to the generosity of FedEx our crate was shipped on Monday, November 18th and we would leave on Southwest Airlines the following Tuesday, November 22. 

Once we arrived in New York our plan was to check into the hotel, have a meeting and dinner with Texas Torque then head to the Empire State Building. After walking over to the Empire State Building in the rain we were told that we could use our tickets and head up to the top of the building but the visibility was ZERO. We all decided to take our chances and wait until Thursday to go to the top. 

Getting ready to be interviewed at Fox News & Friends with Texas Torque

Wednesday morning our team and the Texas Torque teams had to be in the hotel lobby at 4:00am EST to catch a ride over to Fox Studios to do interview on Fox News and Friends at 7:30am. None of us minded the early morning, we were in NYC "The City That Never Sleeps" and we were going to soak us all the energy. FIRST had sent a field down from New Hampshire to set up outside the Fox Studio but due to the heavy rain we were unable to have our robots outside. While sitting in the green room we were asked if our robot could shoot confetti in the studio, after looking at the low ceilings and the number of studio lights it was determined that we could not shoot in the studio. A short while later the producers came and said that we would be filming in the hallway. Due to the amount of people coming to work and the things hanging on the walls we were not able to shoot frisbees, which disappointed Maria Molina, the reporter interviewing us, she had been hoping for days to try to catch one of the frisbees as they were shot out of the robots. It was probably a good thing it was raining and we couldn't shoot them.

Once we finished the Fox interview and the box truck arrived to take our crates back to the warehouse the girls from our team raced back to our hotel for an interview with she knows.com . Once they finished their interview the guys were back and we were ready for our first subway ride to the Bronx to tour Yankee Stadium.  It was a great tour and only rained a little while we were outside. 

Danielle, Torstein, Kaithlyn, Jon, Connor and Cathy on the Yankees  field

The North Tower Pool

Once we left Yankee Stadium we took the subway towards Ground Zero. The rain and wind had picked up but we didn't mind after all we were in an amazing city only our mentors had been to before. We arrive at the memorial a little early but they let us start our tour then which we were appreciative of. After we went through all the security we came out near the South Tower, it was so calm and quiet in there, even amongst the noisy city. The water falls in this pool were falling nicely and it was such an amazing place to be. We walked over to the North Tower pool where the water was being blown out of the pool due to the strong winds, it was really just as amazing as the tranquil South Tower pool. Once we left we all decided we were hungry and really wanted to have some New York cheesecake. We found a restaurant near our hotel and ate then headed back to the hotel because we had to be in the lobby again at 4:00am to head to the beginning of the parade route to uncrate our robot.

Leading the parade with our banner

At 4:30am EST Texas Torque, Bomb Squad, Raider Robotix, SPAM Robotics, and our team had to  load the bus and headed up to 77th Street, the temp was a FREEZING 27 degrees, pretty cold for us thin blooded San Diegans.  Once the robot was uncrated we had several hours to enjoy the cold weather and tried to stay warm. "

Jackie (Bomb Squad), Kaithlyn, Danielle, Connor, Torstein
 and Cathy trying to stay warm before the parade began

Before we began we realized that the cold was making us leak all of the air our of our pneumatics and we had to have it in order to drive. We decided that it would be best to use a few zip-ties in order to hold the gearboxes in gear. So right before the parade started we locked the gearboxes in low gear," Torstein recalls  "As soon as the parade started we realized there was a problem. We couldn’t keep up with the parade because we were driving to slow.  We quickly threw the robot back up on our cart and ran to catch up with the other teams. After we caught up we decided that the best thing to do would be to try to fix the robot while walking.  We flipped the robot on its back and for the next quarter mile I walked backwards cutting the zip-ties off the gearboxes and putting new ones on to hold the drivetrain in high gear. A quick test to make sure it worked and we threw it back on the ground and began driving again.  From there on it was smooth sailing, handing out buttons and waving to the ecstatic crowds."

Once the parade was over, the crate was packed and loaded back on the box truck we headed back to our hotel to do several Skype interviews and phone interviews back in San Diego. In between interviews with San Diego 6 News, the San Diego Union Tribune, and News 8 here in San Diego many of us slept but we were excited to share our stories with all the people who have supported us along this amazing

journey. After the interviews we had about an hour until the bus left and took all the parade participants off to PJ Clarks for Thanksgiving dinner, what a wonderful way to spend Thanksgiving, with our FIRST family.

Dinner menu

 After dinner we knew it was our last chance to get to the top of the Empire State Building, so we walked from the hotel and this time it was clear and we made it to the top of the most amazing building, with the best views of Manhattan.

The top of the Empire State Building

 Danielle sums up the trip by saying "I know I've said this many times before, but I feel so honored to be one of the representatives of FIRST for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It was such an incredible experience and although I felt as if I were freezing nearly the entire time, I loved every second of it. My favorite part of being in New York was walking around and experiencing the atmosphere. The ambiance of New York was a bit different from San Diego, and I tried to soak up as much as I could. I'd love to go back again during another widely celebrated event like New Years." 

Even though we didn't have time to do most of the things we wanted to do and even though we saw more rain in two days than we see here in San Diego in four years it was the most amazing trip and we hope that this inaugural experience for FIRST turns into an annual event that many for teams will get to experience. To see more photos of all the the FIRST teams at the parade check out the link here.