We all survived…and had a great time at IIBI!

The day started with a 6 am wake-up call. Boo! Hiss! Volunteers were already arriving at check in when I got there at 7 am. Everyone pitched in and we were all setup in record time. The girls started arriving before 10 am. We had about 300 girls and 100 parents/educators. The girls did 3 activities: Puff Mobile (PBS ZOOM), Harmless Holder and Helping Hand (Both Design Squad). It is amazing what you can do with enough duct tape.

The parents had a separate program. There were a couple panels on why engineering is a good career and what the educational requirements are. They also did the Harmless Holder activity.

I had a great crew of Material Girls. They distributed materials, cleaned up after activities and sorted and boxed all the extra supplies in a snap. We were finished by 4 pm. We received a complement from the convention staff when they came in to start tear down. They said that they had never seen it this clean after an event.

I am meeting Cindy and Jess for dinner and a show tonight to celebrate. Then it’s back to packing all our stuff in the car. I pick up Jess tomorrow morning for the drive home. We still have to finalize our trip route.

I slept in until 8:30 this morning. I was pooped!

I had a meeting with the IIBI team and the convention center facilities lady to tie up the final details for tomorrow. Then I made a quick run through the boutique. Some cute stuff, but no wine glasses. The girls that I talked to all said that it was very hard finding the right person to reserve a place.

Career fair opened at 10 – more loot. Checked out a couple sessions. I find I am not that interested in management and career workshops any more. Outreach Expo had some neat activity ideas that I stole. The high point was when someone’s Harmless Holder failed and the pop cans burst. We are doing that activity tomorrow and the conference attendees had a chance to try it out. Hope that lady doesn’t design cargo containers.

At the end of the career fair, several of the group went around begging the exhibitors for their leftovers. We got handfuls of this and that for Expo, also a ton of Kroger bags. They tried to give me a whole box but I wasn’t up to that. I later found out that one of the other ladies did accept about half a box.

Dinner is leftovers in the hotel. The sandwiches in their box lunches are huge, plus chips, cookies and an apple. I need to get up early tomorrow.

I think I confused days and dates befores, but this IS Thursday!!!!

I have a tour to the Fermilab first thing. I get back at 2 pm and the Region meeting starts at 1:00.

Today was a gloomy, gray day with light rain most of the day…a good day to be inside. The ride to Fermilab took almost 1.5 hours. There is ALWAYS traffic in Chicago. It’s a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live here.

The lab was very interesting. It is a government facility that does no military work so they run all kinds of tours and events through the place. They have even restored the tallgrass prairie on the property and have nature walks and workshops.

We saw one of the booster accelerators and a linear accelerator, but not as close as the cyclotron because they were running. They recently closed down the circular accelerator. It was older technology and CERN in Switzerland is taking over that type of research. Their plan is to do research and position themselves so that they can create and build the next generation accelerators. We also got to see the research lab where they are working on stronger superconductor magnets and the shop where they build them. I have pictures, but am struggling with the internet here. I’ll post a report when I get home.

Suzanne Dobson (Tulsa) and I were on the tour and just made it back to the very end of the Region i meeting. I had to talk about research and she gave an update on the Region meeting in Tulsa in March 2012.

I worked on IIBI materials until the career fair began. They didn’t have the opening reception at the entrance to the fair this year. I thought I was late and walked right in. The guard just said “Hello” and me with no Exhibiter ribbon! As soon as I discovered my mistake, I went and hid with the Spirit ladies. Marsha escorted me around a little and then we hit the food. I haven’t been to any of the formal maels – breakfast or banquet – but the other food has been very tasty this year. As always, we collected a lot of loot. The major things this year are reusable bags and water bottles.

I didn’t try to fight my way into the hospitality suites although the wide halls made them much more accessible. Instead I wearily plopped down in the Life Members suite and was rewarded by seeing Karla Romereim (formerly of the Wichita Section) and Allison Terry. Later Marsha and Vickie came in. We stayed and caught up on everyone’s life until they threw us out.

So, off to bed!

Day 4 Tuesday 10/12

OOPS – It helps if I fill in the blanks!
Sunday I drove up the KTA to the east side of KC, and then northeast along I-635 N & I-35 N to where it met US 36.

First thing on Tuesday is a tour to the GE Healthcare Molecular Imaging facility. I thought it would be about MRI & CT machines. Turns out that they are a nuclear medicine facility! Really cool. I have now been inside a cyclotron! I can cross that off my bucket list. They make isotopes for medical imaging. They also make “seeds”. These are small silver wires that are coated with a radioactive solution and then sealed inside a titanium capsule. The main use for them is to treat prostate cancer by inserting 100+ into the prostate.

After the tour, I had an Outreach Committee Meeting and the Committees Dinner. Right now I am waiting by the ballroom for the Ice Cream Social. I plan to meet the rest of the Wichita group here.

10 pm – Finally got my first 3 days of blogging posted. The internet at the convention center is a lot better than that at the hotel. And you don’t have to jump through so many hoops. As expensive as the rooms are, in some ways this is a very “cheap” hotel.

Most of our group made it to the Ice Cream Social, in spite of problems with the shuttle. I saw Chris Cathcart, Faith Kay, Region Gov Heather Doty, Suzanne Dobbs and a bunch of Reg I people.

Sunday 10/9

I packed the car and was off by 9:30 am on my way to Chicago. It was still sprinkling a bit, but I soon dove out of that. Up the turnpike to the east side of KC, and then northeast along xxx to xxx north where it met US 36. Google chose this root and I thought I would try it. I had never driven in that area before. I couldn’t tell from the map what kind of road 36 was, but it turned out fine. It is a nice 4 lane divided highway, very smooth, and lightly traveled on a Sunday. US 36 crosses the Mississippi at Hannibal and continues on to Springfield.

I stopped for an hour in Hannibal. It’s a very lively town on a Sunday – street bands, chocolate shop, Mark Twain Museum, Riverboat, River park and views. Then it was on to Springfield and a good night’s sleep.

The scenery along the way was beautiful. I love the fall colors of the prairie and then more trees as I got into Missouri.

Monday 10/10

Another beautiful day! Springfield is a hard town to leave. There are so many Lincoln sights and places. They have a new Lincoln presidential museum that is really cool. The presentation is very modern in approach and very complete.

After the museum, I went to the Lincoln Residence National Park. It is a four block area around the only house he ever owned. When the National Park service took over the house, they cleared the 4 blocks of all buildings that were not there in 1861. The area is closed to vehicle traffic and you can walk around as if you were back in time. It was really pretty with the autumn colors and the fallen leaves.

My final stop was the Lincoln tomb. It isn’t open on Mondays, but you can walk around it. I’ve seen pictures, but I had no idea how huge it is.

About 1:30, I hit the road to Chicago. By 4:30, I was checked into my hotel and thinking of dinner. I took a cab to the Navy Pier ($$$$) and had dinner at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. I wasn’t as nice as the one in Orlando, basically just a booze and sandwich bar. The pier was very pretty at night with the lights on the Ferris wheel.

Tuesday 10/11

I got to sleep in this morning. My first job is to pick up Randy Freedman (SWE Outreach Manager) at his house in Lake Forest so we can go shopping. There are a few things still needed for Invent It Build It (IIBI). He suggested waiting until 9:00 to avoid traffic.

I am now officially whipped! Randy’s list included some office supplies and 67 – 12-pack of pop!!!!! All of which had to fit in my car along with his suitcase, backpack, and suits. What wore me out was hauling the pop inside the convention center.

Next we had to inventory our boxes of materials and sort them out from all the other stuff in our room. WGBH has a huge amount of materials for their workshops and IIBI. We sorted and packed 2 of the 3 activities for the girls. I have until Friday and the WGBH ladies will be here tomorrow.

About 6:30, I drove up to the Doubletree to pick up Marsha, Cindy, and Vickie for dinner. We had a nice long scenic drive up Lake Shore Drive looking for a restaurant until it ended. Cindy asked her “smart” phone to find a place to eat seafood and we ended up a few blocks north west of their hotel.

That’s all, I am BEAT!!!