[556] Of you won’t run out of gas this time

Dedicated to Mirai Aki, Ivan and all the members of University of Michigan Solar Car Team 2003. And to SpectrUM.

Michigan is currently first enroute to Calgary. Word has it that it’s getting cloudy over. If that is so, it seems that race is not over yet.

In any case, go get em Mirai!

p/s – Reliving the drama, two years later.

Yesterday was fun and a little bit weird. Everything that could go wrong went wrong save the solar modules and our lives.

The day started early for me because I slept early last night, exhausted by the Solar Car work session. At six in the morning on Saturday, there was nothing for me to do so I watch CNN over the net while surfing. Bored, I took my bath and prepared myself for an experiment my team and I was going to conduct at ****** *****’s facilities. Then, just before I shut my computer off, I accidentally click on a link to a weblog with an entry ”Please God, tell me I am dreaming.”

And my reaction right after clicking the link was Please God, tell me I am dreaming. NASA had lost contact with SS Columbia. At that time, Columbia loss was not yet announced. I had wanted to follow the event but I had to go to Ohio.

So, I left and waited for Ivan and the gang outside of the Michigan Union with a pizza in my hand. They were late and I was freezing to death in the cold morning. Then, they arrived and I found out that Jaz replaced Brent and Anastasia was not coming. We had planned to leave boring Ann Arbor at 1030 hours but found ourselves still in Ann Arbor half an hour later. (It was Mirai’s fault.)

The journey went smoothly and enjoyable until we heard about SS Columbia. The atmosphere in car was quiet but Jaz tried to lighten it up by talking about South Park. From South Park, the conversation went to politics and ended up criticizing Bush’s policies against Iraq. One of us even said that Bush is going to blame Iraq over Columbia loss which of course, was actually asked by the media later on.

While we were talking nonsense (especially on how ”they killed Kenny stuff”), we lost our way due to several severe wrong turns. Talk about not paying attention to the road. Worse, I found out that instead of printing the complete direction from MapQuest, Ivan wrote it down a piece of paper without proper details. Nevertheless, we reached United Solar at around noon safely.

During the test, Mr. **** ******* was very nice to us. Not to mention his courtesy – we ran our test out of the usual business hours.

The test ran six hours straight, without even a sip of water. I also almost killed an A module by accidentally dropping it to the hard, solid concreted floor.

Luckily, a few thousand dollars was saved because the module actually survived the impact. By 1800 hours, Jaz and I were having headache due deprivation of food (I am not kidding. I had a bad headache that I puked. And damn Ivan, he thought I was kidding. For God’s sake, my face was freaking pale!!!)

After the test, we put the modules into a huge case, thank Mike and left the facility. In the car, instead of discussing the result (the result was favorable by the way), we argued whether we should eat fast food or proper food. In the end, we decided to eat at a bar called Futtbucker (I am still blurry on how we reached this decision). It turned out later that it was not a bar (thank God). The dinner was good. Grilled salmon, tots and stuff were enough to help me to get over my headache.

Once satisfied, we continued our journey to Ann Arbor but we failed to realize one thing, WE WERE IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE and the moon was high up in the sky. We knew that we were already in Michigan but seeing Detroit in the horizon was not in the plan. Ivan had somehow drove the Jeep eastward. Once he realized that, he went westward and suddenly, all sign civilization ceased to exist. No highway, no nothing. We were frantically trying to stay calm. A few long moments later, a road sign with Ann Arbor written on it and were relieved. BUT, that is not the point of this entry dear diary.

While, quoting Jaz, we were going to the unknown, we heard a strange beep. We looked at a small screen at the dashboard and realized, THERE WAS ONLY 18 MILES WORTH OF GAS AND WE WERE IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE STILL.

”You know guys, in the trunk, there are **** * ******* ****** ***** ** ***** *******. If we are stuck in the middle of nowhere, some crook gonna rob us and sell it.” Jaz was driving us nuts.

17 miles.

16 miles.

”Should we go back or should we risk it forward?” asked Ivan.

”We know that there is nothing behind so the probability of discovering a gas station is larger if we go on”, answered Mirai with the failure to pronounce all the ”r”es.

”Yeah, better something than nothing” I said.

So, we went on and on.

15 miles.

13 miles.

”Hey, it skipped 14!” I screamed. Everybody joined in with ”shit”.

12 miles.

11 miles.

The smart Jaz said ”You know guys, what’s really comforting? Cars usually stop before gas is empty.”

”How is that supposed to be comforting?!?!?!?!?” yelled Ivan.

9 miles. This time it skipped the integer 10.

”Wait, this car is made by Europeans, it should be smart enough to tell us how much exactly we can go!” Mirai Aki suggested.

”Oh, Jeep is made by Americans.” Jaz cut.

”Americans!!! No!!!”

”AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”¦!!!”

Now, it was sheer panic. We thought we were totally screwed but then, we saw a sign – ”˜Ann Arbor [something less than 9] Miles’.

”We’re saved!!!” declared Mirai.

6 miles. This time, the meter skipped 2 integers. We were screwed.

”Alright guys, whatever god out there, just pray. I’m a Shinto, you Jaz?” asked Mirai.

”Sikh”

”You Hafiz?”

”I’m a Moslem”, I replied.

”Ivan?”

”I’m atheist.”

”Shit, we are going to die. Good luck praying.” I said. The three Believers started to panic even worse. An atheist!!!

3 miles and S Main St., ANN ARBOR. This was the first time all four of us were actually glad seeing the lights of Ann Arbor. By then, it was really loud in the car. Mirai keeping on screaming like a girl, Jaz was suggesting unbelievable suggestions, Ivan trying to calm himself at the helm and I kept on laughing like a drunken man.

3 miles still and still no pump station.

”AMOCO!!! Our savior!!!” declared Mirai.

3 miles still and we were saved by AMOCO, a polluter.

158 miles. I made a mental note – for this, I won’t say a shit about Bush for a week. I swear to God.

”What a day. Columbia, late for an hour for the test, no food, accidentally dropped the module, headache, a restaurant called Futtbucker and being lost in the middle of the night, there must be something else” somebody said and it was true.

Near Rackham Graduate School, Ann Arbor Police (they arrested me once for snowball fighting) stopped us. This must be the climax.

”Shit”, that was all Jaz and I could muster.

Luckily, the police just warned us.

The fellowship of the solar modules continued their quest to return the solar modules to the PowerLab.

Once there, victory was announced but Jaz was not satified.

”Should we checked the solar modules in the bag?”

”Let somebody else find out. I had enough for the day”, I said.

Ivan drove me home later.

”Alright Hafiz, brush you teeth and go to sleep”, Ivan said.

”Thank you for showing up Hafiz”, Mirai thanked.

”See ya”, Jaz said.

”Later all”.

Immediately after I reached home, I stripped and went straight away to bed.

Sweet home Michigan.

Below, an excerpt from Mirai’s Log:

Division leaders: Please forward this to your division if possible.

Power Electrical Division, Mirai’s Log: February 1, 2003AD

It was the most important day for SpectruM Power Electrical Team. We finally got approval of solar module testing from our greatest project manager, Josh Harmsen, and our finest engineering director, Jeff Chen.

Ace driver of Power Electrical Team, Ivan Goenawan, rendezvoused with fellow members, Hafiz Noor Shams, Jaswinder Singh and Mirai Aki, this morning at 10:30. We headed out to testing facility of ****** *****. There was a little confusion with orientation, but we successfully arrived at the facility on 12:00.

Without any consumption of food, we tested modules until 17:30. The test was successful: all the modules were supplying decent amount of power.

Satisfied with the result of the experiment, we left the facility, and headed back to Ann Arbor. On the way back, we stopped by Futtbuckers, finest self serving dinning, even though we expected it to be a bar.

The way back home was, in some sense, adventurous and chaotic. We drove thirty minutes after dinner, and found ourselves in front of Futtbuckers again. We were terrified: what is wrong with this area? Is this some kind of twilight zone? We kept on driving, until we showed up in middle of nowhere.

Jaswinder screamed, ”We are in middle of unknown!”

He was absolutely precise. There was no sign of civilization. Suddenly, we heard a small electrical beep in the vehicle.

”What is that?” Mirai blurted out of curiosity of what happened.
”Oh,we’re running out of gas.” Ivan responded with rather calm voice.
”F###!” Mirai screamed.

Although, Mirai remembered a small detail about the vehicle which he heard from his friend before. A car won’t stop for a while even a gas meter indicates empty gas. When Mirai calmed down with the recognition, Ivan turned on the small monitor built into vehicle. Everybody observed the screen with their mouth wide open: the monitor said, ”18 miles to gas empty”. Remember, we were still in middle of nowhere.

16 miles, 14 miles”¦”¦.. count down began.

Somebody in the car said, ”Everybody, there must be a gas station in next 14 miles.”

Jas added to that statement, ”You know guys, what’s really comforting? Cars usually stop before gas is empty.”

Ivan yelled in obscenity, ”How’s a f%%% that supposed to comfort us!?”
Mirai cried out loud like a girl, and said, ”Wait, this car is made by Europeans, it should be smart enough to tell us how much exactly we can go!” There was a moment of silence.

Jas broke the silence, ”Oh, Jeep is made by Americans.”

Mirai freaked out, ”Americans!!! No!!!”

Count down continued. Suddenly 12 miles turned into 13 miles. Mirai naively yelled, ”It’s a miracle!”

Ivan said, ”Oh, I just slowed down.”

Meter went back to 12 at that moment.

9 miles, 8 miles, 6 miles”¦”¦ Meter was decreasing inversely proportional to our screaming intensity. 4 miles, and we finally saw lights.

Yes, the light of civilization. Light of Ann Arbor! Home. Isn’t it such a wonderful term?

3 miles”¦”¦ We were crying. Finally, there it was. Amoco, gas station!

Who has ever appreciated a gas station as much as we did before? We were all relieved. It was 2 miles when we finally arrived. After refuel, we headed out to Power Lab to drop off solar modules. On the way, somebody next to our vehicle was telling us to open our window. It was a police. Ivan got warning for going through yellow light. Jas and Hafiz said ”Sh**!”

We successfully delivered solar module at power lab on 21:30. We are currently logging at 22:00 next to cemetery. This all actually happened when we were carrying **** * ******* ******* ***** ** ***** *** ****’s heart and soul.

This is Mirai Aki, closing in.

Go Blue!