Thursday events

Thursday got off to a quick start because the competition was scheduled to start at 8:00, which means leaving the hotel around 7:00.  With the bulk of the contest events happening today, it looked set to be a pretty full day - and it was.  However there was a lot of down time too as I went through to see what stage everyone was at. 

After each event in Internetworking got started, I walked through the building to get as many chances as possible to see all of the different contests.  Even as different as many of the contests are from what I teach, they are always exciting to see and experience.  Explaining that level of intensity to everyone is difficult, but I can tell you that it is inspiring to watch the immense amount of talent on display.

The sights and sounds outside Bartle Hall were pretty intense too, with an almost carnival atmosphere as vendors were running promotions, fancy gear was on display, various musicians were performing, and food stands were busy feeding people.  Among the remarkable displays were some of the customized cars and choppers and the Army band.  The band was amazing and they blazed through a seemingly endless set of requests for all sorts of songs and they played with incredible accuracy and flair.

Upstairs in Bartle Hall, many of the industrial and heavy trades were taking place and I got a great chance to watch the Building Construction, Robotics, Auto Tech, Auto Collision, Masonry, CNC, Electrical, Welding and seemingly countless other fast paced contests.

As the day ran on, the Internetworking competition finished up about the time I was returning to see the events.  We were able to get back to the hotel to change and get back to BH for the debriefing meeting.  This was fun because I scored some networking bling - a Cisco shirt and a backpack.

After the debriefing, we came back to the hotel yet again to take the trip out to the Worlds of Fun amusement park that was being sponsored by SkillsUSA.  The trip was rather long and I had a headache at first, but got better as the evening went on.  Candon had a chance to try out many of the death defying rides (at least they look that way). 

We were able to get back around 10:00 and call it a day.  But not without blogging about it first!