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Gadgetoff 2007!

This is my longest story/blog/whatever I have put up on this site. Enjoy it, hate it or just move on to the photos.

Being the geek that I am this whole concept really intrigued me. When Barry first got his invite with Patriot for the 2007 Gadgetoff gathering he didn't really tell me what it was other than we would be bringing Patriot to somewhere in New Jersey for an appearance at a symposium of sorts for adults that liked 'cool stuff'. We would have Patriot there as an exhibit and he would do a short film in case of inclement weather.

Barry got me up at about 5:00 AM to drive to North Jersey. Jersey City in fact. Turns out this little trip is to Liberty State Park. For those of you that don't know what that is, allow me. We had this amazing view of Manhattan on one side, Ellis Island and The Statue of Liberty on the other. Too cool to really comprehend as this is just little us, Barry & Teri with their balloon in the midst of all of this. Alright, we are there, Tom Robins who got us into this mess is already there with his crew and waiting on the field assuring us that he has acquired the necessary waivers. We weren't really worried about waivers. We were more concerned with things like too much wind, rain in the future and not having enough crew. We laughed all of that off and Tom got busy on the walkie talkie he had with the organizers. They assured us that we might have enough crew. Barry being the ever optimist, said ok. I shook my head as I usually do. I resigned myself to a LONG morning/afternoon with no chance of getting anything to eat. I went and took some nice photos of the scenery around me.

Well, the crew situation in number of bodies never really got over 10 people, but the Gadgetoff organizers did put in an ok effort to get us more. I'm always the conscience in the background saying, "You really don't want to make these few people work as hard as they don't know about yet that you are going to make them do it? Right?" Well, as usual, I was overruled. Oh, I have not mentioned the wind yet have I? On this little piece of real estate, the wind was not light or not even questionable.. it was too windy to even take the cart out of the trailer. Then there was the approaching rain.

Ok... so .. . at this point we have about 10 people. 4 of those people were there to cater the event. We had those wonderful people for the inflation only. They had to leave once it was inflated to go feed the 300 or so people coming to see us and the other wonderful vehicles and crazy things that were there for a select few. Good guys all and they are welcome back to help any time!

As we were inflating Patriot in the wind (notice I didn't say breeze), there was a beautiful blimp approaching. He flew around Ellis Island a few times and then came to visit us. Hopefully he was taking photos in the hopes of catching a tragedy on film as it was pretty windy. But, we didn't have a tragedy so instead I took a bunch of photos of him in the air. Balloonists are strange that way, we all have a freakish fascination with airships/blimps/dirigibles etc... So there are a bunch of pics of the blimp.

Ok, so far we have wind. Now for the rain. We started getting sprinkled on and I asked Barry what he would like to do. He said, "We are pretty much stuck at this point. We will have to wait it out." I'm thinking and who will help us put this monster away? Luckily, the wind kept drying out the balloon. This was a blessing. So, after the ferry with all of the people came out, we started to take Patriot down. At that point, we had about 10 people as the caterers had to leave and the Gadgetoff people sent out these fantastic Masters Students! We had 3 new people and were very happy to have them. Actually, through the whole day we had one crew person that was there from the start. I don't know his last name, but his first name is Paul. He is also the first photo in the series. His back anyway.

Alright. Now we are at the packing up stage. We started packing up and it wasn't cooperating in the wind, so we got about halfway through and my hunger pains weren't going to take anymore of this! I talked to one of the organizer guys and he sent me to the tent to get a bit of food. I was supposed to send the crew to the building. But, as luck would have it, the caterers had already known who we were and they brought us out several trays of food and beverages for all of us! Praise the caterers!!!!!!! We all had a good meal even though I only brought out ham sandwiches. I was horribly thoughtless in my neglect of the vegetarians now in our midst. The ham was great though and the vegetarians came back to help in spite of my thoughtlessness.

We packed up the balloon and then helped the rocket-powered motorcycle put their equipment into their truck. See photos below.

We then went to the next phase of Gadgetoff and looked at all of the amazing exhibits including Zeno! the most realistic of robots. I will be putting up some movies of him in action shortly.

After an exciting day, Barry & I spent from 5:30 PM to 9:30 PM getting back home. Barry knows that this is a huge problem on a Friday evening as for me, this is SCI-FI Friday and this particular day is the premiere of Stargate Atlantis... I am doing this page while missing Dr. Who and Atlantis. I digress... (don't worry though, we have satellite and I can watch the West Coast airings).

Enjoy the photos and remember to click on them to get a bigger view.

 

Paul and the theme of the day.

Paul was also the only crew that was with us from the start of the event. Thanks Paul. Really, normally it isn't this much work...

 

The train station from Ellis Island to America. Now it is the other way around. You purchase a ticket to get there and come back.

 

A fantastic opportunity for us in spite of the circumstances.

 

We never got to see this one move but it could have been because Security was making sure it didn't move... I'm not sure.

 

1914 Electric Car. I can't remember the model. Sorry.

 

 

Wind??? What's that?

At least I can be comforted in the notion that I will have the money shot when disaster strikes!

But, where in the world could I get this shot??? No where but here. I just wish the Twin Towers were still there looming.

Dirigible over Ellis Island.

Too cool.

 

Rob, Barry & Tom... Captions please.

 

 

 

 

I already mentioned that balloonists love blimps. Well, Mr. Blimp apparently is just as

 

fascinated with us.

If Dirigible Man has photos of Patriot on the ground, please send them to me. My email is at the bottom of this page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Caterer crew. Thanks guys!

 

 

Ballooning is a 'Hurry up and wait' sport. These gentlemen illustrate that with perfection in holding down Patriot in the wind and rain...

 

Paul still doing his thing...

 

 

Hydrogen car by...

BMW

As crazy as we were taking Patriot out of the bag in the wind, rain without enough bodies to put him away... Tom Robins and crew actually inflated his round balloon.

 

Here is Daryl who signed up for the job holding the balloon stable as much as he can in the wind and sprinkles... He is a great guy.

 

Crazy Tom and his beautiful balloon.

 

Finally, relief!

 

Pranay posing.

Saurabh, Pranay & Paul from Taiwan fighting with the top of Patriot. Patriot almost won in the wind, but finally with these persistent people we got it!

See the tiny motorcycle at the right?

There he is! Now, go to the previous photo. See the Silver car on the left?

As soon as the rocket motorcycle went past, the silver cars alarm went off.

After regaining our composure from laughing so hard, the rocket bike people assured us that it happens every time!

= more hysterical laughter...

 

Pranay & Saurabh eating ice cream with Manhattan as a backdrop.

Can't get much cooler than that!

 

Tom and Pranay victorious over the balloon! Yes, we got it back in the truck.

Helping get the walking metal thing back into the truck. I really wish we could have seen this thing move...

Pranay on the Rocket bike. We removed him quickly as he didn't get permission from the Madagascar Institute to get on the bike.

On to the Liberty Science Center....  

This is not the robot from Short Circuit. ...

 

 

But it sure looks like it!

Zeno!!!!

Barry & I first thought he resembled a Chuckie type of thing, but once 

he is activated, he really is quite charming and full of personality.

 

Here are a few of his facial expressions.

He is very cool.

He talks, almost walks and will tell you that he

likes his picture taken!

He isn't creepy at all.

Zeno movie one

Zeno movie two

Tom... Thanks for this fantastic opportunity for incredible photos. We love you anyway for the wind, rain & crew problems.

17 minutes to the new Dr. Who. .. . 

Thanks to all that came out to crew and stayed with us. We were short on crew by about 10 people. Thanks for coming out and helping. For Pranay, Saurabh & Mayank, the invitation is here for  you and we can't wait to have you all down here...

Teri

 Barry is already asleep...

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Copyright © 2007 Theresa C. DiLibero.

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