Sun Run Day 8- It’s Not Just Rain…

If I had known what would happen, I’d know rain was the least of our worries, but waking up fresh-faced in the morning, I had not clue about the impending weather conditions. The rain never seems to leave the solar car, ruining a perfectly fine morning. To be more exact, it was just a sprinkling, but nonetheless, the car got a bit wet and the sky was overcast. Despite of this, we were determined to drive Aevum into Alburqueque, which would be around a three hundred mile long journey from where we had trailered to the night before.

Aevum started off well, driving pretty quickly to our first control point. However, our good lock ended there. The car needed to be fixed at the first control point, which took a while and after driving to the second control point, rain struck.

Going into this, I never expected rain in the desserts of the South. Going against expectations, though, It happened. The sky was covered in tempestuous gray clouds, while the lightning thundered through the sky. It wasn’t just a thunderstorm warning that Aevum faced, but also a flood warning.

We tarped Aevum and did our best to get the car into the trailer with as little rain falling onto it, not minding for wet shoes and wet clothes and eventually succeeding. It was at this point that the team made the decision to trailer out of the rain.

We had moved Aevum into the trailer during a gap in the storm when the rain had decreased to a drizzle but we were still in the storm. We didn’t want to wait hours for the rain to stop and risk the driver’s safety on the wet roads so the best choice was taking Aevum off the road and drive the trailer out of the rain.

Team members supporting a tarp over the solar car to block the rain

Team members supporting a tarp over the solar car to block the rain

It turned out to be a good decision. The rain pounded upon the cars and then the worst happened. Never in my wildest dreams, had I imagined hail in a dessert. Even our Business Director was in disbelief, reporting over thradio that “Currently it is hailing or these are the biggest drops of rain I’ve ever seen. It must b rain, I don’t think it hails here.” Alas, it was hail, but luckily our vehicles and Aevum it even started to hail, but we finally plowed through the storm, leaving the flooded roads and continuing onto the dry mountains that I had imagined New Mexico to be. After finding a place to park, Aevum was unstrapped and checked in order to ensure the safety of the driver before departing.

From there out, it was smooth sailing. Aevum drove through the beautiful mountains and into Alburquerque before arriving at the Explora Science Center and Children’s Museum. We are very grateful that the museum allowed us to park the trailer and Aevum in their parking lot and are super excited for our visit/exhibition tomorrow.

For dinner, we tried Sadie’s, which we were told is a New Mexico institution of sorts and something we have to try when we get there and I have to say that the food was pretty good and gave use plenty of energy as we head into a night of work to get the car ready for its big day tomorrow.