Tuesday, April 21 - Cal Poly Pomona

Tuesday morning, April 21, a somewhat weary looking group reassembled and drove back to the Pomona campus to pick up the trucks and get set up. However, upon arrival, the trucks were gone! We soon learned that campus police decided to move them early in the morning at around 5:00 am to a different location! The team regrouped and got ready for the day. There were two scheduled presentations in the Chemical and Engineering Building. The trucks were parked along the street in front and were opened for display.

We had a nice surprise. It seems that two schools from Redondo and Manhattan Beach had heard of our trip on the ABC news and wanted to catch up with us and see the presentation and airplane. Through a series of phone calls, they arranged on Monday night to catch up with us at Pomona. As we were welcoming the engineering students, the elementary kids arrived and lined both sides of the classroom. Team members greeted the kids and let them know that we were very happy that they had came so far to see us.

Then, we had another surprise. Margaret Brown, grandniece of Orville Wright, also walked into the classroom, along with her daughter and a friend. Our special guests were introduced to the Cal Poly students and the day began. After the presentations, the groups reassembled at curbside where the trucks were displaying the airplane. We had a large show of interest by the students, and our DeVries and American Red Ball team drivers and Wright Flyer members had their hands full answering questions. Shortly before 2:00 pm, the campus newspaper sent two reporters to cover the story for their newspaper.

On hand during the day were Cal Poly engineering students as well as representatives from the AIAA student chapter of Cal Poly to assist in making the day successful. A tour was also arranged for us of the Cal Poly engineering building special projects.

Finally, it was time to depart the campus at 3:00 pm. This was a great day and the team seemed to be re-energized by the great student interest. The next stop was Bakersfield, which would take about three to four hours on the road.

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