I’ve been told by other Robodawgs that on every robotics trip there is always some sort of incident where something goes wrong. I didn’t think that was true until we had our trip to Victoria, Canada. It all started when we drove into the Chateau Victoria Hotel drive-through. It was late at night, about quarter to midnight, the moon illuminating brightly. I had Nick, Jacob, Emma, and Graydon in my travel group. We just completed our unexpected Canadian adventure. I looked out the window and admired the fancy decorations on the hotel. My travel group and I stepped out of the vehicle to retrieve our luggage and meet in the lobby. The moment I walked in, it took me a moment to take in all the scenery; There were chandeliers, marble table tops, beautiful white and gold floors, a piano, a large fireplace, and even a lego version of the hotel itself. 

We all sat patiently in the main lobby waiting to get our rooms. I hoped to be roommates with Graydon since we’ve been roommates on this trip before. Mr Evele, our travel group leader, walked over and began to hand out room keys. I got a room with Graydon. Yes! I finally got roomed with somebody twice in a row. We grabbed our room keys and headed for the elevators. When we got in the elevator, I was surprised to see how many floors there were. All floors from Lobby to floor 19. There was also a key card scanner to use the elevator. He put his card up against it and pushed floor 11. The elevator motor started to hum as the elevator began its ascent. When we reached floor 11, room 1107 was right in front of us. 

“Well, this is it.” Graydon said.

 We opened our room door and walked in.

 The room had three sections separate from each other. One room was the kitchen, bed, and couch. Another had a bed, and then there was the bathroom. I walked over to the window and opened the curtains to see the streets of Victoria. In the distance, the ocean and bay were covered by a soft haze. 

“Well this is nice.” I said. 

“Yep.” Graydon said. 

We set our alarms, and went to bed at 1:00AM. 

The next day, I was startled awake by the phone ringing. I looked down at the time, 7:00 a.m, the time we were supposed to be in the lobby. In under 7 minutes. Then we rushed out the door and down to the lobby. Everyone else was down there waiting for us. 

“Sorry,” We said to the coaches.

 “Next time, try to set an alarm, it will help.” said Doug, our head coach and sponsor. We knew better than to argue. Soon after, we started heading as a group for breakfast and then the FRC tournament. 

When we got back from the tournament, it was about 5:00pm.  We had 2 hours before dinner got here. So we decided to go to the pool. The pool was on the second floor.  When we entered the pool area, there were about 20 girls in the pool. Uhh… We either swim with girls, or come back later… So Grayden and I decided to come back later after dinner. We walked through the second floor to get to the elevators, which at the time was out of service for renovation. There was plastic tarp covering the floor all the way to the elevators. We rounded the corner, I noticed Nick and Jacob were standing by. The closest elevator on the left had (- -) flashing on the floor indicator. I could also hear voices inside. 

“Who’s in there?” I said, concerned.

 Jacob said, “About ten Robodawgs and two drunk cowboys.” 

Graydon and I chuckled. 

“That's unfortunate.” Graydon said. 

“When did this happen?” I said, curious about the incident. 

“About a half hour ago,” said Nick. 

Graydon and I started laughing when all of a sudden, the elevator door began to gradually open… very slowly... We then leaned over and peered through the crack between the doors… Hands emerged like a knife from the inside, prying open the door. The elevator alarm went off as a great mob of people rushed out into the hallway cheering and celebrating their great achievement. We moved out of the way, shocked by how fast it all happened.

“Shhhh!!!” I said to the crowd, “There’s people sleeping, let's not wake people up.”

 Sometime after, the crowd divided and went their separate ways.

Later that night, we all met in a guest meeting room assigned to our teams. We all gathered around a table and had pizza for dinner. When all of us were about done eating, Doug stood up and started talking.

“Now that you’all had a chance to eat, I want each of you to say something you've learned over this past week. It can be something from the tournament or in general.” Doug said, “Alex, why don’t you start?” 

“Chain is a pain.” said Alex. 

The room burst into applause and laughter. We kept going around the room until it got to me. 

“And how about you, Evan?” said Doug. 

I thought for a moment, I wasn’t going to bring it up, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Then I said, "Things don’t always go as planned.”