Day 169 Fort Knox & Robots!

May 31, 2012 Day 169 Fort Knox

Sophie’s Blog: *Go on-line too and get some facts & details about the Fort—list 6. Then write nice, long, journal about visit with complete sentences.

1. Fort Knox was built from 1844-1869, just as the Civil War ended

2. Fort Knox was manned during the Spanish American war by volunteers from Connecticut

3. Fort Knox was never actually used which is sad because it is such an impressive fort

4. The State of Maine bought Fort Knox for 2, 221 dollars and made it a state park in 1970

5. Fort Knox was the first fort in Maine built of granite.

6. The Fort is named after Henry Knox the first US secretary of war

Yesterday we went to Fort Knox in Prospect, Maine. We took Gamma with us and she said she had a lot of fun. It was a long car ride because it is about two hours away. This fort is definitely on the 10 coolest places to visit in Maine, it is so cool because the top is covered with grass and there is a hill right in from of the fort so you cannot tell the fort is there. When you walk around the hill you can see this huge amazing fort that was never used, yep that’s right it never saw battle. It took 25 years to build the fort, and it was the first fort in Maine built using granite instead of wood. The fort entrance was really pretty and big, it opened up to a big open field of grass and it was pentagon shaped. All the way around the left side were small rooms were the cannons went and they were facing the river. On the other side were where the sleeping quarters were to be. On the north side was were the officers quarters was and the powder magazine which was not a magazine about skin care which I thought it was but it was where they kept the ammunition (I didn’t really think it was a real magazine). We went through a really dark hallway almost underground that went all the way around the fort. It really REALLY creeped me out and I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could but I went through. Then there were two rooms with dirt floors which was were the privies or bathrooms were. There were two spiral staircases that went up to the top level were there were more cannons. I loved going to the fort and it is definitely super cool.

Sophie’s Blog: Write about visiting Fairchild and driving the robots.

The other day we went to Portland to see dad at work. Fairchild is sponsoring some of the Maine robotics teams this year because I think their using their software. They had the robots in a room and kids were allowed to drive them around, that’s what Lily and I did. There were two different kinds of robots that were supposed to play basketball, there was hoop set up that was about my height and robots could shoot the balls in to the net. One of the teams, the riot crew had a huge robot that had a ramp and belt that carried the basketballs up. It was controlled with an X-box controller. That robot, “The red robot” had wheels that made the robot move sideways smoothly, it was really cool. The other teams robot which we called “the blue robot” had a joint stick that controlled the robots. This robot didn’t work as well as the riot crew’s but it was still pretty awesome! I liked the red robot better and it was easier to drive. However Lily liked the blue robot.