Arrival in the field
7-15-06
At last! I am in the badlands, and my heart is home. There is something about the wildness, the remoteness, the isolation that echos what I feel.
So, you know you are in my Montana when you get directions like this: drive north 25 miles or so, till you see a pile of gravel near the road. When you get to the pile, turn left, for another 20 or so miles?.if you notice that the road splits into 3, take the middle road, and go till you see a red mailbox. Turn right till the road forks, take the right fork, and eventually you get to camp. How can you explain to one who has never been there how a red mailbox truly IS a viable marker, for it is the only sign of civilization other than the road, for miles and miles and miles, where cows outnumber people 20 to 1, and where sagebrush is more prevalent than anything but mosquitos. But oh, when the white-hot, desert sky begins to blaze with the setting sun, so the whole world is on fire from the inside out, and then the sun sets behind the badland bluffs and the sky turns from orange to purple to black, ablaze with diamonds--there is nothing like it.
When the air cools enough to carry a scent, it is the clean fresh smell of sage that blows through my tent. I am home.
Tomorrow, we are going to do some light prospecting. When we arrived at camp, it was almost 8 pm, and still reading 102 on the car thermometer?but it is cool now, 2 hours later?.and a light breeze has kicked in because a storm is moving through. The lightning is spectacular, and hints at a night of wild prairie thunderstorms?I hope so. We will be with the NOVA crew. I don?t know if they know what they are in for?.it should be interesting.
The camp has been productive so far, with some exciting material coming out. No excavations yet, but the bone that has been found is incredibly well preserved, and hints at some truly exciting finds. This is the part of paleontology that I love. Without the field, I often forget why I do what I do. I am grateful for the chance to be here.
Posted at 03:23PM Jul 18, 2006 by tppeake in General | Comments[0]