July 13
Hmmm. Shoulda known that Friday, the 13th would not bring good luck! We chose an area to prospect out of Vandalia, a small little almost ghost town with a school and a stillactive post office. We walked out these new outcrops--and they were outcrops, the type of exposures that we were hoping for, but we had no luck at all, other than a few small chunks of bone here and there. I don't know if it was pain from my leg, or the lack of sleep because of it, but I felt a little sick on the drive out to the site, which got worse and worse the closer we got.
So, the crew took off and I laid down for a little, until I couldn't stand it anymore, and then slipped into my pack and headed out. I kept having to sit down about every 500yards, until, I headed back to the car, and yup, lost what little breakfast I had, as well as lunch and dinner yet to come. Bleh. The glamour of the field--but I felt better. Rested a while longer, and headed out, limping, again. I got about 3 hours of walking in before taking another break, but I HATE to miss a moment out here looking for our elusive dinosaurs, and so about 3 I headed to a far outcrop I thought I could walk in an hour or so. Well, didn't bargain for a gimp knee and 105 degree heat--and no food. That was as close as I want to come to heat exhaustion, and I was never so glad to see the crew and a vehicle following me out on a two-track road in my life! Later, I got a new nick-name from Vince, the Paleo curator at the NC Museum---"running mule deer." One of the students suggested that perhaps running deer was enough. Vince and I looked at each other and agreed. MULE deer was probably appropriate.
One thing that is always fun out here when we prospect is the wonderful old homesteads we see, miles from nowhere, abandoned by the settlers who braved this harsh land, but for whatever reason, said goodbye to the prairie and their dreams and moved on, leaving only these shells. !http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/resources/schweitzer/july13-1.jpg!This one was nicer than most, and a woman's touch remained all these years later in a carefully arranged rock border that once outlined a garden, and an old clothesline, as well as remnants of paint on the weathered walls...
Posted at 09:35AM Jul 31, 2007 by tppeake in General | Comments[0]