Well, I'm tired right now, so this will be short.
Mammoth Caves were really cool. Got to see lots and lots of some of the world's finest caves. Spent a lot of time on the tourist trails, and quite a lot of time on other rinky dink ones as well. Fortunately, we had access to the park after hours, so we went in when the tourons had all left. We also got to see caves that are closed to the public, and went on routes that are definitely not advertised. I even went into one cave that Dr. Mylroie had never been into. So yeah, saw lots of cave, did some pretty tight squeezes and crawling, and had a good time. One nice thing is that the temp in the caves is a constant 54 degrees F. Nice and cool. But 98% humidity, so you still sweat plenty if you're working hard. I didn't take any pictures, but lots of other folks did, and I might get some of those, which I'll put on here later or on the other place with pictures...
Thursday, July 28
Sunday, July 17
Eh?
A few Pictures from field camp... I think everyone was imitating Dr. Evil from Austin Powers... I'm in the back somewhere...
Craters of the Moon
Here's a picture of the whole group at Craters of the Moon in Idaho. These three pictures were taken by our director, Dr. Frank Pazzaglia, aka Dr. Evil. Actually, he's the guy in the front row with a red jacket and a Yankee's cap. My friend Kate is on the far left in a yellowish coat...
Friday, July 15
Speleology
Met up with Dr. Mylroie on Wednesday. Just went to talk things over about school a bit, but he ended up taking Kristen and I to lunch as well. He also offered to take me to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. I guess he has to teach a field course there all next week, and he offered to take me along! Pretty sweet. I've never spent much time in caves, so I'm eager to see if I like it. Before, I've been to Ape Caves (lava tubes near Mount St. Helens), Carlsbad Caverns (huge limestone caves in Arizona), and some more lava tubes at Craters of the Moon in Idaho. Anyway, since my thesis with Mylroie is likely to involve lots of caving, I figure I'd better find out of I like it. So, I'll be spending all next week in Mammoth Caves National Park. Aparently, he has keys to most of the park, so we'll be able to go into the caves after hours, when there's no tourists. Possibly even at night, but hey, it's dark in there anyway. Should be a good time.
Not much else is new. Haven't been getting too many hours at the shop since it's pretty slow, and I have to share hours with that other kid, Doug. So it's about 4 hours, every other day. Better than nothing. I doubt I'll be able to find another job when I'm back from Mammoth, but I might try. Kristen and I are pretty broke at the moment. I don't start getting money from school until September, so we're living pretty cheap now... cheaper I guess.
Not much else is new. Haven't been getting too many hours at the shop since it's pretty slow, and I have to share hours with that other kid, Doug. So it's about 4 hours, every other day. Better than nothing. I doubt I'll be able to find another job when I'm back from Mammoth, but I might try. Kristen and I are pretty broke at the moment. I don't start getting money from school until September, so we're living pretty cheap now... cheaper I guess.
Still no pictures I'm afraid, but my friend Kate is supposed to be sending me some of hers. Teal tells me (he called yesterday) that he's headed up to Alaska again at the end of the month, though not to the Aleutians this time. I'd love to go up there and visit some day. Alaska sounds cool. That's the only reason I regret not going to Lehigh... I would have been working on the Matanuska glacier somewhere up there... I'm happy with my choice though. :)
Well, I've got two books I'm supposed to read before I go to Mammoth, so I'd better get on that.
Well, I've got two books I'm supposed to read before I go to Mammoth, so I'd better get on that.
Monday, July 11
Hurricane
So this Hurricane Dennis turned out to be pretty wimpy. I wasn't expecting much since we're so far inland, but I don't even think we got thunder and lightning. Not enough to wake me up anyway, and that usually doesn't take much. Oh well, I haven't checked, but I suppose it wasn't too bad for the people that are silly enough to live in Florida.
I started working at the bike shop on Friday. Things went pretty well. It's amazing how much I can get done when I don't have to deal with customers and kayak stuff like I did at the kayak shop in Maine. Don't get me wrong, I loved that job, but working on bikes was always frustrating because there were a million other things that had to be done, people that needed the tides explained ("Where'd all the water go?", "Some drought this year huh?"). Not to mention dropping small parts into the water or through cracks in the deck. But I loved it. I miss Maine. I really miss being on the water. I miss the breeze and the lack of humidity (most days). I wonder how the shop is running this summer... and who's working there... Good ol' Tidal Transit.
Back to the bike shop here though, Saturday I worked with another mechanic (besides the owner, Mike). He's some highschool kid (well, he just graduated). He's quite a good mechanic, better than me at a lot, so it made things a bit more stressful since I didn't want some kid to be correcting me. Turned out he's a nice guy and we can learn from eachother. I can assemble a mountain bike a lot quicker than him, but he can smoke me on a road bike. I haven't seen him do any repairs yet, so I don't know how he does with that. It doesn't matter though, it's not a competition.
Kristen has started another summer term. This time it's Calc 2 and French 2. She's good at the math, but her French is a lot harder this time. She'll still do really well in it I'm sure. In the fall, she's planning on taking 23 credits or so, which sounds insane to me. She's determined to get done the same time as me, AND she wants to do a double major. AND she got work study, so she'll have to get a job on campus. She is crazy, but she'll pull it off somehow.
Zephyr (the puppy) got spayed on Thursday, but she's pretty much back to normal already. Don't want her to get too peppy yet, because she still has stitches in for another week and I don't want her to pull them out. Gave her a rawhide bone to chew on today so she doesn't run around all over the place. So far so good. It's like marijuana for puppies. Keeps her busy and calms her down... She always has the munchies anyway...
Still haven't gotten my pictures developed, and it'll probably be a while since we're very low on money at the moment. I may put up a link to pictures from someone else on the trip, and my best friend from the trip, Katie, is supposed to be sending me some as well. Not to mention some awesome CD's we listened to ("Shot through the heart, and you're to blame, You give love... a BAD name!"). :)
So here's some links to some other people's field camp pictures:
Mike Ksionzyk
John Frame
That's it for now. Enjoy.
I started working at the bike shop on Friday. Things went pretty well. It's amazing how much I can get done when I don't have to deal with customers and kayak stuff like I did at the kayak shop in Maine. Don't get me wrong, I loved that job, but working on bikes was always frustrating because there were a million other things that had to be done, people that needed the tides explained ("Where'd all the water go?", "Some drought this year huh?"). Not to mention dropping small parts into the water or through cracks in the deck. But I loved it. I miss Maine. I really miss being on the water. I miss the breeze and the lack of humidity (most days). I wonder how the shop is running this summer... and who's working there... Good ol' Tidal Transit.
Back to the bike shop here though, Saturday I worked with another mechanic (besides the owner, Mike). He's some highschool kid (well, he just graduated). He's quite a good mechanic, better than me at a lot, so it made things a bit more stressful since I didn't want some kid to be correcting me. Turned out he's a nice guy and we can learn from eachother. I can assemble a mountain bike a lot quicker than him, but he can smoke me on a road bike. I haven't seen him do any repairs yet, so I don't know how he does with that. It doesn't matter though, it's not a competition.
Kristen has started another summer term. This time it's Calc 2 and French 2. She's good at the math, but her French is a lot harder this time. She'll still do really well in it I'm sure. In the fall, she's planning on taking 23 credits or so, which sounds insane to me. She's determined to get done the same time as me, AND she wants to do a double major. AND she got work study, so she'll have to get a job on campus. She is crazy, but she'll pull it off somehow.
Zephyr (the puppy) got spayed on Thursday, but she's pretty much back to normal already. Don't want her to get too peppy yet, because she still has stitches in for another week and I don't want her to pull them out. Gave her a rawhide bone to chew on today so she doesn't run around all over the place. So far so good. It's like marijuana for puppies. Keeps her busy and calms her down... She always has the munchies anyway...
Still haven't gotten my pictures developed, and it'll probably be a while since we're very low on money at the moment. I may put up a link to pictures from someone else on the trip, and my best friend from the trip, Katie, is supposed to be sending me some as well. Not to mention some awesome CD's we listened to ("Shot through the heart, and you're to blame, You give love... a BAD name!"). :)
So here's some links to some other people's field camp pictures:
Mike Ksionzyk
John Frame
That's it for now. Enjoy.
Tuesday, July 5
I'm back.
Hey everyone,
I made it back from my field camp course today. I'll write some more later, but I'll just say this for now... I had a good time, learned a whole lot, made quite a few friends, got sunburned several times, and even was the subject of some scandalous rumors (which were a complete misunderstanding). I'll eventually have a ton of pictures and a lot more to say, but I'm pretty tired from all the traveling on the way back, so I'm gonna go to bed now. Maybe more tomorrow but that's it for now.
I made it back from my field camp course today. I'll write some more later, but I'll just say this for now... I had a good time, learned a whole lot, made quite a few friends, got sunburned several times, and even was the subject of some scandalous rumors (which were a complete misunderstanding). I'll eventually have a ton of pictures and a lot more to say, but I'm pretty tired from all the traveling on the way back, so I'm gonna go to bed now. Maybe more tomorrow but that's it for now.
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