Well folks, it's been a pleasure regaling you with stories of my adventures this summer. I will be sure to keep you as informed as possible about the trip home, including an extra post later this week.
As the summer has drawn to the end, it's been rather busy. The first intern to leave was Sara. She left last Thursday after a quick hello and goodbye at the second party of last week. The first party was thrown by Nick and Carolyn, the folks Sara lived with, and was held at a local barbecue place (where we could actually get sweet tea, though it wasn't nearly sweet enough). It ended up being nearly 25 people. There are several pictures of that. The second party was at Joe's house. Joe is one of the guys I've worked a lot with this summer. He and his wife (and PJ, who is 3 and very outgoing) were kind enough to have nearly 30 people out to their house to enjoy some hamburgers and bonfire action. Several of the mentors came, and there was delicious food. Some people played frisbee, I played bocce with the guys, and then we made fire. Remember: when there is a high fire hazard, always have a hose. So you don't burn your yard down.
I'm finally quite busy at work. I got my samples back and had to cut and polish and prepare them for resistivity tests. I ended up staying at work an extra hour on Friday and going in to work on Saturday too. I get time and a half for overtime, so hey, at least I'll end the summer with a big paycheck. Joe (mad props to Joe for going to work on Saturday for me) and I went in at 7:30 to start a test and found out that the power had blinked just before I got there (and thankfully after my data had auto-saved). We started some stuff and I left to go get my oil changed, my tires rotated, and my car washed. Once Rhonda was happy, I headed back to the lab and prepared some more samples (lots of cutting and polishing) for testing on Tuesday. I ended up being there for about 2.5 hours more, then I came home, grabbed lunch and Ben and I went to the park by the river to be lazy. New favorite thing to do. Lay around in the sun and read our books. Get in the river occasionally, roll over occasionally. It's a great park, all families. Quite entertaining. There was a baptism while we were there. And a family that came ready to go fishing, except they never got in the water to fish...they just practiced casting in the grass. Strange.
Today was a major cleaning project. I scrubbed the bathroom and gave Ben the kitchen. Then we vacuumed and whatnot. I'm mostly packed. As I finish with clothes this week, they're supposed to be put into the suitcase. Last stuff to go in is the kitchen stuff. Friday, we will pack the car, then we'll get on the road bright and early on Saturday. Not really bright. Like between 4 and 5 AM. We have 14 hours to go on Saturday. We'll probably rotate by tanks of gas (~ 4 hours) so that neither of us gets too tired. Lunch will be peanut butter and jelly and bananas for the week. There is a grocery store that has a great bulk food section, so we'll probably stock up on essentials for the road. You know, peanuts, gummy worms, sour patch kids, trail mix, more gummy worms. Trying to find some corn nuts. Those were good. We got them at the Gateway Arch in Saint Louis on the way here. Yeah. Nice salty snack. Also, we may have to be inventive in Zion, because there is a ban on all fires due to the dry season. Understandable, but we don't exactly want to eat PB&J for lunch AND dinner. And we don't have a stove. Any suggestions from my well seasoned campers? Need something dinner-like that requires no heat whatsoever. I'm out. I need to poke at some data before tomorrow. Ciao!
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