the last 2.5 weeks - cRaZy!!

last week at the seven mile control plot, we did our first set of 8 days of working, 6 days off. except we only worked 7 days and 5 days off. it was a long 7 days, and by the end of the week just about everyone had been stung by yellow jackets, except kelly and travis and maybe steven. me and ted were lucky enough to get stung twice, which was really special, maybe nathan did too. anyway, i'm the kind of person that swells up a lot when i get stung, so it was super painful and i was afraid that i was going to have an allergic reaction. for some reason, especially since we were SO far from civilization and no one really had a bee kit or any benadryl, i was very nervous i was going to swell up and die out there. no one else seemed very concerned. and as it turns out, i didn't die.

we got back tuesday night, and wednesday i spent the day getting ready for the next trip - to oregon for boomer's wedding! but first, at 130am thursday morning i drove ted up to wendover to catch his bus to wisconsin. it occured to me as we were getting ready that, hmm, i wonder if wendover is in pacific time or mountain time zone. ted says, "it's in nevada," which made *me* think it was pacific time.

WRONG.

so we get to wendover at 330am by my watch, but when we go into the pilot travel center to ask where the bus picks people up, they say it came 1/2 hour ago and that it's 20 of 5am right now. i say, "what, it's 330, not 430" but i look at their clock and it says 430 and i look at my cell phone and it says 430 and i think, huh, guess wendover *is* in mountain time zone. so now the issue is that ted will be stranded in wendover until 1pm, at which point he'll make it to wisconsin at the exact moment he needs to return. so i say, "what time does the bus leave salt lake city?" he says "715" so i say, "alright, let's go." and off we drive to salt lake city.

with only a little confusion we get there around 630 and he hasn't missed the bus leaving salt lake yet, so we're in luck. i hang out until 715 and make sure he gets on the bus safely and then proceed back to my car (which i didn't park at a 45 degree angle like i was supposed to in the area that i parked in) and found my way out of salt lake city, just in time for rush hour. luckily i was leaving town so no big deal. i arrived at the bonneville salt flats, just outside of wendover utah around 10am. i was exhausted. checked out the rest area, tried to sleep in the car but it was just too hot. so after about 20 minutes of trying i decided, forget it, and continued down the road.

passed through winnemucca, up to denio junction and sheldon national wildlife refuge, and then into oregon, lakeview, and onto klamath falls.

went to crater lake on saturday morning before the wedding. i'd never been there but it was a beautiful day. there was snow on the road on the way up there and the rim drive was closed (bummer) but did see the lodge and the lake itself, which was beautiful.

found the way to the wedding in fort klamath without much trouble, with some mediocre directions from the girl at the local store. i'm glad no one was checking invitations, since i was basically crashing the wedding due to not getting an invitation because i didn't have an address for her to send it to. oh, the wedding is an old rugby teammate and good friend of mine. her name is steph, but we all call her boomer. the wedding was held at her fiance jeff's ranch, and the ceremony was held in the horse pasture. it was BEAUTIFUL. so lucky too since it was cold and blustery the day before.

anyway made it back through southeast oregon and into nevada, and ended up missing a day of work, and picked up ted monday night at midnight at the bus station in wendover. and then drove back to ely, with only one bunny casualty. rest in peace, jack or jackette, whichever you were. sorry :(

this week it was back to work, only it snowed on our plot the second day we were there. there was coyote calling and elk bugling and nathan's tent finally collapsed in the snow and we all decided we couldn't do plant ID under a few inches of snow so we said goodbye to nathan for the rest of the field season and headed our separate ways, but not before having a snowball fight!

this weekend and all next week, i'm off to juneau alaska, which i'm pretty pumped for. more pictures forthcoming.

peace love and turtles!! write me if you feel like it; i, of course, always look forward to hearing from everyone!!