#111 10 Days of Archaeology: Day 6

The days are certainly getting longer.  We started out with about seven miles of survey in easy to moderately-crapy terrain.  The weather was nice in the morning starting at about 65 degrees F.  By early afternoon it was in the low 90s.  I still didn’t think it was that bad, though.  The wind was pretty much constant all day and that kept the temps to a manageable level.

Out here you have to force yourself to drink water sometimes.  On hot, windy, days it’s especially important.  As you burn calories and your body consumes water you seem to sweat very little due to the quick evaporation of the sweat and the wind.  You are sweating, though.  I went through my first three liters of water by about 1:30.  We were about 500 meters from the truck and I figured I’d just refill my water at that point.  We were going to have lunch then anyway.  I actually had two more liters in my pack that I was going to pour in my reservoir but I got lazy.  Even though we didn’t find any sites along that 500 meters, and it only took about 25 minutes, I still felt extremely parched by the time we reached the trucks.  Luckily, I had an icy cold Gatorade waiting in the cooler.  Nice.

We have some really challenging terrain out here and your quality of life can really be affected by the decisions made by your crew leaders as to how you are going to proceed with the survey.  I’ve certainly worked for people that would just blindly do north/south or east/west transects regardless of terrain or the time of day.  Out here, I would never send someone up a steep slope to check out the mesa or ridge line if it were past about noon and over 90 degrees.  That’s the kind of thing you save for first thing in the morning.  Also, why go up a steep hill when you can contour around it?  There’s no need to be a hero and charge up the hill causing fatigue and a lack of concern for the archaeology among the crew.  I guarantee that when you are trudging up a hill for the third or fourth time the only thing you are concentrating on is putting one foot in front of the other and not falling.  Archaeology is secondary.

So, instead of not thinking, contour the hill.  For those that work in the mid-west and are topographically challenged, I’ll explain what contouring means :) .  Contouring is when you line up on the side of a hill and walk at a constant elevation rather than a certain direction or heading.  Contouring can be detrimental if the terrain isn’t suitable for it.  For example, contouring can be dangerous in loose rock or on a talus slope.  Actually, walking up or down a talus slope is dangerous too.  Essentially, if you can make your life easier, you should.  Your crew will be less fatigued and you’ll get more work out of them.  

One thing I can’t stand is the crew chief, or crew member, that is more mountain goat than human and likes to show off that fact to others.  There is no gain in leaving everyone behind while you bound up the hills with wild abandon.  Good for you.  You are a great hiker.  I’m proud.  It’s akin to twenty-year-olds in these mining towns driving lifted, loud, 4x4 Fords.  They’re compensating for something.  Get over yourself and be respectful of others.  How about hanging back and providing some words of encouragement?  Think about it.

After work I somehow mustered the energy to go on a twenty mile bike ride.  The strong tail wind certainly helped.  I might try to get a final ride in tomorrow after work.  I do have to pack, though.  I might be quite tired because I’m going to try to get up at 3:50 to watch the partial eclipse of the moon.  Crazy.  I’ll let you know how it went tomorrow.

Check back tomorrow for Day 7.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the field.

#110 10 Days of Archaeology: Day 5

I don't know about "America's BEST Value" but it's OK. Except for the WiFi, which is virtually unusable.Today is Saturday. It’s the first day of a sad little two-day weekend for most people. For thousands of archaeologists it’s just another work day. Our weekend starts in a few days and lasts for at least four days. Just one more reason I like this schedule.

For those of you that are single, or at least don’t work with your significant other, I’ll mention some of the difficulties, and niceties, that can arise when living with someone in a hotel room. If you read yesterday’s post you know that my wife came out to visit on Friday night and won’t be leaving until Sunday morning. Since she’s here now, I had some special considerations to think of when I woke up this morning.

This morning was much like it was when we used to work together. When we have a 7 am start time I usually get up around 5:30, make my coffee, and just get prepared, mentally, for my day. I like to either, write a blog post, read some blogs, read some news, or do some other mental activity that will allow me to be alert when the time comes to start. I’m usually at least a crew chief so when I get to the trucks I don’t have the luxury of being half awake and going to sleep in the truck when we get going. So, I like to be awake and alert. My crew deserves at least that level of safety.

As I was saying, I usually get up early. My wife, however, is like many people I know in CRM and will get up by 6:30, or later, get dressed, get a lunch together, and head out to the truck. She doesn’t usually sleep when she gets to the truck like a lot of people do. No, she knits or reads. In fact, she got out of archaeology to knit and read full time! Actually, she buys yarn for a major yarn supplier for a living.

So, even though my wife wasn’t going to work, my day started much like it used to. I leave the bathroom light on because it usually shines on the sink area in most hotels. That way I can see. Sometimes I just wear my headlamp but it shines in her eyes when I swing over that way. I try to not make any noise because I don’t want to wake her. You learn to get dressed and get ready for work in the dark. Once I’m settled and ready I don’t need more lighting to read or be on my computer since all of my devices light up on there own. This particular hotel room has an east-facing window so quite a bit of light comes through even with the blackout curtains drawn. That’s what one version of a morning can be like when you have a partner that you travel with. What’s your story? Do you get up together? When you both get up 30 minutes before the day starts is it chaos? Let me know in the comments.

My little friend. He didn't see too angry...Our work day was pretty chill. We finished recording one large site and moved on to another. They could’t have been more different from each other and they each had their own challenges.

As far as historics go, I don’t know whether I prefer a site loaded with artifacts or a site loaded with features and almost no artifacts. Many mining sites are like that. There can be dozens of features, including prospect pits, cairns, adits, shafts, stopes, etc., and absolutely no artifacts. They were either very tidy, which is doubtful, or, they were living somewhere else and traveled to that location for work everyday. On some mining complexes you find tent platforms and domestic items. On some you don’t. Sometimes it just depends on how remote the site is.

When you get a couple of sites that are all artifacts and features you end up writing all day. A lot. The amount of writing is quite absurd, actually. By the end of the day my hand hurts from all the writing, and, because I’m left-handed, I have nice pencil stains on my left hand. Also, I tend to write more than some people. When I write a description in the field I write it as I’d like it typed up. Chances are that someone not familiar with the site will be typing up what I wrote and I don’t want them to have to interpret what I was saying. I just want them to type it as they see it and correct my horrible spelling errors. If everyone wrote that way we could save a lot of time in the office.

At the end of the day I came home to a great wife and some home made lasagna. We sat down for the evening and enjoyed some wine and later some ice cream. It was a good evening and is in no way typical of what usually happens on a Saturday night in the field. This crew is pretty tame and doesn’t seem to go out partying much. I’ve been on crews that would go out more than a few nights during the session. By the end, though, no one really wants to go anywhere.

That’s the end of Day 5. Check back tomorrow for Day 6.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the field.

#109 10 Days of Archaeology: Day 4

 If you read my post from yesterday you are aware of the GPS we destroyed. Well, instead of turning three crews into two large crews, two of us stayed in today and worked on some paperwork. I basically spent the day typing up site forms and that’s what I’m going to talk about for a second.

I’ve had conversations with others about how much money could be saved if we could teach people how to write nearly finished products in the field on tablet computers (i.e. the iPad) and then essentially transfer that information to a Word Doc with one click. Some editing would have to be done and references would have to be added. Most people don’t think that would save any money or time. I spent 10 hours simply typing up forms today. I typed up the bulk of the site form and created the artifact tables. I didn’t add any new information and I didn’t have to change the wording from the site form too much. The forms were simply transcribed into a Word document. I could have accomplished the same thing in under an hour if the sites were recorded on tablets. Guaranteed.

This isn’t the post to really get into all of that so I’ll move on.

When I heard that we were just going to be staying in and doing paperwork today I was initially somewhat excited. A day in from the field when it’s hot out is usually a nice break from everything. However, after a few hours of typing up site forms in my room I start wishing I’d just gone into the field. The old saying, “your worst day in the field is better that your best day in an office” is sometimes true. I’m not saying I had a bad time. I just can’t stand doing something that I know isn’t really necessary and that there is a more efficient way. Here I go again. No, No. I’ll stop.

The good part about being relatively close to Reno this time is that my wife can come and visit me now! She works Monday through Friday and came up after work. She stopped in Winnemucca at the Winnemucca Pizzeria and picked up a rosemary potato pizza on the way. I don’t know what it is about that place but that pizza is kind of amazing. And, so is she for coming to visit and bringing it to me! She even made a lasagna and brought that! Guess I’ll need a few more bike rides.

It’s difficult doing this alone now. For those that don’t know, my wife was an archaeologist until about seven months ago. We worked together and lived together on every single project going back almost to my first project. Now, it’s just me and we talk on the phone in the evenings. When the internet is really good, which is never, we try to Skype or Facetime (an Apple thing). I would certainly say, without doing any sort of formal survey, that being single and always being alone would be a motivating factor in getting out of this field for a lot of people. We, as humans, need companionship, whether we admit it or not. It’s in our nature to be together. I need my alone time as much as the next person but when you add it up and you’re gone more than you’re home then it’s time to re-think some things. Of course, we live in an age when you are never more than a few electrons away from seeing and talking to someone. Hell, with quantum tunneling they’re practically occupying the same space as you! Wow, geeked out for a minute. Sorry.

Anyway, my point is that you have to find ways to make this job agreeable to your lifestyle. Don’t expect it to conform to you. It takes constant work to be able to be happy and content but in the end, it’s worth it. If you do it right, CRM will provide. Sounds goofy, but I think it’s true. I’ll let you know in twenty years with blog post number 10,000.

Come back tomorrow for Day 5 (over the hump!).

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the field (unless I’m stuck in a hotel room all day).

#108 10 Days of Archaeology: Day 3

(To anyone that this applies too: this blog is in no way tied to the company I work for.  My real name and the company name appear no where. All the opinions expressed in  this blog are my own and not anyone else's.  Also, I try really hard not to divulge any information regarding clients and project specific details.  The things I discuss could be taking place anywhere in the Great Basin and are not specific.  My goal is to simply bring the joy of archaeology, and the bad times in archaeology, to anyone that cares to read it.  Disclaimer over.  Onto the blog…)

Well, today started with a game plan that involved my crew basically site recording all day.  This means an easy day with all archaeology all the time.  I like these sorts of days.

Iodine bottle with a solid core glass drip.We arrived at the first site, a road, by 7:30 am.  Here, I have a question for my readers.  I’ve recorded roads in different ways over the years.  With some companies we’ve surveyed the road independently of the rest of the project area and recorded everything within 15 m of the center line as part of the general site inventory or, in the case of trash dumps, as a locus or feature.  With other companies, the road was simply recorded as a line and all artifacts were treated separately as individual sites or isolated artifacts.  Out here in Nevada the way you record a road largely depends on the whims of the BLM district you are working in.  Sometimes it depends on a specific project area and how they want that area recorded.  What do you think?  How to you record roads?  Keep in mind, when I talk about roads I mean everything from a two-track to a haul road to a paved highway.  Let me know in the comments.

On one of the sites we recorded today there were a lot of fun bottles.  I never used to like historics because the “weren’t old enough”.  I’ve since learned how fun they can be.  I think what I like is that I can look at a bottle base and know, almost to the year in some cases, how old that bottle is.  Not only do I know how old it is, but, if I have enough of it, I can know how it was made and what it was used for.  Try getting that level of detail out of a projectile point.  Points are still cool, don’t get me wrong.  Nothing will ever be more cool than picking an 8,000 year old point off the ground on survey.

There was a little drama on the aforementioned site this afternoon.  The crew member that was in charge of doing the GPS work on a Trimble unit had some fun.  We use sub-meter Trimble GPS units to record sites (as most good companies out here do).  They run from $5,000 to $7,000, depending on your options.  Well, as we were recording today, I heard a weird sounding yell from my right.  I looked up the drainage to see the tail end of a fall from my GPS guy.  It looked like it didn’t feel so good so I asked if he was OK.  He said he was.  That’s when we both saw the Trimble laying face-down on the rocks he’d slipped on.  As he picked up the unit I could see his jaw drop and the blood drain from his face.  Now, this guy likes to play jokes on people quite often so I asked if it was cracked.  He said yes as he shook his head.  I didn’t believe it until I saw the unit for myself.  Sure enough, it was cracked in several places on the screen.

Now most modern displays like this have an outer glass and then the inner display.  If the glass is cracked you can often still read the display.  Some of you may only have to look at your cell phone to know what I’m talking about.  This unit has that configuration but it was cracked all the way through. We could only make out some symbols on the right margin of the screen.

As the initial shock of breaking the unit waned we then became concerned as to whether the data we’d collected thus far was still there.  We had no idea how damaged the unit was internally.  I still don’t know.  Tomorrow I’ll find out whether the unit was able to be downloaded or not.

Now, you might stress out and be concerned for your job if you were to break a unit that is that expensive.  Remember, though, that a good crew chief or supervisor will be more concerned with your well being than with the unit.  Units are replaceable but the training we put into you is not.  Your safety and welfare is paramount.  As it turns out, we have insurance on the Trimbles and it will be fixed or replaced before too long.

The day ended with the crew mingling at a local bar and casino for drinks.  Overall it was a rather light day with some good archaeology.

Podcasting from a quiet hotel room on the western frontier, or, next to a major interstate highway.I spent the evening, after we got back from the bar at around 7 pm, recording and editing segments for my podcast, The CRM News Weekly, Episode 17.  It’s nearly done.  I just have to complete the show notes but it’s difficult to do when the internet keeps going down.  Guess I’ll have to get up at 5 am again.  Keeping up with this blog and with the podcast is difficult while I’m in the field.  Usually I don’t want to do much of anything.  The desire to bring news items and my blog to you and whomever else is still strong in me, though, so I keep doing it.

That’s it for Day 3.  Come back tomorrow for Day 4.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the field.

#107 10 Days of Archaeology: Day 2

Woke up at about 0545 and, of course, immediately started the water for my coffee.  We have a seven o’clock start time so the morning is spent getting my pack ready and making sure I’m ready for the day.  I made a quick trip to the breakfast room at the hotel to see how bad that was going to be.  They had a waffle maker!  You know how I feel about waffle makers...Anyway, all I grabbed was a mini-bagel.

Out at the parking lot we had the usual first-day-of-survey talk with some confusion.  There are nine of us working in three crews.  We had to divide up the gear including a Trimble GPS for each crew, two digital cameras, a photo scale, and all the paperwork we’re going to need.  That settled, it was off to the gas station!

I used to get something unhealthy when going to the gas station.  Kind of saw it as a treat to just be able to go there in the morning.  That was years ago, though, and now, I just grab a few Gatorade’s if I get anything at all.

The project area is real close to town so it didn’t take long to get there.  We spent a few minutes putting on sunscreen and determining the plan-of-attack for the area we wanted to cover.

There are fences up all over the place and we have to cross them.  After having the bottom strand of a barbed-wire fence slip down when I went to cross over it last summer, resulting in a 10 in scar on my thigh, I usually go under now.  That was made so much easier out here because they use the newer fences with no barbs on the bottom strand.  Someone finally realized that cows are stupid and will be thwarted by only a couple strands of barbed-wire.  They put the un-barbed strand on the bottom so small animals, and archaeologists, can get through unharmed.  How nice of them.

The survey is pretty straight forward.  We’re recording smaller sites and isolates as we come to them and leaving larger sites for later (that’s called a flag-and-run).  We’ll record the large site if access is difficult.  For example, if we have to walk two miles just to get to the site then it’s not worth wasting time to walk four miles round trip later on when we could just record it right now.  Sometimes reason wins out in archaeology.  Not often, though.

We managed to get back to the truck for lunch at about 1:15 pm.  When you’re walking transects, lunch never happens at the same time every day.  I think the human brain just has a problem stopping in the middle of a transect to eat lunch.  We always have to go to the end.  We had a certain motivation to make it all the way to the truck for lunch.  The gatorade mentioned above was sitting in a pool of ice and just waiting to be consumed.

After lunch we split up and knocked out the remaining area, completing our goal for the day.  Didn’t find anything crazy.  Pretty usual northern Nevada survey.

When I got back to the hotel I sat down on the couch in my room for a while.  Sometimes you just want to sit for a bit after walking almost eight miles in 80 degree weather.  I had a few slices of pizza from the day before and a nice, crisp, Sam Adams Summer Ale.  By 6 pm I was feeling guilty and went on a 20-mile bike ride.  I keep track of my rides using the RunKeeper app on my iPhone which posts my rides to Facebook when I’m done.  I don’t know if anyone actually thinks this way but knowing that the ride posts to Facebook motivates me to go further.  When I really wanted to turn around (I was doing an out and back) at about eight miles, resulting in a 16 mile ride, I just thought about my friends seeing that and giving me shit for not making it to 20 miles.  So, irrationally, I pressed on.  It was a good ride but the headwind came on the return trip which made the ride quite taxing.  Glad I did it, though.

After a shower I recorded a few segments of my overdue podcast.  It’s going to be tough to get that out since I can’t even access the articles I need.  The WiFi here is ridiculously slow in the evenings since the hotel is full.  After a quick call to my wife I finished the book I was reading and went to bed.  Day 3 will be much the same as Day 2.  If all goes well, every day this session will be much of the same. Hopefully I’ll have something interesting to write about but that’s one of the points I want to drive home with this series: archaeology is not usually glamorous and exciting.  We work many days without finding or doing anything exciting just for that one exciting find.  That’s passion, and that’s why we continue to do this.

Check back tomorrow for Day 3.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the field.

#106 10 Days of Archaeology: Day 1

Today was a drive day.  That means, no work, just driving.  A lot of sessions start that way in the Great Basin.  Our drive is only three hours (Reno, NV to Battle Mountain, NV) but we had a few hours at the office getting paperwork and supplies together.

First, though, I woke up and made a latte.  That’s a great way to start the day: a home made, five-shot, sugar-free hazelnut (just a little), latte brewed with beans from Kenya.  I had some minor packing to do which just included my cold foods, my toiletries, and my pillows.  Yeah, pillows.  I never leave home without them.  The worst hotel on the planet with the worst bed in the world can be made tolerable by comfortable, familiar, pillows.

After stopping to get some ground coffee for my French Press I arrived at work at about 9:30 am.  I’m crew chiefing this time around so I had to make sure my paperwork box was fully stocked and that my supplies were in order.  Right after I got to work, however, I received a text alert about a search and rescue in progress in an adjacent state.

I’m the alerting officer for my Civil Air Patrol squadron and I’m responsible for notifying the rest of the squadron regarding a search and rescue.  The SAR wasn’t happening in our jurisdiction but we were asked to help out because they had a lot of ground to cover.  I had to make a few phone calls, lament about the fact that I could’t participate, and send the alert out to the other 50 members of the squadron.  With that taken care of I was ready to go.  

The truck I was driving had two others in it and we had a few errands to run before we left town.  We eventually left and began the three-hour drive to Battle Mountain where we’d be staying for the next eight days.  On the way I saw one of those things that makes you want to make the most of every day and spend time with those you love.

We were traveling at about 80 MPH eastbound on Interstate-80 near Winnemucca when I saw a few cars slowing down and getting into the left lane.  I quickly saw something blocking the right lane and spilling into the right of way on the southern side of the road.  Soon, I realized that what I was looking at was the underside of an 18-wheeler semi and trailer.  As we got closer we realized that there weren’t any emergency vehicles around indicating that the accident just happened.  Closer still, we saw that a number of vehicles had stopped and it looked like the driver was out of the truck.  No other vehicles were involved.  An indication that the accident had just happened was that the rear wheels on the trailer were still spinning at a high rate of speed.  

The accident sent visions through my head that had us next to the truck when it veer off the road and tipped over.  Or, had us careening into the truck right after it went sideways.  Any number of things could have happened and we would have been able to do little to avoid it.  Something like that can happen at any time.  Don’t wait to do what you want to do with your life, or to quit your job and get a better one, or to tell someone that you love them.  It’s just not worth it.  You don’t get a second chance.

We arrived in town at about 4:30 pm.  After unpacking for 30 minutes I went downstairs for a briefing about the project.  Not all project managers will do that and I appreciate the fact that ours did.  It’s nice to get on a new project and have it spelled out for you.  Some of your may be surprised to find out that not all sites and not all artifacts are recorded in the same way on every project out here.  The different Bureau of Land Management (BLM) districts out here do things slightly differently from each other.

The meeting spelled out our recording procedures and our plan of attack for the survey.  We discussed survey procedures and artifact recording procedures.  Most of the time we record everything in a project area.  For this area, however, we have some different procedures that needed to be discussed.  I won’t go into the details due to confidentiality agreements.

The evening was spent preparing my gear for the field, dealing with slow to non-existent internet, and blogging for you fine people.  Day 2 will be filled with fun survey and site recording in a mining feature heavy environment with no shade cover and high temps.  Should be a typical day in the high desert!

Come back tomorrow for Day 2.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the field.

#105 10 Days of Archaeology: Day 0

I’m going to start a series right now that will detail an 8-day session out here in the Great Basin.  The series is called “10 Days of Archaeology” because the day before and the day after the session are just as important as the actual session days.  The temperatures are supposed to be in the mid- to upper-90s(F) this week so I might not have the energy to post every day.  I’ll try, though.  Also, the internet at this hotel leaves a bit to be desired.

My goal with this series is to give someone an idea as to what it’s like to work in the Great Basin.  Keep in mind, though, that experiences can vary widely from crew chief to crew chief, from project to project, and from company to company.  Also, a number of companies do 10-day sessions, which would make this the “12 Days of Archaeology” and would be slightly different.  However, I don’t work for one of those companies.

So, be prepared for some drama, some possibly short posts because nothing really happened that day, some complaining about the heat, and maybe, just maybe, some archaeology.  Enjoy.

Day 0

It’s Monday and I have a busy day.  My company starts 8-day sessions on Tuesdays since our pay week ends on Friday and we squeeze 40 hours of work into four days.  That means that Monday is a packing day.  Sometimes Monday is a day for cooking food, dehydrating fruit, and preparing camping gear.  I should probably clean my gear at the end of the previous session but I usually don’t feel like it.  What usually happens is that the gear goes in the gear room in my house and I forget about it for six days.  If the session was rainy or something then I’ll pull out my tent and clean it.  Otherwise, there it sits.

For this session, however, we’re staying in a hotel.  So, the gear I take has to be completely re-organized.  Sometimes, when I’m feeling particularly motivated, I’ll bring various types of cooking gear, including, a water heater, an electric skillet, or various other items.  This time around, I’m not feeling that motivated.  I’ve got enough food that I can cook with a microwave or that doesn’t need cooking so I’m just bringing my water heater and my French press.  Gotta have good coffee in the morning, otherwise, what’s the point of even getting out of bed…Also, my wife is visiting this weekend and we’ll likely eat out.  So, I only really need food for about four nights.  Since all I eat during the work day are various types of bars and oranges my lunches are covered too.

To go off on a tangent for a minute...you can cook a surprising variety of food in a microwave.  There are all the standards, such as crappy frozen food and leftovers, but there are other things that some people don’t often think about.  For example, you can cook pasta in a microwave if you turn the power down just a bit (to avoid boil over) and if you let it cook for at least 15 minutes (depending on the power of the microwave).  I stop it a few times to stir, but, otherwise, the pasta cooks well.  You can also cook certain meats in the microwave, although, if you aren’t mixing them with something they can taste a little weird.  I think that’s mostly the psychological effect associated with cooking meat in the microwave, though.  I wouldn’t cook chicken in a microwave unless you have a way to check the temperature.  Chicken needs to reach 160 degrees F to kill all the crap that normally exists in it.  Also, bringing a selection of spices can improve just about any dish.

OK.  I’ve got my food thought out and my kitchen utensils figured out.  Now the clothes.  In the Great Basin you have to be prepared for anything.  At some point I stop bringing cold weather gear and just take a chance that I won’t get cold.  Out here, though, you can have a seven o’clock start that is as low as 35 degrees this time of year and an afternoon high of over 90 degrees.  That’s life in the high desert.  Now, though, I’m expecting high temps for most of the day and will just enjoy the cool air in the morning.  Rain isn’t even a consideration and is usually welcomed with open arms if it does happen.

I always struggle with what “civilian” clothes to bring.  As compared to most CRM archaeologists, I don’t really “go out” much.  I also don’t like to wear the same thing after work everyday.  So, I bring a few shirts and a few pairs of shorts/pants and call it good.  This time out I brought biking clothes too.  I’m getting really ambitious now!

So, after getting my field bag sorted out I’m pretty much ready to go.  At least, in my head.  My actual Monday was a bit more chaotic.  I started out waiting for a phone call that was supposed to come at around 9 am.  I received the call at about 9:30 am.  It was from the operations officer at my Civil Air Patrol squadron.  We got clearance to do a training flight for the afternoon.  That flight ended up taking up my day between about 11 am and 5:30 pm.  There is a bunch of time taken up on both ends of the 2.5 hour flight that includes pre-flight briefing and post-flight debriefing.  When you are practicing for a real search-and-rescue mission it’s important to get it right.  You just might save a life the next time you go up.

My packing didn’t really start until about 7 pm since I made dinner for my wife (Chicken Marsala...tasty!) and a friend of mine that was spending the night.  I was able to get everything ready to go within a couple of hours.  Since I didn’t have to be at the office until 10 am the next day I still had some time to play with in the morning if I needed it.

I finished out the evening spending time with my wife.  Being surrounded by so much death and sickness this past year has caused me to treat all moments as gifts of time.  Don’t take anything for granted because it could all end in a heart beat.  That point was driven home on Day 1.

Come back tomorrow for the next post!

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the field.