Day 28 Update

Hey there friends!

So we've had quite a bit of rain lately, and there's an unspoken understanding that when the dirt cut roads are wet, we are not to drive on them for safety and maintenance reasons. Fortunately, we left Oodnapanicken before the rains hit, but we'll be held up in Leigh Creek until they end, which will likely be tomorrow. It'll be a nice halfway point respite!

Anyhow, here's the scoop of what has happened in the past two weeks. We:

• nearly (not really) caused the park rangers of Flinders Ranges National Park to start a missing persons search for us
• measured a section downwind from a rancid dead kangaroo at Wilkawillina
• quadrupled our chances for a coronary heart disease with homemade, oil-drenched French fries
• met up with Catherine and Erica at Oodnapanicken and had a party that none of you were invited to (now aren't you jealous)
• watched Catherine go through week one of her Vegan pledge with triumph!
• lured Catherine into playing a game of hacky sack ("No points? That is so Vegan!")
• split up work on the canyon, allowing me to map old school with colored pencils and the like on my very own (and it was awfully fun, and beats the Trimble any day!)
• encountered a feral house cat, which Erica has named 'Frodo' (you can read about that here in Erica's blog)
• replaced a slowly leaking tire on the Beast, only to narrowly escape the most epic of epic fails by forgetting to properly screw in the new tire
• spilled motor oil all over our mushrooms and still ate them
• saw a rainbow, in a place that hardly ever rains!
• parted ways with Catherine and Erica, who we will meet with again at the end of the field season to close shop

Today, I have for you many photos and some posts about the Beast, how we feed ourselves, and slacking off. I hope you enjoy the read!

For the next two weeks, we will be in St. Ronan, the only place in the world that shows a continuous exposure between Wonoka paleocanyon and canyon shoulder--and the research site of my junior paper! I am stoked, and I hope to be able to talk to you all about it in two weeks time. Thanks again for reading everyone! Stay safe and warm.

Christine

UPDATE (7/15): With the downtime in Leigh Creek, I've been able to write this post about sedimentary structures. Yay geology! Check it out, even if you have just a passing fancy of rocks.