The Gray Calm

The gray drizzle has descended upon Western Washington and it is dark by 4:30pm. I pop a vitamin D tab, my artificial sunlight, and dig out my souwester, the one that gets people calling me 'fish n' chips'. Necessary equipment for the ensuing dog walk. There is something soul nourishing, cozy and comforting about the weather during this time of year. I grew up in it and actually like it, for a little while. About February, it gets old, but then it doesn't matter because all precipitation is likely falling as snow in the mountains. And then, nothing else matters at all. I can't wait for Baker to open, but this year won't be the same without Ryan. We will have to make him proud, or jealous.......

Love

Burke Museum

I am doing research at the Burke Museum at UW in Seattle, WA this entire week. They have an amazing comparative collection of mammal and bird skeletons. So, I brought the archaeological remains from my site (45SK46, Deception Pass) down here so that I could make accurate identifications. This is so much fun! Stay tuned for my full narrative, and some really cool pictures, including one of a Walrus baculum......if you don't know what that is, you are in for a treat. Happy Thanksgiving!

The Texas Panhandle

Lake Meredith, TX

In July of 2008 I went on my most exotic archaeology adventure to date. I may not be getting as much action lately, but what I do get is quality. Oh, the panhandle of Texas in July. An archaeology firm in Missoula, MT contacted me to be a crew-leader for a project based out of Fritch, TX. The gig was for the National Park Service and included the Lake Meredith National Recreation Area and the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument. Our task (myself, the project director and two techs) was to relocated 204 previously recorded sites within three weeks and update the ASMIS database with photos and descriptions of erosion, pot hunting, recently exposed features, overall site condition, etc.

It was an all day flight down there and I finally arrived in Amarillo, delayed, near 11:00 pm. I met up with the project director, Shari, and we made our way towards the rigs we had rented for the adventure. One was a normal, black, jeep-thing and the other was the HMS Expedition, champagne color with leather and wood trim. I felt like P-Diddy or whatever he is calling himself these days, in case anyone still cares. Of course, I opted to drive the pimp-mobile, plus I think the size of it scared the hell out of Shari. I felt really funny in that thing. Very soccer mom, or daughter of oil tycoon.

We roll our rigs out to the tiny town of Fritch, 45 miles NW of Amarillo, and into the parking lot of the "Lone Star Inn". Wow. What a shocker that was. It was raining to beat a hurricane. I had to kick a large toad the size of cantaloupe out from the foyer as I rang the doorbell at 1:00am to wake up the poor Indian family sleeping inside. Once we make our way to our rooms, up the rain-soaked and rot-sagging staircase to the second floor, I go inside to wash my hands of the airport grime. Exhausted, I am mindlessly lathering away when out of the sink drain crawls a 3" scorpion. Holy shit. After killing it by crushing its little body in the sink stopper repeatedly, I proceeded to tear the entire bed and room apart to make sure he didn't have any friends. Did I mention that this place was a total dive? My air-conditioner unit was literally duct taped to the wall and there was a severely crusty poop-smear within the toilet bowl. Ed did make a good point when he said I was lucky to even have the air conditioner. There were also questionable stains on the sofa. I told myself it was just yogurt. We stayed there for a week and then transferred over to the Best Western in Borger, where life was grand. We suddenly had amenities such as wireless internet, a swimming pool, fresh, hot breakfast and cookies and iced tea in the lobby. Talk about paradise.

Everyday we drove out into the middle of nowhere and hiked in, looking for sites and recording attributes about the ones we could manage to relocate. The panhandle must be the Bermuda-triangle of Trimble GPS units, because we had 4 and none worked. Had to do it the old fashioned way. There were a lot of rattle snakes in the first area we went to. The habitat was just perfect....open with small sage and yucca and plenty of small mammals. All the wildlife encounters in the first few days was a bit too much to make you feel very comfortable at any one time. They say that everything, the plants and the animals, all want to stab, sting, bite or scratch you. It is hostile country. This 9-button rattler just about got me. It was sprawled out sunbathing when I came hiking along. I saw it and it saw me and as I turned around to run the other way, it reared up and came up to about my waist with its mouth completely outstretched. Then it coiled up and got busy to being angry.

The one that almost got me.

This incident took a few minutes off my life, I am positive. Extremely beautiful creature, though hard to appreciate when it wants to bite and preferably kill you.

Then we hiked through a gun range. Note the full-leg snake chaps borrowed from Arlene Wimer, the awesome park ranger we were working for. I wasn't taking any chances after the day before. It was in the 90-100 degree temperature range. Wearing those chaps took fortitude.

A K-car that had seen better days.

The topography and geology were gorgeous and the people I worked with were super cool, hard workers. We had some fun together. Working in the heat together by day and going to the same 3 crappy restaurants together by night. Borger night-life is hurtin' for certain, but there was one dive bar that had some cheap American beer during happy hour. Some of the characters in that bar were straight out of a stereotypical movie. No teeth, totally wasted, mullet, not forming complete sentences, making animal noises, hitting on you from across the room, while Kid Rock and Lynard Skynard play repeat on the jukebox. The 18 year-old waitress had what Jamie, my friend on the crew, called "hungry butt". Her short shorts disappeared in certain places. Sorry, I don't have a photo of that. There were even disgusting fly-swatters at the tables. Classic mid-west, the land of my people. But, I digress. Back to the real scenery.

Blue Creek Drainage- great for braffing, booty-stomping, getting stuck, whatever you want to call it.


Yes, this pretty little plant also has thorns.

Remains of a rock-wall alignment.

Hearth feature.

Bifacial scraper made of the beautiful and colorful Alibates Flint material.

Super-rad Arlene and the almost-as-cool Alibates Flint producing dolomite outcrops.

Turtle petroglyph.

Ungulate petroglyph and anthropogenically formed 'cupules', function unknown.

Clearly defined room with intact walls. This was part of a huge village near the petroglyphs.

Well, due to numerous complications, we fell short of our goal of 204 sites, but that didn't mean there was a shortage of terrain covered. It certainly wasn't because of a lack of effort. The things that held us up were out of our control. Such is life.

I had a really great experience and was lucky to see archaeology in a part of the country that I had not spent time in before. The high plains region is unique and beautiful. The archaeology resembles that of the four corners area, (material types, pottery, multi-roomed houses) but has distinct differences due to the plains influence (lower elevation and better bison habitat, among other things). And so, in spirit of some Texas lingo I picked up on this stint, I'm chucking the deuces to this entry.

Camel-With-No-Humps

When I was at Meridian Middle School, 'they' (especially a boy named Ryan Aarestad, damn that alphabetical seating) started calling me Indiana Alvis in 5th grade because they figured out I wanted to be an archaeologist when I grew up. Remember, Indiana Jones was huge in 1989. The Last Crusade had just come out, and every time our band teacher Mr. Mack didn't want to teach, he would play that movie. Over and over.

I feel the same way, Indy.

I was kinda a big dork back then....thank goodness that has changed. I was bored with the curriculum and asked my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Hohman, aka battle-axe, if I could do a report on the Aztecs, Incas and Mayas of central and south America and then present it to the class. Product of private school PTSD or what? Wasn't much going on out in north Whatcom Co. After battle-axes' jaw came off the table, she thought that was a good idea. I wrote a pretty big synopses of their history and culture. Man, did the other kids think I was nuts and henceforth the nickname. That was also the year I dressed up as a pack of Camel cigarettes for Halloween and wore it to school. Its really cool when your dad is an artist. Then they started calling me 'camel with no humps', but that is another story.

So, I guess I am going to give this a whirl. Several recent influences and events have contributed to my blogging interest. This account was created after Josh and other friends (you know who you are) egged me on.....'everybody was doing it, just set-up a blog Camille, you know you want to'. Although, deep down inside I knew I probably wouldn't post on this side of the next decade. But, in the back of my mind, it was something I wanted to come back to. Maybe I had to soak in the essence of other peoples blogs first to get creatively inspired. Maybe I just needed to get enough of my thesis written so that I didn't feel guilty for spending time on extra-curricular activities again. I have been closely following my friend Jennifer Triplett's blog Pedal Power as well as my bike buddies from B'ham and their blog Slice O' the Ham. Jen is not only an amazing chick, but an awesome writer and her passionate and revealing entries while she grapples to accept the loss of her best friend and husband Ryan, have been inspiring and tear-jerking to say the least. Oh yeah, and the dudes from Bellingham are pretty cool too. I believe it can be a very cathartic, eye-opening and centering activity, whether the subject matter is funny or heavy. Me and my lofty expectations.

It can't all be about archaeology, that is for sure. My girlfriend Erin is pregnant, my best friend/sister CamE is over in Iraq driving around in a bomb magnet and unexpected, soul-crushing tragedy struck in September as the world lost a radiant man. Some heavy stuff has gone down. The type and amount of archaeology gigs I have accepted lately have led to minimally interesting stories. Oh, don't worry, there have been some, but they can easily be summarized and recapped in one post I believe. Snakes. Big, angry, venomous snakes. I have great hopes for 2009....graduation, interesting jobs, making money, skiing, backpacking adventures, traveling, working on something besides my thesis. Ahhhhh. I can see light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully that's not a train.

Deception Pass on a beautiful, fall afternoon.