We made it well into Iowa yesterday, to the small college town of Grinnell (home of the Pioneers, the 80-oz. steak challenge, and Cincinnati's own Tim McDonald). We managed to avoid some pretty serious storms late in the afternoon as we skirted just north of a cell containing a tornado. Though we didn't see the funnel itself, there were some amazing thunderheads visible from the road.
In addition to Sam, Sara and Mackenzie, we were joined by Angela yesterday morning. These 4 students (well, Angela has just finished her undergrad program and is heading to grad school later this summer) are going to prove very important to the ongoing success of the Dinosaur Field School and the Mother's Day Site. They are all extremely experienced and knowledgeable, and their personalities are making for a good time in the van (which I'm driving). But probably the funniest "crisis" was when a couple of them realized they hadn't made arrangements to have the new Harry Potter book shipped to them in the field. Crisis averted--we called ahead to the good folks at Red Lodge Books to pre-order the book and will be able to pick it up on Saturday.
As we're heading west, we're also trying to keep an eye on the weather. It's predicted to be 101 in Rapid City, South Dakota today (we'll probably reach there late this afternoon or evening) and Billings, MT will be hovering around 100-degrees for at least the next several days. The best part is that the dig site averages about 10-degrees hotter than Billings, so I'll let you do the math.
Well, it's about time to get back on the road, so I'll post again later. Ciao!
2 comments:
Great...did you visit the college with the students? Enjoy my home state as you drive across and see corn and more corn. And of course anyone running for president is there these days!!
One of life's interesting venues is the Corn Palace if you go north towards Sioux City.
Good to get your news.....
Doug
Doug,
It was great of you to stop by the blog. We weren't able to stop by the college on this trip, but it certainly a great place for a future visit for the Youth Program. They aren't traveling with us in the caravan but will be flying directly into Billings in early August.
We'd certainly be open for any recommendations as to restaurants in Grinnell for our trip back through. No one was quite ambitious enough to try the 80-oz. steak challenge at AJ's, but we may feel more like it coming back.
-Jason
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