June 29-30: How to ship explosives… and eat pizza in the pa

Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 5:14 pm

Our field season is done… When people ask how our work went, I think Amanda’s response is best: great, once the samples arrive at home. (She doesn’t usually mention how dirty we made the truck, but certainly could.)

before

after

First order of business then is to ship the samples home.

BUT because samples contain hexane (a highly flammable substance), we could not drop the samples in the mailbox and expect the post office to be happy with us. There are lots of “dangerous goods” that you have to declare before turning them over to be shipped.

Here’s a sign that describes some of the dangerous goods that you have to declare prior to shipping.

The good folks at University of Alaska at Fairbanks were extremely helpful (again!); they provided us the airtight metal container and vermiculite (a packing material), and offered to ship the samples that didn’t fit in that container.

Once we took care of the samples (6 hours later), we swung by ARCUS to chat with and thank the folks who made my participation in this trip (and these journals!) possible.

Helen Wiggins, TREC program coordinator, finally meeting HawkLunch: expect Helen on the cover of Entertainment Weekly and Teen People sometime real soon.

We also enjoyed pizza in the park while waiting for our flight, pretending to ignore the pall of smoke that hung over the city.

There is no evidence to suggest that squirrels start forest or tundra fires (or drink bottled water… at least not very often)

When we finally boarded our flight (9:45 p.m.), I stayed awake almost long enough to feel the plane take off… but not quite. Several bleary hours later, I enjoyed the first dusk (or was it dawn?) I’d seen in three weeks.

The tundra is pocked with lakes as far as the eye can see.

I was expecting darkness to follow the setting sun, but instead the sun popped right back up. This bit of weirdness took more adjustment than three weeks of daylight.

In Minneapolis, we bid each other a fond farewell.

Penney hopped on her flight to Indianapolis and Yo, Penney and I headed to Columbus (I drooled very little on this flight Smile

)

Home again, home again… jig-a-dee-jig.