Hi!
Oh boy, do the words “I am so sore I can barely move” ring any bells?? Up this morning and a non-memorable breakfast at the motel, then out in search of fish fossils. Ulrich’s, the place that our friends and neighbors the Stones recommended, was closed today, so instead we went to Fossil Safari. It was all of the high-40’s when we left, necessitating blue jeans on my part. A much easier drive than yesterday, again over gravel roads to reach the site. Talked to Chris, the manager, who said we should probably do the 4-hour “morning” as we would just be getting the hang of things in an hour or so….so, we picked up hammers and chisels and headed over to the quarry wall. Chris pointed out a good place to start, and showed us how to use the chisel to split the rocks, and we were off and running! Wow! We now have a great deal of admiration for both geologists who do this routinely, as well as prisoners who were expected to “break rock.” It’s HARD! One of the best things that we purchased in Fillmore were the gardening kneeling pads – which also come in VERY handy for sitting! We worked for hours, and managed to find quite a number of fossils or pieces of fossils to bring home. It’s really magical – you split a rock, then fold it over – will there be something there? Pieces with nothing get tossed into a pile, and you look for another rock to split! Some of the examples they have there are really incredible – they have a beautiful fossilized sting ray, for the low, low price of $3,000 – but it is truly magnificent! We worked until about 11:30 and finally packed up, dusted ourselves off, and headed back to town.
We stopped at the grocery store for some munchies as well as some detergent and Shout, as, of course, I was in need of doing another load of laundry – EVERYTHING we had on was covered in rock dust! Got back to the hotel and just collapsed … literally – R on the couch and me in bed … and talk about stiff when I got up! Whew!
We did want to get to Fossil Butte National Monument, so made the effort to pull ourselves together and get on the road. It’s only about 9 miles out of Kemmerer in yet another direction. Excellent facility – some beautiful fossils on display as well as a really good video on exploration still on-going on the property.
Back to the hotel after that, me to do laundry, R to nap…a good time was had by all! About 6 we headed to the only place in town which we knew would be open – PIZZA HUT! And had a very good dinner – salad bar (which put last night’s to shame!) and a good pizza; even Robert was happy! Collapsed back at the hotel afterward (what, no night life you ask??) to watch the baseball game (Tigers winning!) and get an early night, as tomorrow we’re heading to Yellowstone!! That is, if we can move at all tomorrow!
More later!
m
x
Oh! I am reminded that there will probably not be internet access until we’re out of Yellowstone – next Friday! I will blog daily, and publish if I can; if not, I’ll publish all at once when I’m back to access!
No comments:
Post a Comment