Happenings in the desert

-The last few days have been long ones spent out in the sun looking for styrofoam/real tortoises. I've also been driving on some of the wildest roads of my life and climbing some big mountains(first snow I've experienced in Vegas so far). My internet has been lagging a bit so I'm hoping to get some pictures up when I get to a faster connection. For now I'm pretty beat--6am start time tomorrow on the styrotort line.
--Night

Settling in to go away again.

The last week has been slightly crazy with lots of hours spent on training, both in the field and classroom and with our friend the desert tortoise. As of last night the final member of our crew moved into town--so watch out tortoises we're coming to find you. My housemates and I have really adjusted well to each other, the next few weeks should be a ton of fun.
The work week ended with me learning that two of my college pals and myself had been accepted as Watson fellows. By august 1 this summer we need to be gone from the USA. The Watson foundation sponsors fellows to pursue a travel agenda of there choosing that revolves around a specific topic or passion. A list of this year's fellows can be found here . Planning over the next few months is going to be intense--especially once my field work starts--but I'm excited to finally start putting the pieces of my project together.
After a night of celebrating a few of my coworkers and I went out to Red Rock Canyon, a group of mountains just outside of Vegas. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.
Best,
Brett

Back to work

Spent most of the last few days downstream of the hoover damn (there are some crazy fluxs in river flow with peaking power in CA) at a series of hot springs at the bottom of Goldstrike canyon. I got to know my housemates and future co-workers really well. I think we have a pretty good crew lined up. To get to the canyon we had to hike and repel several miles through amazing country. Saw lots of lizards, breeding toads, and desert plants. My waterproof camera finally died--killed on a swim up the Colorado to find some sauna caves.
Work starts tomorrow morning, it will be good to get on a real schedule again.

Lost In Las Vegas—

3/3/09

It's about 3 in the afternoon Pacific Time and it's already been along day. The bright sun and mountains around Vegas almost made me forget the freezing line at the southwest terminal this morning—except that freezing line is why I almost missed my flight, and is the reason my luggage is somewhere in the hold of big purple and orange plane. Oh well, it's supposed to get here sometime later this afternoon.

Vegas is interesting. My taxi driver managed to get me lost while trying to find my apartment. Sigh. I told him to let me out and I'd find it faster (and cheaper) on foot. And I did—well maybe not faster. I checked into the place a few hours ago and have already been out to get some food and the essentials from the surrounding retail sprawl. But the desert beckons; you can see the ranges surrounding the entire city. I can't wait to get out into it. Tortoises, here I come. So far the city has treated me with lots of sights already. Concrete rivers, lots of flowering shrubs, a car full of bullet holes, 24-hour poker_________ (insert any noun, example—bar, liquor store, grocery, hospital, daycare). Interestingly I also found a broken window about a half mile from my apartment in the road—interesting because my apartment was missing a very similar window, which I asked to have replaced, and which was replaced very quickly (a good sign I think).

Not sure when I'll post this, I'm on the hunt for the elusive wi-fi.

Cheers.

3/5

Spent most of the last few days getting to know two of the guys I’m living with. The other two still haven’t arrived. The apartment looks much more livable already—though a couple of us are still planning to take off this afternoon for a trip down south to escape the city. I went to return a camp chair yesterday—after I realized I bought a broken one—the store clerk asked why I had moved to the neighborhood? I told him tortoises; he said told me Vegas is a funny place to look for tortoises. Agreed.

Off to the desert.