Arrival
Well, I finally arrived - a couple bags of pretzels (whatever
happened to peanuts), 2 time zone changes and 10 hours of
anticipation with a major case of jetlag later, the pilot finally
came over the intercom to announce our arrival to Rapid City,SD. I
don't think my face could have been pressed against the window any
closer as I scanned the gorgeous expanse of rolling green prairie
below, knowing this would be my new home for the next 12 weeks.
Green pastures were cut into perfect squares by local roads and
rolling green hills of prairie grass gradually ascended into bare
mountainous rock of the Badlands in the distance. It was as if
someone cranked a pepper shaker as it was speckled with hundreds of
black cattle. Rapid City itself is more like a thriving town than
anything resembling a city. It has one main street with most food
chains lining it and a supposed "mall'. I met my supervisor, Mike
Henry, outside the terminal, picked up my luggage and headed out
into the bright sunshine that, to my surprise, didn't last long as
dark luminous thunder clouds swept quickly over the sky. I was
thoroughly entertained by the lightening show and intermittent rain
showers for the next hour before it passed and the sun came out
again. One thing I will say about South Dakota, though, is that even
if you turn down a dirt road, it doesn’t mean you are almost to your
destination.
I live in a two-bedroom house right across the street from the
Visitor Center, which is definitely convenient. One of my crewmates
lives next door to me, but the other two live in lower housing. My
roommate is my age and an interpretation intern, which means she
gives tours and helps man the Visitor Center. Once I finally settled
in, it was close to 9:00 pm. and another interpretation intern came
to pick Liz (my roommate) and me up to head over next door where I
met Tim, Fish and Matt. We set up a bonfire with a bunch of other
seasonals down by lower housing and got to know each other better.
Everyone seems really nice here, which is good considering these are
my friends for the next 3 months. As for my friends back home, to my
absolutely horrible surprise, I cannot access Facebook through the
park's government computers. I don't think I need to explain my pain
any further.
The following morning, I woke up with a slight neck ache because I
didn’t bring a pillow or blanket and I was unaware of the heater in
my room, so I basically shivered under my towel and laid my head on
a mass of various semi-comfortable clothes.
Saturday night was much better once I learned how to work the heater
because I found that it gets down into the mid-thirties at night
here! Brr…hopefully that will change soon enough so I can start
complaining how hot it is. Haha. Also, apparently there is a
microwave in the basement; however I was warned that there are also
snakes, spiders and mice. I haven’t gotten the courage to go down
there yet, but jeez! a microwave would be great! We’ll see.
My first task for that morning was to call my parents, who were
probably concerned that I hadn’t called them back yet.
Unfortunately, there is absolutely no cell phone service in my room
because all housing is in a valley between two hills where the
signal can’t reach. So I found myself trudging up a steep hill, wary
of potential rattlers that could delay my progress before I finally
reached the top. To my embarrassment, I was completely out of
breath. Fortunately, when I questioned Matt about it, he told me
that we are at an elevation of 4000 feet and being at sea level
previously, my body simply hasn’t adjusted to the change. That
made me feel better about it. Of course, once on the hill, there are
a few “sweet spots” where my phone signal spikes, so I have to stand
there or else be in danger of losing connection. It’ll be an
interesting experience throughout the summer, to say the least. The
view from the hill, though, is breath-taking. A panoramic view of
rolling prairie grass, sporadic tree coverage and the occasional
grazing bison herd against a setting sun is almost too perfect for
words.
Yesterday I saw a few herds of mule deer, bison and pronghorn. We
passed “prairie dog town,” which is miles of hills pot marked with
overturned mounds of dirt that contain the homes of cute little
prairie dogs. It’s baby season for most animals here, so there are
hundreds of miniature prairie dogs that squeak and wag their tails.
Adorable! Mike, my supervisor, sort of spoke about them grudgingly
and said he doesn’t swerve for them anymore. We’ll see how long I
consider them ‘cute’.
I took their Natural Cave Entrance Tour with Matt, which was
absolutely fantastic! We went 200 feet below the ground into various
cavernous rooms that contain 95% of the world’s boxwork. It is
created by the dissolution of calcium carbonate or limestone, which
leaves behind a matrix of thin honeycomb-like sheets. The so-called
“popcorn’ formations are everywhere. The ‘popcorn’ is white polyps
of precipitated minerals left by evaporated water leaching from the
cave walls. We also saw calcite crystal formations. This is the 4th
longest cave in the world with 124 miles of cave discovered so far,
which they believe to be only 10% of the total estimated cave
system.
My first week of work here was basically training. I learned a lot
about the park, but it was mostly semi-boring lecture formats. We
were able to get out into the park for an extensive tour on
Wednesday, which was definitely refreshing. I was officially
certified in Fire Extinguishing today. I received a signed
certificate that I am very proud of and will hang on my
refrigerator. ;-) ha.
Anyways, I’ve only been out here for a total of 6 days, but I have
learned and seen so much. I cannot wait to actually get out into the
field and start working. It’s shaping up to be a great summer!
