Moapa, Nevada

I spent this weekend - Friday morning through Sunday afternoon on a geology field trip to Moapa, Nevada to look at rock formations in the desert. I'll write a more scientific post tomorrow complete with pictures.

Got up really early Friday morning, finished packing, and walked across campus to the designated meeting spot. On the way there I got a lot of stares, and one guy stared at me so relentlessly for so long I finally turned to him and said, "You know, if you stare hard enough, I might do a trick!"
I know that was rude, but really, I was carrying a sleeping bag, a tent and had a backpack on. How much imagination does it require to figure out I was going camping?!

When I got to the parking lot a bunch of people were already there, but it was still 9:30 before everyone got there and we set off. My car consisted of Chris (a student driver), Mike (quintessential California surfer boy), Richie (serious music aficionado), Priscilla (really funny and incredibly smart), and myself. The rest of the space was taken up with coolers and luggage.

On the drive out to our first stop - Rainbow Basin - the boys had fun scaring Priscilla and myself by detailing all the issues with the car. On a trip last year the rear tire exploded while going 70 mph on the highway and destroyed the back end (there are still dents on the back bumper from that), the brakes were gummy, the steering wheel jiggles and goodness knows what else. Well, I don't think Priscilla was really scared but I was getting jittery before they got bored and put on some music. I had to listen to a lot of hippie-boy-music. Not that Bowie is bad by any means, but it's not my style. The Thelonius Monk was good though.

When we got to Rainbow Basin we had lunch first and then walked around looking at the formations and trying to deduce how it formed. We decided it had been a lake once, and there was nearby volcanic activity dumping layers of ash over everything.
There were some really cool green rocks from when the water was anoxic, but I didn't collect anything.

Then we drove on to Las Vegas. It wasn't quite what I expected, despite having watched CSI: Las Vegas for years and years - it was very dirty and gross and not as impressive as the tv made it out to be. Our car was last in line and we got lost - the others turned a corner too fast for us to follow and we lost them - so we had to call Connie (another driver) a million times before we found where to park and then we had to walk forever to find the buffet we meant to go to. Then that turned out to be $28 a head so it was "too expensive" and we went to Planet Hollywood instead, which cost just as much (I spent $31) and I got food poisoning and spent the end of my night throwing up before going to bed.
Before that happened though, we left and I found Las Vegas is transformed at night and is MUCH more impressive.

After dinner we went to a grocery store to get supplies, and spent a long time running around getting what we needed. Then we filled up the vans and drove off to our campground.

We got there after dark and I was in a bad mood (got an awful headache) and had to put up my tent in the dark and it was a kind of tent I wasn't used to so I had to get Chris to help me. Finally I got it set up, put my stuff away, and cracked open a beer to ease my headache. I got through my second beer with no real easement of the headache when the nausea hit and I threw up in the grass since I couldn't get to the bathroom in time for the first wave, but I managed to get to the sink for the second wave. I felt terrible - and angry! I'd spent $31 on a nice meal and gotten a CHICKEN SALAD whereas Priscilla got a (raw) tuna salad and SHE wasn't sick - and Richie got seared tuna tacos and HE wasn't sick either! I'm officially boycotting Planet Hollywood.

After getting sick I decided to call it a night, brushed my teeth and went to bed.

Saturday we got up early, I felt much better, ate some breakfast and we headed out to the valley we were checking out. That part of the trip really sucked - we had to hike like four miles at the outset in the hot sun and then we stayed there til 4 pm when if we had just gone from spot to spot in a timely fashion with any sort of regularity we would've been done by noon. It was searing hot, we were all miserable, and there was some interesting stuff but a great deal of it was incredibly boring. I did get some nice pictures and samples though.

We finally got back to camp around 4:30 and we all changed into swimsuits and jumped in the river - I brought a frisbee and everyone was having fun tossing it around. Then some boys got an inflatable mattress and started sailing down the river on it. Mike got ahold of it and surfed down some rapids, and did a great job until he decided to dive off into water that looked deep but was really very shallow - he slammed facefirst into a rock and cut up his face and nose. I lent my first aid kit and Connie lent hers and between the two one of the boys managed to patch up Mike's face quite nicely, although I think a stitch or two would've been beneficial. Poor Mike had a sore head and blood running postnasally down his sinuses for the rest of the trip. I didn't see him today but a girlfriend of mine did and she says the swelling is going down nicely.

After Mike got hurt everyone got out of the river and changed and grabbed some snacks and chatted till dinner (hotdogs) and then we split off into groups and hung out all night. I tried going swimming again in the river late at night but it was way too cold (even though it was a hot spring) and gave up and went to bed.

Sunday we struck camp and went to check out one last spot before heading on home. The last spot was pretty cool, I found some awesome samples, so I'll write about them later when I have pictures to help explain.

Driving home wasn't as fun as driving out had been - I was tired and feeling coughy and uncomfortable and Richie and Priscilla had the window seats so there was nothing I could curl up against to sleep on. I did manage to sleep sitting up for awhile but it was very very very uncomfortable.

My favorite part was when we were nearly at the California border and we were approaching this mountain range and saw some beautiful cloud formations that were so thick it looked like the mountains were floating on clouds. I tried and tried to get a picture and it just didn't take until Mike suggested I try to get a picture through his polarized sunglasses, and holy moly IT WORKED!! I really want to get polarized sunglasses now, but I do have to consider expense...le sigh!
But I got my picture which was lovely.

We finally got back, unpacked the cars, I grabbed my stuff and schlepped across campus to my apartment and finally got back at 6 pm. I dropped my stuff and immediately threw my dirty smelly clothes in the hamper and showered for nearly half an hour. I used FOUR shampoos in my hair to try and get it clean. I'm going to shower again tonight...not sure how many shampoos I'll use, but it feels GOOD to have clean hair!!!

I had a quiet microwave dinner, then finally couldn't stay up past 9:30 pm...and woke up at 8:30 am today and I'm STILL tired. Camping is exhausting.

Today I had class in the morning, then I went to REI and returned my rented tent, then went to Sam's Club and Ralph's for groceries since I naturally couldn't go shopping last night. Then I had class tonight and I'm trying to decide what to do for dinner. I think an omelet, or maybe a baked potato.

I'll post pictures and things on my next entry!