Home, Home on the Range

Well, I made it. I'm in Wyoming. Here's how my day has gone:

3AM - Wake up, move my 30 and 50 pound bags to the car, eat breakfast
5AM - Airport.....surprisingly there weren't that many people (SARCASM). I said bye to my family (not going to lie, I teared up) and made it though security. I really want to make a smart aleck remark here, but I fear the TSA may find out and not let me fly back home.
6AM - Flying to Denver. Let me tell you, I HATE FLYING. I get such a terrible headache from the pressure. I essentially tried to sleep with my iPod but failed miserably. UGH.
7AM - After a 3 hour flight (yeah, I'm a time traveler), I got to sit at the Denver airport for 3 hours. 
10 AM - Board onto a little pondhopper with 2 propellers and 10 or so other people to a little local airport in Laramie, Wyoming. That was terrifying, but I didn't get a headache on that flight, even though we were bouncing up and down like crazy.
11AM - Arrive in Laramie with (wait for it) NO BAGS! Yep, they were left in Denver even though I had A 3 HOUR LAYOVER. Seriously? 3 hours isn't enough time to transfer 2 bags onto a small plane? Sigh, that is my luck, especially since it's Friday the 13th. GO FIGURE.

The rest of the day, I've been helping my boss Brady prepare for our field work. He's a cool guy. He's really knowledgeable and has a neat terrier mutt named Blue. His house is a bit of a mess, but what do you expect of a grad student who's out in the field most of the time? Anywho, we got our food today, which was a $600 bill at Wal-Mart. I'm not going to be eating my usual amount of fruits and vegetables this summer, so keep your fingers crossed that I don't get scurvy. We also went to his advisor/supervisor's house and set up our raft and put it on the trailer. As I've been ferried around Wyoming, I have this to say. IT. IS. FLAT. Dude, no trees, whatsoever. It's brisk right now, hanging around 40 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, which I LOVE. It's dry, too, and high in elevation. I got breathless pumping up the raft....that's sad. We'll find out how I do running tomorrow.

Ok, now I have some good news. They have my bags and they're bringing them to Brady's house! YAY! I just hope they can find the house....SCRATCH THAT, THEY JUST DID! I've got my stuff! HUZZAH!

The bad news is that I'm learning about natural gas mining and HOW TERRIBLE IT IS. I know natural gas is a cleaner fuel than coal or oil, but to obtain the gas they have to drill into the ground and pump thousands of gallons of highly toxic chemicals into the ground, which then seeps into the ground water. We drink ground water from wells and other sources. These chemicals cause problems in pregnant women, problems with male anatomy, bone marrow loss/disease, hair loss, cancer, and problems with red blood cells, and that's to name a few. And the thing is that these big companies are saying that the water is safe to drink, but when locals who's wells have been ruined off them a cup of the water, the officials refuse. The kicker is that this whole thing could've been regulated by the Clean Water Act, but politicians (aka Bush and Cheney), signed a law that exempted natural gas mining from the regulations. Natural gas mining is spreading from the West coast to the East coast. If you get the chance, Google some of this, specifically an amateur documentary called GasLand by Josh Fox. A couple homeowners in the documentary light their TAP WATER on fire. That's insane.

Ok, enough being a buzzkill. I'm here now, and I'm going to make the most of it. I am kind of homesick though. Definitely calling the family tonight, especially since I found out that the internet at the ranger house where I'll be staying may be spotty at best. Hopefully that's false and we'll have decent internet.