Wyoming Dinosaur Center - DAY 1

I arrived in Thermopolis at 6pm to claim one campsite in an RV park north of town. My tent rests less than 50 feet from the railroad tracks and less than a stones throw from a hot pool that smells of sulfur.
I set up my tent and ran to town to grab some neccesities and find the dinosaur center that I will be working with for the next few weeks. Immediately upon my return, I was invited to celebrate a neighbors birthday with cake, drinks, and cards.
I went to bed early and was awaken at 4 am by birds near sunrise. ...then a "light rain and thunder" weather pattern moved in. I was up out of my tent at 6 and showered and ate breakfast.
I went to the center and immediately was met by Greg, a man I had spoken with on the phone. He led me through the museum and gift shop and then into the lab. I was handed a bone promptly and told to "start cleaning." CAN LIFE GET ANY SWEETER!?!?!? I had a toothbrush and a dental pick as well as a bowl of warm water. I went to town clearing away glue and dirt from the vertebrate of a sauropod. WHOOT!
I picked on the same bone from 8:30 am until lunch at noon. I did graduate to using acetone and an exacto knife. After lunch in my car, I joined my fellow workers eating their lunch (nobody told me) on picknick tables IN THE MUSEUM. Parents and children can walk by and chat with us ...during lunch.

Beginning at 1, I was able to graduate to dremmel status. I was handed a piece of rock with a bone in it and told "don't hit the bone, but get it out." Man dream come true #2. I was working with goggles and a dremmel taking a bone out of matrix...AND it was in the window where patrons can watch you work. I scared a few little girls by waving. I don't think they knew I could see them.
At about 3:00 two gentlemen asked if I wanted to see the dig site. DID I?!?!?!?! OF COURSE! so I hopped in an SUV with 4 summer workers and drove up to an excavation site. The bones were under tarps and we were told to dig completely under the bone, so if we pour plaster, we encase it.
The two permanent workers left me and two seasonal staff members (both age 20) to the bones as they destroyed a hill side with bobcats and a backhoe. We didn't get very far on the bone, but the conversation was better than in the dremmel and dental drill cacophony. Most people in the lab had ipods....I will remember mine tomorrow.


I am now back at my campsite and debating whether or not to jump in the 100 degree pool to clean all the silt and sand out of my ears. I may wait for it to cool down slightly.