Collateral damages (finished!)

On a trip this long, there were bound to be a few boo-boos etc. Luckily, nothing serious! For example, the vans always started, and there were no flat tires. Most importantly, the A/C worked!

On the other hand, on the second drive day outbound, your truly was driving chase # 1 eastbound somewhere east of Barstow, when there in the road was a snake, stretched to its full length across my lane (i.e., perpendicular to traffic, which was unfortunate). I'm not sure if I hit it - didn't feel a bump, but the snake was wriggling like crazy in the rear-view mirror! But we're ALL sure that Dais, driving chase # 2, squashed it. And get this - Dais was all "what snake?". Score "1" for the team. And BTW, Dais' handle is now "snakekiller".

On the return trip, we overnighted in Bishop (and you know my thoughts on the hellacious drive that day). Originally we were going to do some field experiments in the region, but that idea didn't pan out, so we were left with just the Ramada Inn. BUT - it happened to be the peak night of my favorite annual meteor shower - the Perseids. Every year I make some kind of effort to get out and watch, the best ever being on a moonless night beside Lake Tahoe a few years back. Anyway, we assembled at 10:30pm, squashed ALL of us into the van (remember that Mike had gone home, so there were 12 of us), and headed uphill west out of Bishop. For Craig & I in the front seat, there was a spectacular "wow" fireball-like meteor. We pulled off the road in a large dirt area, and spilled all over the ground. Within about 10 minutes we'd seen a couple more really good streaks, and then some weaker ones. Meanwhile, a spectacular view east over the Owens valley and over Bishop in the distance, and the Milky Way was resplendent. ALSO, there was a gentle cool downslope breeze blowing steadily - so we could justify this as a meteorological outing!!!

OK, you say, where are the collateral damages in this story? Well, by midnight the moon's brightness was drowning out the sky, so we baled out. So there we are, bombing downhill at about 50 mph, lights on bright so I can see for miles (for you see, I am driving). And then a couple cars are coming towards me (note: this restricts me from swerving into the other lane)(unless we all want to die). So I dim the lights, and that's when an entire family of animals (raccoons? possums?) darts out in front of me. Larger animal (mom?) and two smaller ones. With the brights on, I might have seen them. With no traffic oncoming, I might have swerved (dangerous), but events conspired so that there was nothing I could do. THUMP. Thump, thump, thump. Score "2" for the team.

Here's the funny thing - we could have all sobbed all the way back to the Ramada, since I was pretty sure I'd killed mom. But no. The reaction of the day was peals of laughter! Go figure! Also, Craig, Jamie & Dais did a crazy sunrise hike the next morning, and drove past the same spot. Hence the confirmation: raccoon.

No other dead stuff that I know of (luckily, we saw the elk buck or else there would have been a big elk-shaped dent in chase #2).

The only other major trip damage was to shoes. At one point, one of Allison's shoes fell apart, and had to be repaired with duct tape. By the end of the trip, the other shoe had failed and also had to be repaired. Now, I don't know about you, but at this point I'm thinking "new shoes", but Allison had ruled this out due to being very fond of this particular pair of shoes. Perhaps in the mode of copycat, Steve P. felt the need to apply duct tape to his sandals during the trip, as they too were suffering. The duct tape was one of the last things we remembered to bring, but of course was vital!