The start of my great adventure west!

Posted by Alyssa Howlett , Thursday, May 20, 2010 1:15 AM

I am about to leave for Shell, Wyoming!! Here, I will be attending Iowa State’s Geology Field Camp for 6 weeks. It is located along U.S. Highway 14, two miles east of Shell, Wyoming, on the western flank of the Big Horn Mountains.

Mom and I are heading to Ames on Friday afternoon and I am planning to meet up with some Theta sisters on Friday night for dinner. I officially leave for the great west on Saturday bright and early at 6:30 am! Woo baby, getting a jump-start on the drive out I guess! I am actually one of the cool kids at camp that is able to drive one of the four 15 passenger vans, so I will get the privilege or driving out to camp, as well as around to different sights while at camp. I am for sure going to have the coolest van ever, but I mean that was a given. The Al Van will be well equipped with my always rockin’ jams, a light show thanks to my new flashlight, and of course sweet microphones to sing into.

The camp that we are heading too has permanent “dorms” (aka cabin-ish shelters) that are rustic, and have bunk beds and chests of drawers. I will have a “bathroom” where there are sinks and showers and two brand new toilets! (hooray for at least a little indoor pluming) We have outhouses as well. :/ We will be at this base camp for most of the time, but we will be camping in tents occasionally as well.

There are about 25 of us going to camp this summer, and actually we have around 6 girls! The weather there ranges from snowy during the first week or two to hot, 100°F days during the last couple of weeks, so I am prepared for it all with many layers and clothes ranging from shorts and tank tops to my winter coat.

I got a couple new things for this adventure to the Wild West that are super cool: a headlamp (yes it straps to my forehead… it is sweet), a camel pack (to carry around water in my…), day pack (thank you brother for letting me borrow it), a sporknife? (Charlie got be a pink utensil that is a spoon on one end, a fork on the other, then a knife edge on one of the fork tongs.. in case I have to kill and eat off the land, I am ready), a pink swiss army knife (my mom and dad got this for me, so I am always ready and it even has my initials on it!), a rock hammer (that is just so everyone knows recently painted with silver sparkles all over it, so it is bejeweled and amazing) and of course my boots (they are legit and pretty gosh darn sweet hiking boots).

I am really excited to head out there! It is going to be different, but I am sure my adventure will be filled with a lot of fun stories and memories!

:)

My address to mail things to me is: Iowa State Geology Field Station, 1800 U.S. Highway 14E, Shell, WY 82441