The next day of the trip we were required to get up fairly early to make it to the work-site at 8am. But, as you will see, the theme of this day was that nothing would go as planned. And that was carefully demonstrated when our main road to the campsite was blocked by a giant wreck that we had no way of getting around. We ended up taking a round-about way, through the ghost road (scary even at 7:30am) to the preserve.
When we made it there we were greeted by an old man who told us we would be building a bridge today. He, however, was no expert, and "hadn't done it in 60 years," so we were slightly worried. Later we learned that he was a chemical engineer which had absolutely nothing to do with building bridges so he was completely taking a shot in the dark with this project. But he was hilarious, soft-spoken, kind, southern gentleman who had the misconception that men were meant to do the work and women should just do simpler stuff. However, that was impossible with our demographics, seeing as we had 9 women and one man, their gender was short a few.
So instead of being rude and asking women to do much of the work, he would go ahead and do it himself, since we obviously didn't know how to use simple tools. It was ridiculous, and old-timey, but it was quite kind of him to think of us in that way. I, however, was having nothing to do with him working to much and breaking his back. He was 75, after all. I followed him like a hawk, just to try to get him to let me do something, or even simply start doing it myself until he gave in.
My plan worked after a while, and he would let me do most of the shoveling and heavy lifting when he was tired. Most of the day consisted of digging two trenches opposite each other to form the ends of the bridge. The first one was just getting dug when he recruited 8 of us to help carry over a large piece of wood, complete with four pipes that we would stick under it and carry each end of. Not as easy as it sounds. We were all different heights, and no matter how hard we tried to even it out, the weight distribution was never quite right and the back end ended up getting the heavy end every time. And after trying to help carry two of those over, while attempting to lead whilst not bossing people around, it began to rain. It was a refreshing start to the hot Texas morning and I sufficiently enjoyed it.
The park ranger and others scared of lighting, however, did not. I naively believed, like most Texas thunderstorms, it would pass in time. But it defied my ambitions, and continued on for about an hour before we were forced out of there.
The funny part of this story was, of course, Paula's reaction. She, somehow, had this unlikely premonition about the lightning, and every time one would strike she could "feel it in her bones," and we were all so awestruck at her audacity and uniqueness that we couldn't help but try to keep politely quite so as not to be rude about her strange beliefs. She was quite the character. She had it in her head that because she celebrated the Feast of the Tabernacle, by camping outside for a week, that she had brought the rain. I mean, God was involved, but really, Paula brought the rain. And that struck a cord with me. I believed in the Feast of the Tabernacle, my mother religiously studied that stuff, but Paula bringing the rain because of it? A little ridiculous. And slightly prideful. But honestly, what can you say to someone like that? Oh you're right about God but wrong about yourself? No, that would be pride in reverse. So I hope I took the higher route in keeping quiet and praying to God that she didn't offend or off-put people with her un-orthodox, or maybe orthodox (no one's really sure) beliefs.
So after being kicked out by rain, we all crashed in our beds for a long nap before we had to return later that evening. By that time, we had switched out supervisors for the afternoon and for a while there, it seemed as if she was going to take us on a trail hike instead. Until...Paula called, and requested that we come back and help. So of course, to avoid any potentially awkward situation, we did. We made it back to the site around 4, quite late for a project to get going again, but nonetheless, we were ready to work.
So we began digging the second ditch, this time, I was insistent on helping, mostly to get away from extraneous situations but also to ensure that our project leader wasn't doing it all by himself. He had warned us that earlier that day he had been stung by a hornet, and to be careful because there may be a nest somewhere. But we were perfectly fine. He and Paula and most of the rest of the crew went of to get some extra supplies while we dug the trench. We encountered a few hornets, and three people got stung, unfortunately including our kind host, who had fed us cookies earlier in the day. But she insisted she was fine, so we let her continue to sit on her perch and observe us. We had thought we found the source of the hornets, their nest under ground, and were continually piling more dirt on it in the hopes of smothering them. And we didn't think much of it after the fact.
We had dug our trench and felt very successful when everyone returned and we measured everything, only to discover that the large trunks with huge roots on both ends must go. So as our friend was axeing it, he wouldn't let any one of us inexperienced fellas touch the thing, I heard him yell : "Run! Run! They're coming!" And I was off. I had no idea what he meant until I realized "they" were wasps, and we were in danger. And after getting quite the distance away, with one person on the other end of the trail, we were basically forced to go home, sustaining all of our injuries and giggling about the events of the day. Little did we realize how brave our host was, taking on the hornets and not caring a smidge about himself or his stings.
All in all, it was a very eventful, and hilarious day. It's definitely one for the books. When we got back, we ate and had our presentations. Which I absolutely loved giving! It just showed me how much passion I have for the subject of conservation and how easy it is to study something you love. This day was definitely my favorite by far in the internship. It was all around a perfect day, and not despite, but because of all the mayhem surrounding it.
And tomorrow's the final day of the Big Thicket! Then I'll get back on schedule, I promise.
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