The bucket list

There's an odd feeling when you cross an item off your bucket list, and last year was a big one.  As part of my cross-country adventures, I finished my goal of visiting all 50 states in the U.S. (and Puerto Rico too).  Ending with Florida.  As I stepped out onto the beach, facing the Gulf of Mexico, I pondered not only the strangely warm water, but that this was the farthest south in the country I'd been, and it was my last state.

A year ago, my carefully planned route was listed here.  The "Southern Segment" from Pennsylvania to Arizona was carried out pretty much to plan, with the addition of a detour up to Hot Springs, at the welcome insistence of my Aunt.  But the "Western Segment" never quite came.  You see, last year not only had adventure and the challenges of facing hours of being alone with only a very well behaved Australian Shepherd and some audio books in between the highs of social interaction with dear friends and family, but it also had physical challenges.

An improperly diagnosed infection threatened to sideline me, but I still launched into the Southern Segment, willing myself to improve and not be shut down by the side effects of various medications.

It was worth it to go white water rafting with my cousin in Charlotte, to spend a day wilting in Savannah with my dog, to go on banana yellow speed boat adventures to isolated beaches with old friends and their children in Naples.  To visit other friends in New Orleans and Baton Rouge and have the most perfect pot of tea with a much needed productive day in my friend's lab on campus.  To struggle with getting my hydrophobic dog back into a pontoon boat in Arkansas, to meet new friends at delicious barbeque found at a gas station in Austin.  To catch up with an old friend in the little town of Fredericksburg, reminding me that there are happy little corners where you least expect to find them.  To power through the long drive to a decadent hotel room in Las Cruces before the last stretch to the oasis of my mother's home in verdant Green Valley.

But that took the last of what I had.  It was time to rest, heal, and work.  And figure out where to set down roots.  The 50 states were done, even if the last segment of the epic road trip didn't lead me full circle.  You never can tell where life will take you, and that's my reason for embracing a bucket list with the best of intent of experiencing opportunities as they present themselves.  For you can never tell what tomorrow will bring. 

Equally awesome in its own little way

I have become a modern day nomad.  A science nomad, as a friend of mine has pointed out.  A friend with a patch that reads, "Not all who wander are lost".

Courtesey of wiktionary:

Noun

Wikipedia has an article on:

Nomad

nomad (plural nomads)

1. a member of a group of people who, having no fixed home, move around seasonally in search of food, water and grazing etc.
2. a wanderer

I'm not alone in embracing a nomadic existence this year.  I can think of two friends who are similarly taking advantage of flexible work situations (telecommuting or contracting) to have some adventures.  One has taken the plunge and purchased a very fine looking RV for her humble abode, while the other has taken a more international focus to her wanderings.  I've admired the fearlessness both of these women have shown over the years I've known them, and it makes me happy to include myself in a list of similar adventures with them.  Of course, I've taken the comparatively tame approach of loading the back of my truck with supplies for 3 seasons across the country, but it certainly wasn't an easy decision.  

To see how I arrived at this particular hare-brained scheme, it's worth a look at the past 12 months.  (Skip ahead to the next paragraph if you aren't interested in the details.)  In my last post here, I had no idea what my job prospects would be after my position ended in December.  Sadly, the grant to stay longer didn't come through (always take the word of higher ups in any administration with a grain of salt), but I did have options.  One was a temporary position, in which I would share my area of expertise with a large scale govt/ private sector project, letting me keep one foot towards academia while getting a taste of how I might like an alternative position.  The other was a short-term position in Alaska, doing the very things I love and have done for the past 10 years.  Both incredible opportunities, I made plans to do first one and then the other.  Things were looking good.  However, due to both personal and professional reasons, I eventually decided that moving to Alaska was not in the cards. 

It's tempting to think of the adventures I'd be having if I chose to move to the far north for a year. There's something incredibly terrifying about not doing "the next step".  But then you realize that the things that "they" think you should do are really just coming from inside your own head, and sometimes you need to re-calibrate to find your own voice.  And catch up on writing some papers.  So, I put most of my stuff in storage, and hit the road with my dog and a very full truck.  The Tacoma only gets about half the mileage my Civic did, but since it doesn't get the challenge of Alaska I had planned for it, it's earning its keep hauling clothes and books and various important items like Clue.

Looking at a map of family and friends, I realized that I could make a loop around the country.  Working 40+ hours/ week in between drives and visits, it's a slow trip in the best way possible.  I get to visit some of my favorite people, hang out in my favorite cities, and see those last 7 states (now 4) on my bucket list.  Here's a purely logistical look at my route and what I have planned.  Pictures and stories to come.

Northern Segment (Montana to Pennsylvania):  completed

Bozeman, MT

Rapid City, SD

Des Moines, IA

Ann Arbor, MI

Milford, PA (extended base for side trips)

• New York City, NY
• Philadelphia, PA
• various locations in NJ

Cambridge, MA

• Burlington, VT
• Lincoln, NH
• Portland, ME
• Salem, MA

Southern Segment (Pennsylvania to Arizona):  up next

Takoma Park, MD

Charlotte, NC
(Savannah, GA)

Naples, FL

Baton Rouge, LA

Austin, TX
(Las Cruces, NM)

Tucson, AZ

Western Segment (Arizona to Montana):  tbd

Pasadena, CA

Santa Cruz, CA

Portland, OR

Seattle, WA

Bozeman, MT

To tide you over for the more entertaining posts, here's a picture from the farthest north-east corner of my trip:

Portland Head Lighthouse, Maine

What would you do?

This past Friday, I was fortunate to meet two incredible people who were staying with some friends in town.  Adam and Christy Coppola are spending a calendar year traveling across all 50 states via bicycle.  Having embarked in January, Montana was their 41st state.  They entered Wyoming today, their 43rd state, after Idaho.  Obviously familiar with the idea of adventure to have cooked up such a scheme, they are also doing it for charity, inspired by their brothers- the Peace Corps volunteer inspired connection to World Bicycle Relief and the other inspired a connection to Achilles International's Freedom Team for Wounded Vets.  Christy writes the blog, while Adam takes stunning photographs- I'm really hoping they turn this into a book, they've gotten an incredibly close experience with people from all walks of life and the photos to match.

After watching Harry Potter 7.2, a gaggle of us headed to a local pub where I finally tried their famous Moscow Mule (potentially very dangerous).  I can't remember if it was there or waiting for the movie at the theater when, in the course of the conversation, I told Adam about last fall when I went from ~71 deg N to ~77 deg S in the course of five days or so.  His response was a smiling and incredulous, "Who does that?".  Coming from a guy more than halfway through a bike tour of all 50 states, I'll take it as a complement!  But it definitely reminded me of why I do what I do.  

Meeting them in someways feels like a bit of fate poking me in the rear.  With my current job ending in December (unless that fellowship comes through, fingers crossed!) I've been facing the possibility of being unemployed in January.  While I've been quite excited about a few job openings and applying for every job that I'm remotely qualified for, anyone who's looking right now can tell you that prospects are thin.  Terrifying in some ways, exciting in others.  Moving back home is certainly not an option, so I've been thinking of what other folks have done.  Like the friend who quit his job, traveled the world, and then lived out of a van when he went back to grad school to pay off his credit cards.  So, I started to thinking about what I would do if I couldn't do what I do now.  Of course, the fantasy of doing what you love doesn't always meet the reality of the grocery bill, but I'm a little less scared of that unknown now than I was just a little while ago.  Not that I'll hop on a bike and tour the 50 states, but maybe something equally awesome in its own little way.  I still have 7 states and 1 continent on the list.  And a dog who has decided she really, really, likes day long hikes.  Heck, I turned working for a rental car company after undergrad into a month long backpacking trip in Europe.

Cologne (I think), Germany, 2001

If you had the opportunity to take a year out of your life or to start over, what would you do?

Alternative means of science outreach

The recent cobra "escape" at the Bronx Zoo has gotten lots of media attention lately.  However, the best thing to come out of this little escapade can be found on Twitter.  Yes, I finally broke down and ventured into the world of Twitter during the recent disasters in Japan to get up to date information.  Basically, a few humorous individuals have latched on to several characters, including the cobra, the zoo keeper, and a honey badger.  Check out this post which outlines the excitement.  It gets better.  The cobra has apparently hijacked ryanseacrest.com for April Fool's Day and turned it into the snake version of the Huffington Post, complete with information on 5 do's and don'ts for dating a cobra.  In addition, the honey badger is directly influenced by a video on youtube which is a humorous re-narration of a wildlife video (warning, foul language).  This spontaneous interconnection of different media has gotten so much attention because it's fun, and a nice change of pace from the bad news that surrounds us lately.  It's escapism.  But the coolest part is, it's escapism about biology.

During the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last summer, slightly less charismatic organisms took center stage.  A friend found himself center stage, discussing the plight of the pancake batfish.  Somehow even the strikingly ugly looks of this creature (the fish, not my friend) provoked discussions on blogs around the web, and even among my friends on facebook, scientist and non-scientist alike.  Everyone knew the severity of the situation, but somehow this funny looking fish brought a face to the situation.

Another example of possibly alternative outreach can be found in the xkcd webcomics.  While the audience mostly consists of math and science geeks, it's always fun to see a bit of yourself in a comic (much like phdcomics) and it makes me wonder if things like this bring our science to a larger audience.  At least it connects the biologists and the physicists and the mathematicians.

"It wants to hug you!  So cute!"

At a recent meeting in Puerto Rico (I swear I'll get to updating those travel stories one of these days...) I was fortunate to be able to attend a lunch workshop with Randy Olson.  The topic was, 'Don't be such a scientist'.  As a tenured biology professor turned filmmaker, he definitely had a unique point of view with concrete suggestions on science outreach.  One keep aspect he mentioned was being less cerebral and reaching out more with emotion.  The above examples, along with such things as "Dance your Ph.D." contests and my best friend's talent of writing biology based songs highlight the fun side of science.  We are still people, and if more folks knew the fun and excitement that drives us, maybe we'd make a little bit of progress.  Connect as individuals and maybe pass on some education on the scientific method- shockingly few people understand what a theory actually is, gravity is just a theory, afterall.

Of course, spending all day with 4th graders like we did in an outreach event yesterday definitely helps you re-connect with the fun side of science.  Yeah, I guess that "big red" coat we get to wear in Antarctica is pretty cool, after all.  And I'm not ashamed to admit that I geeked out with my lab mates afterwards over the really cool cyanobacteria and algae they had on the microscope at the next station over.

See?  They can be cute!  Giant microbes rock.

But I think the best current example of alternative science outreach is the popular book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  The author draws you in with the striking story of the unknowing donor of cancer cells that have gone on to figure prominently in cancer and other biomedical research.  I definitely recommend you read it.  

In other news, I've updated past posts with tags, so take a look at the "cloud" on the right side bar to read posts by topic.  Also feel free to contact me if you're interested in turning me into a comic book hero, like those over at Women in Science!

Earthquakes in Christchurch

While I was in Christchurch (a few days after the current timeline in the travel stories), there was one morning where there were about 6 earthquakes from 6 am to noon, varying in magnitude from ~3 to 5.  The first one woke me as I was sleeping on the floor at a friend's house.  Since the internet was still working, I surmised that it couldn't have been that strong and found a website that verified the earthquake and listed the magnitude.  Throughout the morning, every time I would feel a tremor, I would wonder how much longer it would last and if I should run to a doorway.  Having grown up in California, I was taught at an early age to find shelter under a desk or in a doorway, away from windows or things that could fall on top of you.  Unfortunately, my friend's house was of the older variety, and as I watched the cracks in the plaster grow, I began to wonder if maybe I should be running out of the house.  Luckily, that burst of activity subsided and really only provided fodder for the Busker's fair which started the next day.

These earthquakes in the Christchurch area started with the 7.1 quake in early September.  Located on a previously unknown fault line, the effects of the earthquake were obvious when I came through in November on my way south.  The town has a heavy use of brick construction, and most chimneys fell victim, as did several historic buildings.  The Boxing Day aftershock was even more damaging to some buildings due to the shallow depth of the quake (only 5 km below the surface) and the types of waves produced.  It was "only" a 4.9, less in magnitude than some of the ones I felt sitting on my friends couch on January 20th, but seriously added to the damage still lingering from the September quake.

Which brings us to this Tuesday, February 22nd.  If you've been avoiding the news, there was a magnitude 6.3, centered very close to the city center.  People are still trapped in fallen buildings and the death count keeps rising.  A friend from the ice left New Zealand only 24 hours beforehand.  The Windsor B&B just announced they are closing.  And my friend Biz is now homeless.  Not terribly surprising, most of her neighbors mentioned they thought the place would be condemned after the first two big earthquakes this year.  Most people were very lucky, but the town just can't seem to catch a break.  All the more disturbing because Christchurch had such a great atmosphere filled with wonderful people.  Having lived through the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake (6.9, but at the time everyone said 7.0), I'm very familiar with the damage an earthquake can cause.  I'm still ridiculously nervous about driving across the Bay Bridge.  But the big ones in Christchurch just keep coming and the damage doesn't seem to end.

To recap the geology of it all, the first quake came from a unknown, dormant fault.  The damage caused by the quakes varied based on depth and distance of the epicenters.  The aftershocks are still occurring.

Milford Sound and Queenstown

We left Te Anau early Saturday morning so that we would have plenty of time to make the drive to Milford Sound.  Although there are lots of places to stop and hike from the scenic route, we only had a brief stop at Mirror Lake so that we could make it to our cruise in time.  I'm not sure if we missed it, but the only reflections we saw at the stop was from what was effectively a duck pond.  The mountains did shine beautifully off of the water, but I kept expecting to come up to a larger body of water.  The 90 km trip takes two and a half hours, partly due to a long, steep, one lane tunnel.  I think that Zion National Park could learn from this set up, they have a timed traffic light controlling traffic.  Down and down we went, following the RVs and cars before us.  Eventually we popped out on the other side of the mountains, but unfortunately with no change in the clouds and mist.  

Mirror lake

Soon after the tunnel, we arrived at the end of the road on the western shore, and left the car to go catch our cruise on Real Journeys.  There are only a few companies running tours of the sound, and Real Journeys seemed to be a good compromise of price and length of trip, although our boat was much larger than I usually prefer.  I've noticed that I'll take almost any opportunity to hop onto a boat, but in Milford Sound, it's really the only way to see the area.  We took the nature tour, which was slightly longer than the other options, and landed us on a very big boat with huge sails.  I believe it was one of the boats they use for the overnight cruises, and the berths looked rather nice as we peeked in on our way out (most likely how they intended it). 

Milford Sound

It rains 200 days out of the year at Milford, and around 7 m of rainfall, depending on who was giving the estimate.  So the fog and light rain weren't unusual, but still disappointing as I had fantasies of taking some of the same, grand panorama photos as I had seen.  In fact, it turns out that one of the preloaded backgrounds on my cell phone looks an awful lot like Milford Sound, a picture I've been seeing nearly every day for the past year.  The views were still amazing, and the photos took on an ethereal quality to them, even if they weren't quite as spectacular as the postcards.  The cruise itself was entertaining in several ways.  Not only amazing vistas, but strong winds added an element of adventure on the top deck, and we were able to see porpoises jumping, and a congratulate a man on a fishing vacation who had caught a rather large tuna.  Waterfalls and tree slides, as well as a variety of birds were also on the menu.  By the time we got back in the early afternoon, the weather showed no signs of improving and the lingering mist had pretty much turned to rain.  

Kea

Unfortunately we didn’t have a place in Queenstown lined up yet, so we wasted a bit of time after the cruise looking up places in books and making phone calls.  With that darned limited check in time, we weren’t able to stop and enjoy some of the hikes on the way back out of Milford Sound like I had planned.  But, it was raining quite hard by then and the likelihood of getting soaked lost the appeal.  Our last bit of Milford Sound adventure was thanks to a kea who joined us while we were waiting for the tunnel.  At first, I was delighted to see the parrot-type bird, but soon the stare of it's beady little eyes reminded me of the eerie ravens of Toolik, and I became nervous that the bird was going to join us in the car.  Clearly it was used to hand-outs.  

Lake Wakatipu

The drive to Queenstown was marked by quickly changing biomes.  The air dried out and soon sheep dotted open pastures along the road.  We had our first view of Lake Wakatipu from a picnic area near Kingston.  Ema was amazed at the turquoise color of the water the rest of the drive into Queenstown.  It was strikingly beautiful, and reminiscent of the lakes near Glacier and Banff.  We actually made better time than we had predicted (translation:  I drove less like an old lady than my co-pilot had thought I would) and we arrive at the Reaver's Lodge with time to spare.  It's a strange old motel which has been converted into a backpacker's, with towels, private bathrooms, a fully equipped kitchen, lots of Brazilians, and lots of rules which you can be fined for breaking.  After several long days of driving, we enjoyed a relaxing night in with dinner at the hostel and showed our age by falling asleep early and missing out on a Queensland Saturday night.

Queenstown Gardens

Sundays are fabulous days for sleeping in, and this one was no exception.  I think there was still lingering exhaustion from McMurdo.  With the full day to explain Queenstown, the pace was a bit more moderate.  Having decided to nix visiting captive kiwis, the first stop was a beer at the wharf with plenty of people watching.  A walk in the Queenstown gardens followed, as did some of the best fish and chips I've had since I fell in love with malt vinegar in York.  Roadside stands are usually a good thing, and this tiny little one was only lacking in a liquor license.  Souvenir shopping and dinner at a Speight's brewery followed, as did a gondola ride up to the Skyline Chalet.  There were gorgeous views of the city and the lake, although we did pass on the "luge" course at the top.  Lastly, a stop at the grocery store and back to the Lodge finished our adventures in Queenstown, with preparations to make the long drive back to Christchurch the next day.

View of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu from the Skyline Chalet

Wish list

In reviewing some older blog posts, I came across a travel wish list from 2007.  I've been fortunate enough to cross several places off the list without it being a major aim.  Of course, there are very few places I wouldn't return, and several of the last places I've visited I've imagined living there.  So, as a short break from crunching data here's the old list now updated:

Amazon River Basin (vacation planned to Brazil in 2012)
Antarctica
Athens, Greece (although I'd like to see Athens, Georgia as well)
Australia
Bali
Budapest, Hungary
Caribbean
Costa Rica
Iceland
Morocco
New Zealand
Prague, Czech Republic
Rome, Italy
Scotland
Semester at Sea (really would like to teach for them someday)
St. Petersburg, Russia
Valencia, Spain
Venice, Italy
Vienna, Austria
Yellowstone, Wyoming

Six wish list places visited in less than 4 years!  Australia, St. Petersburg, and Iceland were also close possibilities, but there is only so much you can afford to tack onto a work trip (which most of these were).  Of course, the list is constantly revised as my curiosity often runs rampant.  Lake Baikal, for example, along with various parts of Canada sneak in when I'm not paying attention, or I'll find myself lost in an episode of House Hunters:  International.  If there was some way to bring my furry sidekick with me, I imagine it'd be even harder to pin me down in one place.

Otago Peninsula and the Catlins

Fully satiated and pleased with the accommodations, I was happy to be spending another day near Dunedin.  Fun fact, Dunedin is based on the Gaelic name for Edinburgh (Dùn Èideann) and there are signs of Scottish influence everywhere in New Zealand.  This resulted in my determination that the country was like Hawaii meets Scotland, a bit simpler than my friend Nick's description of Greece and Ireland and lots of other places having babies, which I can't fully recall at the moment.  Dunedin is also home to the University of Otago which has a rivalry with the University of Canterbury in Christchurch akin to U of M and Ohio State.  Somewhat relevant since Biz is a U of M alumna attending U of Canterbury and there's an Ohio State professor on sabbatical at the U of Otago (who also happens to hang a U of M flag in his office last I heard).  Although I can't quite picture the friendly and laid back Kiwis rioting in the streets.      

Plankton net at the Marine Center

Thursday morning (January 13th), was similar to the morning before except that I was actually able to sleep in and was not stressed about covering long distances (360 km in 5 hours on Wednesday).   First stop was the grocery store across the street from the Cadbury chocolate factory and I discovered the deliciousness of strawberry jam and New Zealand cheese on a croissant.  Just thinking about it makes me hungry again despite the late hour here and the more than adequate Peruvian dinner I ate earlier.  In any case, it was a far cry from my standby of Laughing Cow cheese, baquette, and chocolate bar which has sustained me on several ventures abroad.  And all the fresh food!  I walked around the produce section for quite a long time, marveling at all of the choices.

Baby fur seals!

Out for the day, we headed to the Otago peninsula, which juts out east of Dunedin.  It's a narrow, two lane road, which hugs the coastline and often a cliff.  First real stop was down a dirt road with several cattle guards to the Marine Center in Portobello.  It was small but two aquatic scientists don't have much of a problem being entertained when there are water and education involved.  Further down the road, we skipped the albatross colony due to a combination of overpriced tickets and really a lack of interest (sorry my birder friends).  Instead, we opted for the Penguin Place tour.  The land there is mostly private nature reserves, so we had to pile in a 6 wheeled ATV to head out to blinds to watch baby fur seals, blue penguins, and yellow eyed penguins.  Being so close to baby fur seals was worth the price of admission on its own and was definitely a highlight of the trip.  A quick detour to the gardens of Larnach Castle finished up the day on the peninsula.  On the way back to town, we were briefly detained by a family moving their flock of sheep across the road.  It's said that there are more sheep than people in New Zealand, and it's quite possible!  With plenty of time left to enjoy the evening, we cooked dinner at the hostel and then wandered around town, listening to music from bars that seemed to be competing with one another.

Nugget Point

Dunedin easily deserved at least another day, but we had a limited amount of time to spend on our trip.  Friday saw us back on the road, for a drive through the Catlins on our way to Te Anau.  The drive from Dunedin to Te Anau can go in several different routes.  Of course, I insisted on the southern scenic route, touted by rental car guide as # something or other on the top 100 things every Kiwi should do.  It was definitely worth it.  A bit over 500 km, the driving time was about 5 hours, but lots of fun stops along the way made for a travel time closer to 9 hours.  The scenic route diverges from the main highway at Balclutha and then hugs the coastline.  Luckily, we had borrowed a driving map from the Windsor which had all the scenic stops printed in magenta.  First stop was the lighthouse at Nugget Point located at the end of a short scenic walk.  There were breathtaking views of blue green water and rough waves crashing sublimely against large rocks and even short Maori poems on plaques to add to the awe inspiring views.

Curio Bay

Purakatnui falls was not much farther down the road and offered another short walk, this time through shaded rain forest to a pretty little tiered water fall.  Back out by the car we took advantage of the sunshine and had lunch outside while guarding our food from an unknown bird with a chest the color and pattern of cork.  We then headed to Waikawi to look for dolphins in Porpoise Bay, and checked out the petrified wood and huge kelp at Curio Bay, just around the corner.  No dolphins, but both the sandy beach at Porpoise Bay and the rocky intertidal at Curio Bay had plenty of scenery and other biology to admire.  The petrified tree stumps there were literally a world away from the petrified forest in Arizona.

Waipapa Point Lighthouse

The last stop of the Catlins was the lighthouse at Waipapa Point.  The area was much flatter and seemingly in contrast to the one that started the day at Nugget Point, but was the site of a rather morbid shipwreck where onlookers could do little to help the passengers drowning not far offshore.  All the shipwreck stories reminded me a bit of Michigan, albeit without the lyrical stylings of Gordon Lightfoot.  After driving on through Invercargill (including a street named Somerville), we turned northward to Te Anau.  Once again we had a "late" check in deadline of 8 pm and we made it in plenty of time, in part because Ema was having way too much fun driving.  There we stayed in a “standard cabin” at the holiday park which has facilities more like camping.  Unfortunately, that also meant that the kitchen consisted of hot plates and not much else besides a microwave.  Lesson learned.  When I next called for reservations, I was sure to ask about a "fully equipped" kitchen.  I also discovered that free internet outside of Christchurch and Dunedin was a rarity.  Just because a place advertises wifi does not mean that it will be free.  Oh how spoiled we've become in the States.

Evening at Lake Te Anau

Next stop:  Milford Sound!