Quirky Sidekicks and Good Socks The May Chaco rare plant survey went well. Donna and I eschewed the tourist trails for the back country of one of America's driest, dustiest national parks. Chaco is all about cliffs and vast sandy mesas. We might have suffered had it not been for the Smartwool socks that John and Phil picked up for us in Albuquerque. My shoulders might have ached from schleping a plant press around the desert all day, but my feet felt like they were coddled in a warm nest. I can't say enough good stuff about those socks!
There were some other intrepid botanists afoot in that landscape as well. We met Lisa Floyd- and Dan Hanna while they were monitoring plots. They were lodged in the dormitory just down the way from our tent sites. We were a tish jealous of their bathtub and big veranda and sheets on real beds. Hey, but they weren't wearing Smartwool, so they suffered, you know they did! Besides, we had the epsom salt footbath set up and some nicely scented skin lotion. We offered to treat them to a footbath, should they come to visit, but when Lisa showed up on the last night there, we never offered to take our poor old feet from the hot water they were soaking in. It was poor hospitality, but our feet had climbed Chacra Mesa that day and they needed the treatment.
Donna is the most wonderful quirky sidekick a botanist could ever want. She never complains even when we are stuck in a hot canyon without a breath of fresh air. She only helps you think about the thermos of tea sitting in the jeep at the bottom of the trail. She doesn't complain about the cans of beans for lunch. She believes you when you say that the hill you are climbing is the highest point in the park, even though you are only saying it so that climbing the dang thing will seem less pointless. She gets excited about every new species and raves about the majestic elk that runs across the trail in front of us. A field trip with Smartwool and Donna is about as good as life can get.
Yrs,
JRW
10:42:52 PM 
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