Adventure Is Out There!!
I am one to love adventures, this is a known fact. Next week the roommates and I are planning our own adventure to Atlanta, who knows how that is going to go. But my favorite kind of adventure is the unplanned kind.
This semester the suitemates and I are in Astronomy together. Now, let me tell you, that class is a-mazing. It is the best class I have ever taken with the most amount of daily applicable knowledge that I have ever learned. The professor, Dr. Denault, is extremely funny and makes learning the material so easy. That, and it is really interesting. I love it so much.
For the class you are required to go to at least one observing night, where we drive out to Clearwater beach and look at the stars and the moon. There was one scheduled a few weeks ago but it ended up raining that day. By the time 8:00 came around it had started clearing up so the three of us went to the classroom to make sure that we still weren't going, we were really excited about it and wanted to go.
Dr. Denault was there, and scared the crap out of us by coming out of a random door right near where we were standing, Unfortunately the observing night was canceled but instead we got a private study sesh for the test the next day.
It took a few weeks for him to reschedule the next observing night and we were finally able to go last night! We met at Plant Hall at 8 and loaded up the bio van with the telescope. We then drove 30 minutes out to the beach, when we got there we parked in a sandy lot, unloaded and set up on the beach. There was a few people around but we mostly had the place to ourselves.
The moon was heading toward a waning gibbous so it was still big enough for us to get a really good look at it. Not only that but Jupiter was extremely visible. You could even see the rings on Jupiter and three of its moons.
There were clouds covering the western half of the sky but it was windy enough that it cleared out in about 10 minutes. We spent about an hour identifying the astrisms, the pictures the stars make. (What many people call a constellation.). We also ran around the beach and stuck our feet in the really warm water.
Then, when we were packing up, around 9:40, I jixed us twice. One a good thing and the other a bad. First, I said that I didn't want to leave yet. Second, after Kelicy stepped on a sand spur, I said that now that I was talking about them, I was going to step on one.
We loaded the van back up, piled in and started to make a u-turn out of the sand lot when... we got stuck. We were not moving at all. So, we decided to push and all started getting out on the van. That was when I stepped on three sand spurs. After pulling them out of my foot I decided to put on my shoes. We pushed from the front, we pushed from the back, Kelicy even drove while Dr. Denault helped us push. We ended up making it worse.
We dug a giant hole with the back tire.
They were all over my shoes, and I was wearing canvas shoes so it was very painful. We were all being attacked by them. After we gave up on trying to get the van out ourselves we all limped over to the road and started to extract them from our feet. That was the unenjoyable part.
This semester the suitemates and I are in Astronomy together. Now, let me tell you, that class is a-mazing. It is the best class I have ever taken with the most amount of daily applicable knowledge that I have ever learned. The professor, Dr. Denault, is extremely funny and makes learning the material so easy. That, and it is really interesting. I love it so much.
For the class you are required to go to at least one observing night, where we drive out to Clearwater beach and look at the stars and the moon. There was one scheduled a few weeks ago but it ended up raining that day. By the time 8:00 came around it had started clearing up so the three of us went to the classroom to make sure that we still weren't going, we were really excited about it and wanted to go.
Dr. Denault was there, and scared the crap out of us by coming out of a random door right near where we were standing, Unfortunately the observing night was canceled but instead we got a private study sesh for the test the next day.
It took a few weeks for him to reschedule the next observing night and we were finally able to go last night! We met at Plant Hall at 8 and loaded up the bio van with the telescope. We then drove 30 minutes out to the beach, when we got there we parked in a sandy lot, unloaded and set up on the beach. There was a few people around but we mostly had the place to ourselves.
The moon was heading toward a waning gibbous so it was still big enough for us to get a really good look at it. Not only that but Jupiter was extremely visible. You could even see the rings on Jupiter and three of its moons.
If you click on it and make it larger, you can see Dr. Denault adjusting the telescope. The moon back lit him perfectly.
Then, when we were packing up, around 9:40, I jixed us twice. One a good thing and the other a bad. First, I said that I didn't want to leave yet. Second, after Kelicy stepped on a sand spur, I said that now that I was talking about them, I was going to step on one.
We loaded the van back up, piled in and started to make a u-turn out of the sand lot when... we got stuck. We were not moving at all. So, we decided to push and all started getting out on the van. That was when I stepped on three sand spurs. After pulling them out of my foot I decided to put on my shoes. We pushed from the front, we pushed from the back, Kelicy even drove while Dr. Denault helped us push. We ended up making it worse.
We dug a giant hole with the back tire.
It was about half the tire deep. It was bad, there was no way to get it out on our own. Luckily I had my AAA card with me, so I called them for help. While I was on the phone the other girls that were with us walked to one of the neighboring housed to ask for help. They came back with a few boards and a guy. But even with the board they were making it worse.
The AAA guy probably thought I was nuts because I was this girl calling him about a 14 passenger van being stuck in the sand. When I told him what kind of car it was I could hear the surprise in his voice. It was amusing. I called around 10 and he told us that help would come no later then 10:45.
When I was talking to him, I was walking around getting the car information and telling them that they were continuously making it worse I was noticing that my feet were starting to hurt and I could not not figure out why. Well as soon as I got off the phone I took a look and it turns out that we were standing in a sand spur mine pit or nest, if you will.
We just chilled on the road for about 30 min and got creeped out by a guy who was just sitting in his truck with his headlights on looking at us. Two of the girls walked over to him and asked what he was doing and then he drove away. But he came back a few minutes later, drove over by the van, and almost got stuck himself. He apparently went and got chains and was now going to help us out. But really he was just sketching us out. The good thing was the AAA showed up before he could start anything.
It was a good thing that I had told AAA what the problem was because if I hadn't they probably would have just sent a general utility car. Instead this HUGE tow truck came. It had a flat bed and everything. The guy, whose jump suit said Chris, but his name was really Drew, was really nice. He hooked the van up to the bed with chains and winched it out of the hole. He ended it having to do it twice because when he did it from the back and tried to drive it away it got stuck again so he had to pull it out by the front.
Eventually it was pulled free and we were able to drive home. By then it was almost 11 o'clock. We decided to stop at McDonalds on the way back to get vanilla ice cream cones. It was the perfect end to an amazing adventure.
I hope all of the observing nights after this will be just as amazing.
