Where to begin....

Well, I haven't been online for many days now--I've wanted to post about the many things happening, but haven't been able to. (grrr.)
 
For starters--I am now on Day 1 of Period 9--and I am only here through the end of Period 10!  So time is flying (as I eventually knew it would).  All the other interns are tired now and want it to end, but I'm just getting the hang of things.  I'm rather enjoying the position--although sometimes I seem to be the only one...
 
I will now proceed to work backward within my entry with in the blog (which already works backward). 
 
For break, Pete and I drove down to Radcliff, KY to visit Eric and Marie (two of the other interns) and go to Mammoth Cave.   Eric had signed us up to do the 6-hour "Wild Cave Tour," where you crawl on your hands and knees through passages, belly-crawl 30 ft, free-climb 10-foot walls, and walk on ledges.  It was a blast!  I am completely bruised and sore today, but it was completely worth it. :D  As Eric said, "I didn't think it would be a rush to crawl through tiny spaces, but it is."  It was so cool--more like exploring than a "tour."  We had to guides, and only 14 people total on the tour.  I found out that I am not claustrophobic in the least (at least when it comes to natural spaces).  Some of the spaces were so small you pushed yourself along with your toes and had to turn your head sideways, and for quite a distance!  Each section had a cool name to, like "Birth Canal," which led into "Fallopian Tube."  There was "Castration Rock," (crawl _around_, not over) and "Shark Fin Alley," "Dave's Lost Sea" (it was wet on the floor) and "Shotgun" (you could crawl through the top tube and swing yourself down, or crawl over water in the bottom tube).  We saw parts of the normal tours (they have about 12 different tours there!), like "Frozen Niagra" (huge stalactites joined together like a waterfall) and the "Drapery Room" (ribbons of rock). They were cool, but the best parts were the crazy (and often unnecessary but on-purpose) detours from the main routes.  The belly crawls were my favorite, surprisingly enough, although some of that could be due to the sheer novelty factor. Ledge walking was cool too.  And there was food down there!  They have a cafeteria in the Snowball Room with a limited selection of lunch stuff for sale--they get it down  by elevator and walking!  Amazing stuff....
 
On the night of Tuesday, July 13th (one week ago) we had this major thunderstorm series--with tornado and high wind warnings.  Winds of 80 miles an hour roared through much of Indiana and Kentucky, knocking down thousands of trees.  The next morning  Pete and I went out to the First Creek banding site and had to drive over several small trees in the road.  Our station had a lot of debris and some downed trees, but the net lanes (where we set up the nets) were fine.  When we went to Area 14 the following day, however, we found HUGE trees (mostly oak) in our paths and net lanes.  We had to do quite a bit of clearing.  I've never seen so many downed trees!  The wind damage was incredible--everything from large branches down to whole trees uprooted--trees 2 ft in diameter!  Trees broken and split at the top, halfway down, and at the base--with huge splinters of wood sticking up.  Absolutely amazing...
 
(more soon)