Enough with the excuses, however. Let us get to the stories.
The first one occurred relatively early in August. Chris, the little boy that I sometimes watch, was with us everyday then. And one day, I packed all three little boys into the car, along with a cooler of food and plenty of 'Hank the Cowdog' CDs (And added one grandfather for interest) and we set off, over the mountains to the Eastern side to go see Mammoths. Ummm... yes, it appears that Eastern Washington is a mecca for beasties. A desert now, it was once the site of a gigantic Icewall meltdown. In the case of the place to which we were going, it was home to Mammoths -- not the Woolly Mammoth that most people think of but the other, larger Columbia River Mammoth. The trip took three hours driving -- with one rest stop. All in all, the boys were wonderful, though Chris --who tends to overheat easily -- complained bitterly about having to take his turn sitting in the farthest back seat.
The Mammoth Dig sits on the side of a hill, on a private farm. The beast was discovered when someone, driving a bulldozer and digging ground for a road, slammed the dozer's plow into the Femur of the creature. Great excitement ensued and Western Washington University sent a team to investigate. Using computer tomography, they scanned the area and discovered what appears to be an almost completely intact Mammoth skeleton. Even greater excitement arose when a 'purposeful flake' was found -- potentially an indication of human presence on the site.
We arrived in a swirl of dust. The boys unloaded with Chris roaring, in his inimitable way, "ITS HOT!" Hmmm... sorta what one expects in a desert, isn't it? We trudged over to the sign and Jason, who'd been given my Sony camera for use that day, took a few photographs.
Then off into the visitors' tent -- a relatively high comfort affair, we were assured by the resident archeologist. Here is where the stories start to get funny. The young man, an
archeologist post grad out of WWU, asked the assembly 'Does anyone know what a paleontologist is?' Jason said 'A paleontologist is a scientist who studies the oldest fossil remains, before the coming of man.' The archeologist blinked. 'That is the best definition I have heard in a long time. Okay, can you tell me what an archeologist does?' Jason, ever ready to oblige, smiled and said ' Archeologists study the human past and ancient cities before the beginning of written history.' The archeologist stared at him with increasing interest 'You know a lot!' he commented. Jason smiled again 'Indiana Jones is my favorite archeologist.' At that, the young man's face split into a grin. 'Mine too! Dya know -- I was about your age when the movie first came out and that is why I became an archeologist! But' he added solemnly, 'all of us here have tee-shirts that say 'Indiana Jones LIED to us!' because archeological work is dirty and hot and hard, not as easy as he made it look!' They smiled at each other in agreement and then the discussions about the site began.
