From: William Gardner
Date: Monday, August 19, 2013
Subject: Archaeologizing
To: daniel wakefield pasley <[email protected]>

Hello Daniel

Great to hear from you. I hope all is well and I hope you guys are having a good summer.

In regards to transport, is Sunday the 3rd a solid arrival date or is it possible to arrive Saturday the 2nd? I only ask as we were thinking of pushing out from Denver on Saturday and then get a good full day tour of the valley / project area on Sunday. No worries if Sunday is the earliest you can arrive as we can make other arrangements. For example, one possible option is for you to fly directly into and out of Grand Junction, Colorado. There are a few dirt road options out of the project area that can have you in Grand Junction in little less than 2 hours.

Of course this is coming from my father who has worked in northwest Colorado for decades now and as such he is a bit of a salty dog when it comes to these things - the other day he and I were checking out a site in Delta, Colorado, he was like “hey lets go check out Paradox, I know a back road that will have us there in an hour” - we arrived four hours later and in the dark. The more I think about it, my father may not be the best barometer of travel time, although he has a billion different paths memorized, speed of travel is entirely dependent upon the amount of coffee he has consumed and the excitement associated with whatever story he is reminiscing about. But to be honest, even though it has been a while for me, I do think it is a pretty quick trip from where we will camp up to Grand Junction. This would also work well in regards to your shorter stay as we could very easily pick you up and drop you off directly at the airport - which will probably be a lot more convenient than trying to catch a bus or renting a car - also possibly a bit more cost effective.

In regards to your shorter stay, that is totally cool. The first 2/3 days will be more varied anyways, so you will get a nice sample of everything. I will recommend 3 days instead of 2, because Monday the 4th will be kind of a wash - we have to drive into Delta, Co to meet with the BLM people - first time project meet and greet thing. Typically these things are more fun in Mongolia as there is generally vodka involved - probably won’t be so lucky here. However, it will be good for you to come along and meet these guys as well. I just found out that because of the ‘protected’ status of archaeological sites, the BLM will ask you to send them all your ‘field’ write-ups for clearance before publishing (all they want to make sure is that you are not publishing site location information). I do realize that this is a bit of “big brother is watching”, but it is typical protocol and it will also be a lot easier/faster of a process if they get a chance to meet you in person and realize what you/yonder journal is all about.

Alright good buddy, I better run but I will talk to you later.

Take it easy,
Will

P.S. Even fried zucchini? Fried stuff’s goooood.