It's not all happy times...

My mom pointed out last night how lucky I am to have the experiences I do with my line of work and I completely agree with her. I am very lucky to have done and seen the things I have. However, it's not all smiles and roses though. There is a down side to working in rural areas where there aren't any people and lots of towns don't even have a gas station. For example. . .

A few weeks ago I was working in the Coronation and Consort area doing some Detailed Site Assessments with a co-worker (basically a reclamation inspection that involves looking at the soils, plants, and contours of the well lease to determine if it gets a passing grade). We stayed one night (only one thank goodness!) in Coronation while we were down there. There are two motels in Coronation. My boss told me that he tried one, but he saw beetles crawling through the shag carpet, so before he even unloaded he left and kept on driving. So we stayed in the other, hoping (futilely?) for nicer accomodations.

The first thing I noticed when I walked in was that there were kernels of overly desiccated corn all over the floor! How does corn get all over the floor??? More importantly, why wasn't it vacuumed up?!?!? Do they even have a vacuum? Maybe they don't have cleaning staff. . . It is a small town after all. . . There were also lots of other unidentifiable things on the carpet, mystery stains everywhere - even on the one and only chair - piles of dirt and gravel in the corners, burn holes in the sheets and on the bathroom floor, dried crusty blood on the bathroom wall, and hair on the pillowcases of one bed. The bathroom was a dingy cave, and everything smelled like cigarette smoke. It was disgusting to say the very least. I almost slept in the truck, but settled for the bed with no hair, kept the window open, and didn't take my shoes off EVER!!!

Anyways, now that that wonderful experience is behind me it's mildly entertaining to reminisce about the corn on the floor, but not the blood on the wall. At least I didn't see any beetles.