I know it has been awhile and I’m sorry for not blogging more but I have been pretty busy. So I guess I’ll let you know what I’ve been up to…
Fireworks
Field Trips
Landscaping
Bismark
Working out
International Peace Gardens
Lunch Breaks
Painting
And a little bit of office work
A couple of weekends ago I took my guitar out to Lake Darling which is about 25 minutes outside of Minot. It was a lovely day and I found this little path and no one was around and the path led up a hill to a bench; so I stayed there and looked out over the lake and played guitar for a couple of hours and it was a great time.
Afterwards I put the guitar away and followed the path. It was about a 1/4 mile grassy loop that just went around the back of the hill and through a few trees and such and was really pretty. Along the way I picked these.
Then I hopped back in the car and headed back to Minot after my little adventure, or so I thought. But really the adventure was about to begin. Because as I was driving I found a tick crawling up my side. I pulled it off and threw it out the window. Then there was another, and another. I pulled over and got several off and then kept on driving….and pulling off more and more ticks. I got home and took my socks and shoes off and immediately took a shower, and found like 6 more, then inspected my pants, another 3, then my socks and shoes, another 8, then my car, 2 more…..
It was horrible. Those flowers were NOT worth it! I felt like ticks were creeping on me for the next few days. So gross.
So I added two more states to my list; Montana and Wyoming. The trip was Monday thru Friday for the purpose of seeing an ESP teardown. For those of you that care, an ESP is an electric submersible pump used in wells that are deep and pump alot of fluids. Monday and Friday were all driving because it was about 9 1/2 hours away and Tuesday thru Thursday we were at the shop. I actually got to take apart the impellers and diffusers and touch the bags in the seals and the rotary in the motor and sandblast the different pieces! 
Along with all of this excitement we ate out for every meal. Which sounds nice but it gets old really quick.
Besides the pump shop, my favorite part was hiking Casper Mountain. On Wednesday we got out of the pump shop a little early so I talked one of the people on our trip into going with me (so you can put your minds at ease I didn’t go by myself). We got to hike for 4 1/2 hours about 9 miles so of course I loved it.
All in all a very good trip.
I’m pretty sure that my mentor is beginning to wonder if I am actually going to get my project done because I frequently inform him that I will be going out in the field to see things (as often as I am able). There is so much to see here that I am afraid that I won’t be able to see it all and the office does get boring for me when I think of all that is happening outside.
There are plenty more pictures on facebook but I figured I would explain a few things if anyone is interested.
Last weekend a few other interns and engineers and I went camping in Medora. It is this place that Teddy Roosevelt really liked I guess and is called the badlands. Anyways it is the coolest place I have seen in North Dakota yet because it isn’t just flat. We left work on Friday and set up camp and made hot dogs and s’mores around the fire that night. The next day we decided to go for a hike and find the petrified forest because we had heard it was pretty cool.
So we found this…
And we thought surely there must be more cooler stuff up ahead (because it didn’t really look like a forest). So we continued hiking….
And saw all this…..
All day long…
So you see, we took a wrong turn….
And instead of it taking a couple of hours for about 4 or 5 miles….
It took 8 hours for 14.7 miles, and getting lost, and getting muddy, and sunburned, and finding a random lost other person.
And these are the types of adventures I love :D
So that was a good time, then for dinner we went into town to a western bar and there were real life cowboys so we did what any reasonable eastern girls would do and asked to get a picture with them. They said if we waited we could get a picture with the horses too so of course we did.
One other thing worth mentioning, I did try my first mountain oysters which really didn’t taste too bad.
On Sunday I got to drive back to Minot and now I’m in the middle of another awesome work week in which I will be in the field 3 times and next week I will be taking a mini vacation to Casper Wyoming to see a ESP teardown. I’ll fill you in later.
