There were 4 of us going in Dave's '76 Chevy Blazer, which didn't have a back seat. It rained the night before the trip and he had left the rear window down. Of course Dave didn't tell us that until we were already in the truck and laying on soggy carpet. But we left New Orleans that night with high hopes. It was going to be a 43 hour drive, nonstop, and we would rotate drivers between 3 of us (the 4th was under age). Seems every time I got behind the wheel I had to take a detour. I've never had to use a map as much in my whole life! When we hit Dallas we noticed an oil leak, so we drove around until we found a service station where we bought a case of oil (Dave didn't want to have his engin overhauled right at that moment). Funny thing, we never had to use a single quart of that oil the whole trip.

A few hundred miles later Dave noticed the truck pulling. Upon inspection he noticed that his brand new tires were wearing out along the outside rim. They weren't balanced properly! So now we had to travel through the dessert until we came to a small town (and I mean small) to get new tires. We stoped at the only gas station around and had them changed and hopefully balanced. Then onward and back through the dessert. Did I mention that Dave's air conditioner didn't work?

When we made a pit stop the radiator overflowed. The engin was running hot. Someone had the bright idea that if we turn the heater on it would pull the heat off the engin and help it from overheating. Geez! It was already 110 degrees outside! But we did it anyway. When we came to the next small town we stoped at another service station. The man there explained that the radiator was fine, it was just releasing pressure. We should let the engin idle down before turning it off. Then he laughed at us for riding with the heater on.

We finally did make it to Wyoming, near Red Bird and Mule Creek Junction. The pictures on the previous page tell the story of what we did at the excavation. During our souvenir hunting I found a Triceratops verterbra, parts of the frill, and various bone scraps. I also found part of a claw and some fossil leaves.

When it was time for us to return home Dr. Derstler asked if we could bring with us some of the bones they had excavated since they were staying a few more days and needed the space in their van. So we loaded up some bones, including the Triceratops horns, and headed on our way home. That's when things got bad.

We made it to Denver alright, the worst thing that happened was a warsp flew into the truck and stung me. We stayed at a real dump of a hotel. The owner kept sending some girl over to 'check on us'. We really didn't want to get involved with that so we just stayed in and watched the Republican National Convention that was going on in New Orleans at that time. The next day we went to the Denver Museum of Natural History. That was a great expierence for me. Then after giving the truck a very needed tune up we headed out.

I don't think Dallas likes us, because right when we hit the county line the universal joints went out. It was about 5:00 AM, so we found an auto parts store and parked there and slept until they opened. After changing out the joints we left for home. I was driving and doing fine when we passed through Shreveport, Louisiana. But once outside the city all 'stuff' hit the fan. A sprocket had broken off in the rear end and tore it all up. Now we were stranded, and with all those fossil in the truck. I walked until I found a house where the owner let me call AAA. The truck was towed back to Shreveport to a Chevy dealership. We all had to get back to New Orleans that night due to work obligitions the next day, so we ended up leaving the truck there, with all our stuff, and taking a Greyhound back to New Orleans. The only thing to show for our trip was one little bone scrap that was at the bottom of my pocket. My friends back home laughed at me and said it wasn't a dinosaur bone, it was a porkchop bone. Geez!