Breathe....

Well, I was in the wonderful world of the field for the past three weeks. Beginning on Oct.10th, I've gone from Oklahoma, back to Austin, to Del Rio for the TAS, then back on the project starting at Sulphur Springs, Texas.
This time around I'm working with the Architectural Historians. Well, Anita is the AH and Jules is an AH in training with a background in landscape architecture. Poor girl is working on her thesis as we're out here....memories of that ordeal goes through my mind. Blah. Anyway, what does that mean for survey? Well, above ground cultural resources basically. And not just any above ground resources...specifically buildings. Houses, barns, sheds, outhouses, garages...
Totally outside of my realm of expertise, but its been very interesting learning how to ID buildings. And luckily its not as intensive as regular survey. Not that I'm dissing my archaeology, but its nice to just walk around, look at buildings, and not have to go through dense vegetation and dig holes for an extended period of time. A good change of pace.
I'm diggin' it. Plus, as always we get to drive through very pretty country in Oklahoma and Texas. Can't help appreciate the loveliness of the open spaces, farms, ranches, and long roads. It's disappearing fast these countrysides so I have to be able to take advantage of gazing upon these landscapes.
Oklahoma was fun as always. Got to visit Stroud and have delicious bacon at the Ranch House restaurant and visit with Vonita the waitress. Our rover, Gerry, is great and treats us pretty much like daughters. We visited various sites and buildings, but the key site was the the airport at Holdenville. Really cool, built in 1946. Then we went down to Ada, OK. Feels like my second home honestly. Ada has an awesome WPA park with a lovely lake. Only time in the project I was able to work out. We were moving often during this effort so we had two days in Stroud, 3 days in Ada, and then two days in Atoka.
After a brief break for the TAS meetings in Del Rio, we hit it hard starting at Sulpher Springs then going strong all the way to Beaumont. It was tough with the long hours, the intense turnaround of data, and general bad eating...but fun nonetheless. We couldn't stop laughing sometimes. It could be because we were starting getting delusional, but I'd like to think we were just keeping up our spirits up. Either way it was fun.
We completed our AH survey on time and now on to reporting. Which is not the fun part but we get 'er done. The AH girls and I really had a great time and we got to really bond over architecture, food, shopping, and well, more food. Would love to try this type of survey again...on another project.