We Got New Phones

Over the years, Tim and I have been Verizon and then AT&T wireless customers. Our plan for some time, however, had been to switch to T-Mobile because of its free international roaming service. With AT&T, we have spent several hundred dollars on each cruise for internet access.

We would have switched to T-Mobile before our France’s Finest cruise but discovered that AT&T was the only service available at AGFO. Although we had free Wi-Fi there, we didn’t want to lose our ability to make and receive phone calls.

Yesterday, however, we finally made the switch to T-Mobile. Not only do we get unlimited data while traveling internationally, but our new plans are much cheaper than AT&Ts.

We also got new phones, and they are quite an upgrade from our old ones. Existing promotions made the costs extremely low. I decided on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, which Tim had also picked. However, once he saw the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 at the T-Mobile store, he changed his mind. That is a very cool phone, and I’m a bit jealous. 

Our New Phones (images courtesy of T-Mobile)

I’ve transferred everything from my old phone to my new one. Now, I just need to learn how to take advantage of all the new features.

An AGFO Facebook Post Mentioned Us

Since neither Tim nor I are on Facebook, Tera Lynn sent us a link to AGFOs Facebook post today about the contribution of volunteers to the park. Thanks for recognizing us!

That's Us (image courtesy of AGFO Facebook page)

Finishing Our Projects at AGFO

On our way back from South Dakota, we returned to AGFO for two reasons. First, we had to pick up the RV, which we had left there when we went to the conference. We also had a few loose ends to complete for projects. We wrapped up those in a few hours and finally hit the road for Scottsbluff, where we spent one last night. 

Tim and I have worked on many projects in national park units all over the country, but this time at AGFO has been one of my favorites. Completing the redo of the Archives Room was extremely satisfying and one that spoke to my organizational skills. 

Tim and I have also worked with lots of volunteer coordinators at these various parks, and Tera Lynn certainly ranks as one of the best. She always had a smile on her face, and she has the most positive attitude of anyone I’ve ever met. Tera Lynn went out of her way to enable us to successfully complete our projects. She was also a lot of fun to be around! 

Sarah, Tera Lynn, and Tim

We also loved working with the rest of the staff at AGFO, and everyone was so helpful to us. Because it’s such a small park, we got to know everyone, from administration to interpretation to maintenance staff members. There is such a strong sense of community here, and we were lucky to become a part of it.

The Staff at AGFO Was the Best!

Last Sunday, Tera Lynn hosted a potluck to say “goodbye” and “thank you” to both the departing seasonal staff and the volunteers. What a nice evening! The park even presented Tim and me with volunteer “swag,” including a huge NPS umbrella, an arrowhead cutting board, and an NPS mug. Thanks everyone! It’s been great spending the last few months with you!

Thanks So Much!

Plains Anthropological Society Conference

Sessions for the conference started on Thursday. While Tim attended the presentations, I took the day off. I originally had planned to take a road trip to several national park units in the Upper Midwest while Tim was at the conference, but I reluctantly decided to scrap that idea. I was just too tired after working nonstop at AGFO for the past several weeks. Driving long distances no longer appealed to me, and I decided to take a break. It was a good decision.

One of the parks that I had hoped to visit was Pipestone National Monument. By chance, one of the rangers from the park was at the conference. She was doing a pipestone carving demonstration, and I was able to watch her for a bit. It was quite interesting.

Pipestone Carving at the Plains Anthropological Conference

On our last evening, Tim and I ventured to downtown Rapid City. The city has done a wonderful job with its historic district, and I admired the historic preservation efforts underway. We ate dinner at an early fire station that is now Firehouse Brewing Co. It’s the same restaurant where I ate on my Retirement Road Trip in 2005. The food is still very good.

Rapid City's Historic Fire Station, Now Firehouse Brewing Co.

A Trip to South Dakota and Badlands National Park

Tim had always planned to attend this year’s Plains Anthropological Conference in Rapid City, South Dakota, so our goal had been to finish our projects at AGFO before heading out yesterday. We almost made it! We left the RV behind, so we will return next week to finish up a few loose ends. 

The drive to Rapid City was an easy three hours long, and we checked into our hotel and had a light dinner.

Today, we had the day free since Tim had not signed up for any of the tours. So, we decided to drive to Badlands National Park. On past visits, I had focused on the rugged beauty of the park and its geology. For some reason, I had ignored the fact that these geologic deposits contain one of the world’s richest fossil beds. After having met the park’s paleontologist while working at AGFO, I was much more aware of this aspect of the park’s significance.

Tim and I had hoped to meet some of the staff, including the museum curator, but we learned that everyone was participating in the park’s bison roundup. The very helpful ranger at the desk graciously opened the paleontology lab for us, although it had been closed for the season. Tim was particularly interested in seeing how the fossils had been cavity packed. 

The Paleontology Lab at Badlands National Park

We drove along the park road on the way back to Rapid City, and I once again admired the scenery. We even had a few wildlife sightings, including a herd of pronghorn and two bison. We were relieved that the visitors photographing the bison were keeping a respectful distance. Although we have seen bison countless times, it was neat to see them today since we had just watched Ken Burns’ The American Buffalo.

Wild and Rugged Badlands National Park

Wildlife Sightings Are Always Fun

We were hungry when we left the park and stopped at the iconic Wall Drug Store where ice water is still free! The burgers were quite good.

Wall Drug Store

Finally Hitting the Trails at AGFO

Although Tim and I have been at AGFO for more than two months, I have not made the time to hike the two trails here. My excuse is that it was either too hot or too wet, or that I couldn’t afford to take the time away from my project.

On Saturday, I finally made it to the Fossil Hills Trail, which leads to the famous, historic excavation sites or quarries. I confess that I didn’t hike the trail, but caught a ride in the Polaris when Tera Lynn was taking Ranger Amelia to the top for her ranger talk. Although Amelia pointed out evidence of fossils in the exposed hillside, I had trouble seeing them. Obviously, I would never make it as a paleontologist! My favorite part was the views over the surrounding landscape.

The Fossil Hills Trail Begins at the Visitor Center and Leads to the Historic Quarries

Ranger Amelia Tried Her Best to Help Me See Evidence of Fossils

On our way back to the visitor center, Tera Lynn made a detour so I could see the Bone Cabin, which was used as a temporary residence for paleontologists who were working the fossil quarries in the early 1900s. Thanks for the ride!

The Bone Cabin, Views from Fossil Hills, and My Ride

Today, I did hike the Daemonelix Trail, which features fossil exhibits of the spiral corkscrew burrows of the Paleocastor, an ancient land beaver that lived here in the Miocene. Ranger Ember presented her geology tour, and I learned about the various geological layers of the area. It was especially cool to see the “Devil’s Corkscrews.” Even I was able to identify several of these fossilized burrows, apart from the ones preserved in the exhibit cases.

Ranger Ember Helped Me Understand the Geology of the Area

The "Devil's Corkscrews" or Daemonelix

A Change in the Weather

We have had incredibly good weather in Nebraska for the most part since we’ve been here. Bad wind storms have typically happened on weekends while we’ve been at home, and I’ve been able to handle the hot days surprisingly well.

Unfortunately, our luck seems to have run out. The last few days have been very cold and rainy, with sub-freezing nights. It even snowed a little last night, and the forecast is not good.

I finally decided enough is enough, and we checked into a hotel in Scottsbluff this afternoon. The commute is a long one at about 45 minutes each way, but at least we will be warm and not have to worry about our water lines freezing since we are winterizing the RV.  We decided to stay for four nights, and I’m looking forward to being out of the cold.

It's Hard to Believe We Were Dealing with these Temperatures Just a Short Time Ago

A Few Other Projects

Although our main focus was the reorganization of the Archives Room, Tim and I also tackled a few other projects at AGFO.

Tim spent part of his time rehousing fossils in the Museum Storage room. I never knew that Tim could make his own boxes!

Rehousing Fossils

I also tackled the historic photographs backlog project, which Tim and I had worked on when we first visited the park this past January. I am taking copies of all completed inventory sheets with me, and I will type the information into an Excel spreadsheet. This will be my remote winter project.

Reorganizing More Journals, and Books

Tagging and reorganizing the first group of journals took less time than expected, so Tim and I decided to then tackle the jumble of journals in another part of the Archives Room, the real “problem area.” Those journals, and some oversize books, were in a total disarray, and many were just stacked in random piles. (I wish that we had thought to take a “before” photograph of these sections!)

After reorganizing the journals, we were then able to move on to the books, adding paper tags to each one. 

After reorganizing the journals and books, we also inventoried every one of these items and updated the location information in ICMS, the NPS database for museum collections. Finally, we labeled the shelves.

We are quite proud of the way the Archives Room turned out and are a bit amazed with the amount of reorganization we were able to accomplish.

The "New" Archives Room

Everything Should Be Much Easier to Find Now!

A Detour to Fort Laramie National Historic Site

On our way back to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument after one of our weekends at home, we made a detour to Fort Laramie National Historic Site (FOLA) to meet with one of the interns who had been working with the collection at AGFO. 

Shaye gave us a tour of FOLAs museum collection, and she answered some of our questions about the journals and books at AGFO. Although Tim and I had previously visited FOLA, it was fun to see some of the areas not typically open to the public.

Scenes from Fort Laramie National Historic Site

Finally, We Started Our Project

While we were waiting for a virtual meeting with the former curator to provide us with some direction, Tim and I finally decided to develop our own project, with the approval of AGFO, of course.

AGFO preserves the library of James Cook, and this collection includes at least 5,000 books and journals or bulletins. It’s an amazing collection. However, we had been warned that the journals and books had not been arranged according to National Park Service (NPS) standards and that curators would walk into the Archives Room, where the collection is stored, look around, and then throw up their hands and close the door. We decided that reorganizing the journals by sequential catalog number would be our main goal. We viewed this goal as a challenge and a doable project that would provide the most benefit to the park.

We determined that we needed to insert paper tags with the catalog number, written at the top, into each journal. Adding these tags to all the journals would serve two purposes. First, the tags would provide an easily-visible catalog number, eliminating the need to remove the journal from the shelf, open the journal, and search for the catalog number. Second, it would make rearranging the journals by catalog number much easier.

We began with the first row and removed all journals from each shelf, one shelf at a time. We inserted the new tabs and rearranged the journals sequentially by catalog number. What a difference that made!

Preparing and Inserting Paper Tags into each Journal

Shelves of Journals - Before and After

Working at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (AGFO)

Coming to a new park for volunteer opportunities always brings with it a bit of uncertainty. When we arrived at work last Wednesday, we learned that the museum curators that we thought we would be working with had moved on to new positions elsewhere. Okay, we can deal with that.

Since new background checks were required, we knew that we would not have computer access for some time. Tera Lynn, the park’s lead interpreter and volunteer coordinator, gave us a great introduction to AGFO and made it a point to provide us with anything we needed. She had several interim projects for us as we waited for our clearance to come through.

We Even Have Volunteer Shirts to Wear at AGFO

Housekeeping and organizing curation rooms seems to be a first step for us at most parks, and Tim and I attacked this self-imposed task with gusto. It feels so much better to work in a clean and organized space. We then tackled our interim projects. While Tim fashioned trays for fossils used in interpretive programs, I created a database of the hundreds of excess books that had recently been culled from the park’s library.

Before and After in the Main Curation Room

Before and After in the Curation Office

The staff at AGFO is quite small, and everyone is friendly and appreciative of what we’re doing. Interacting with park staff is one of our favorite things about volunteering at national parks, and we are looking forward to working with everyone here.

Tera Lynn is very flexible with our schedule, and Tim and I have elected to work every Tuesday through Friday. We leave work early on Friday and drive to Colorado for the weekend, returning to AGFO late Monday afternoon. We’ve never been able to do this before, but so far, it’s working out well.

The Drive to and from Colorado Is Easy, Although the Hailstorm We Encountered Last Monday Wasn't So Fun!

Arriving at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (AGFO)

Tim and I left on Tuesday morning for Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (AGFO) in Nebraska for our three-month volunteer opportunity. The easy drive took about three hours on a combination of interstate highways, state routes, and tiny county roads. We arrived around 1:00 pm and checked in at the visitor center.

Everyone seemed happy to see us, and we were escorted to our RV site in the employee housing area of the park. We are in a huge site with full hookups, including Wi-Fi, and we spent the afternoon setting up. All of our systems continue to work well, thank goodness.

Our Very Spacious RV Site

Because of all the rain this summer, the landscape is very green for this time of year, and the surrounding fields are covered with prairie sunflowers. They’re such happy flowers!

The Landscape Is Quite Lovely, and the Skies Can Be Very Dramatic

AGFO is known for the fossilized skeletons that are preserved in the Niobrara River valley here, and the discovery of these fossils in the early 1900s was important to the developing science of paleontology. Most of the land that is now AGFO was once part of the Agate Springs Ranch owned by James and Kate Cook. 

When paleontologists came to western Nebraska looking for fossils, Cook convinced Chief Red Cloud and the Oglala Lakota that the scientists were indeed looking for bones, not gold. In time, Cook and Red Cloud developed a warm friendship, and the Indians brought gifts when they visited Cook’s ranch. The family’s collection now belongs to the park, and many of these amazing items are on exhibit in the visitor center.

AGFO Is Significant for Both Fossils and American Indian Heritage

Before arriving at AGFO, I had been worried about the heat and the high temperatures that the plains are known for. Although it was hot when we arrived, our air conditioner and the fans that I had purchased made things comfortable. It actually got chilly overnight, and the comforter was quite welcome!

Getting the RV in Shape

In less than one month, Tim and I will be heading to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument for our three-month volunteer assignment. Since we’ll be living in our RV, it was time to test out the systems and put it back in shape.

Tim and I are not campers, and we have used the RV only for volunteer projects at national park units since we stopped full-timing in 2019. As a result, we have not traveled in the RV since we returned from Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park in March 2022. 

The RV has been sitting in our storage facility all this time, and it is still winterized. Yes, Tim has driven it since then, mostly to keep the battery charged, although it did require a jump-start a few times! Last month, we had the annual service performed, and everything was fine on that end.

The RV Has Spent the Last Year or So in This Storage Facility

In order to de-winterize and test out everything else, we made a reservation at a campground just a few blocks from our home and checked in yesterday. I was a bit nervous when we plugged into the campground pedestal and turned on the air conditioner, but it worked just fine. Amazingly, so did everything else.

We spent yesterday afternoon and this morning sorting and cleaning and making sure that everything is ready to go. We still have to finish loading the RV with food, supplies, and the rest of our gear, but that can wait until the end of the month.

While we were at the campground, we began talking to the gentleman parked next to us. He was interested in our RV and mentioned that he and his wife had been thinking of downsizing to a unit like ours. Tim and I had been seriously talking about selling the RV after we return from Agate Fossil Beds, so we gave him and his wife a tour. They seemed very interested, but who knows if anything will come of it.

A New Museum Project in our Future

In looking further into volunteering at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (AGFO), we learned that the park was hosting an MLK Day of Service event on January 16. The project was to organize and index the park’s historic photographs. Since AGFO is only three hours away from us, we thought this would be a perfect opportunity to learn about the museum collection, meet the staff, and talk about the volunteer opportunities. We called the park on January 13 and registered for the event. 

We left Loveland on January 15 and drove to Scottsbluff, Nebraska, where we spent the night. We took the opportunity that day to visit Scotts Bluff National Monument and had a great conversation with the ranger on duty. Although we had previously visited the park, it was fun to see it in the snow.

Scotts Bluff National Monument

We arrived at AGFO the next morning and met the volunteer coordinator and museum technician, both of whom we immediately liked. We enjoyed working with the photographs and were able to view a portion of the park’s collection.

We checked out the two volunteer RV sites (now covered with snow) and confirmed that we would have internet reception (a very important consideration). Although the park is in the middle of nowhere, we decided that we would enjoy working there. As we left, we hoped the park would offer us the positions

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (group photo courtesy of AGFO)

Today, we received an email from the park, and we are in! One more pending decision to check off our list!

What About the RV?

Deciding to sell the condo in Miami prompted me to ask the question, “What should we do about the RV?” “Should we sell it?” After hanging up our keys in 2019 and settling into our home in Colorado, we continued to use our RV for one purpose only – volunteer and/or contracting museum projects at national park units.

Should We Sell the RV?

We had traveled to New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in West Virginia for two months each in 2020 and 2021, and to Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park in Texas for two months in 2022. Since March of 2022, however, the RV had mostly remained in storage, and I wasn’t sure if we’d ever do another project.

When I posed the question today, Tim surprised me and responded that he wanted to volunteer at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (AGFO) in Nebraska from August to November 2023. I had just seen the posting at Volunteer.gov, and I immediately jumped on the idea. I love working with museum collections at national parks, but I hadn’t thought much about future projects while we were so focused on world cruises.

I quickly switched gears and updated our resumes, and we applied for the volunteer positions. It was less than two hours later that we called our travel agent to book the world cruise! Two major decisions completed!