The Great Unconformity

I realized that my blog had a great unconformity – It jumped from the beginning of October when I was starting my training in Houston to offshore India in the middle of December. Any geologist knows that time isn’t actually missing, its just not accounted for.

After Houston, Schlumberger sent me to New Orleans for BOSS / HUET training (basic offshore survival and helicopter underwater egress training). The best part of that training was we spent a whole day fighting fires – full fireman’s suit, complete with oxygen tanks. We actually put out big (hot) fires.

Then I actually found my way home – although home now means Charleston, SC (although, yes I work offshore and I am still a resident of VA). I spent 3 weeks there – helping mom pick things out for the house and helping to build the Spirit of South Carolina, a new tall ship they are building for the city.

Mom missed home (old home) so much that we went up to DC for Thanksgiving with Aunt Pat and Uncle Doe. The very next day however, I was off hiking on the Appalachian trail, with this guy, Jeff, who at the time was a friend of a friend, but after 2 weeks on the trail, would most definitely be considered a friend. He is thru hiking (for Backpacker Magazine!) and you can read about his adventures on his blog: www.trackjeff.com . And you can view some really great pictures of the 2 weeks by clicking here. The weather was crazy – the first week it was in the 60’s and the second week it was in the low teens at night. The last night out it actually snowed on us. The crazy thing is that we got the usually super busy Shenandoah national park all to ourselves. The day before Thanksgiving there was a large ice storm, prompting a closing of Skyline drive. Trees were down everywhere – all over the trail. It was more like an obstacle course, than the usually almost well-paved AT. That didn’t stop our friend Matt, however from hiking in the middle of the night, off of some side road to hang out with us for the day!

After that I was back in DC for a day and a half before shipping off to India. I did manage to go see the Revels though and get a little bit of Christmas spirit in.

Make sure you check out the AT pictures – Jeff is a great photographer!