Sampling Trip 1 Complete - with stats!

 

Working with students from Allendale Middle School

I am now safely back in Oneonta, recovering from the first trip and starting to prepare for the second trip. I’m reworking my sampling path (EKU had to cancel their seminar on the date I was coming, I need to revisit the site in Tennessee, and Bogalusa, LA continues to flood, so I’ll need to drop Louisiana), but I thought I would take a moment to give some of the final statistics from the first circuit.

Most importantly, I now have approximately 200 Nigronia safely stored in the -80 C freezer on campus, awaiting DNA extraction.

I gave two talks, one at North Dakota State University and the other at the Annis Water Research Institute. I also spent a day working with six classes of students from Allendale Middle School.

The trip was a grand total of 7,676 miles. I had to stop 24 times to get gas for a total of 249.82 gallons costing a grand total of $747.57 in gas. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the stretch goal, that will help reduce how much of the gas comes out of my personal finances.

I had to get dry ice six times, about every five days. Each time I needed about 50# of dry ice (that’s 5 blocks that are 10”x10”x2”). Most of the places were charging $110-120, but Washtenaw Dairy in Ann Arbor, MI sold it to me for half that (and I got to have their fantastic ice cream too!).

I’m pushing back the next sampling trip to September 29th, to give me some time with my family and to touch base with my graduate students. Next up, trip2: OH, TN, KY, GA, NC, and MD!