Field Work Hotel Wackiness Photos

Last week I wrote about the hotel in which I was staying for my recent fieldwork.  On the one hand, it was only the latest in a long line of very odd hotels that I have stayed in.  On the other hand, unlike some of those hotels, it was actually a pleasant place to stay, if odd.  So, here's a few photos of the place, to give you a taste of the sometimes pleasant oddities that can come with field work.

The place is called the Snowline Lodge, and is...well, "quirky" isn't quite the right word, but it's the closest that I can find.  We checked in here on Tuesday, not knowing anything about it other than that it was within the price range allowed for lodging by our client.  When we arrived, we saw the front, and noticed that the porch had all manner of odd objects on it, including a piano that did not appear to be in working order.

And then we noticed the hallway with graffiti in it from various visitors, further making us wary.

It wasn't until later that we realized that all of the graffiti were positive and from people who seemed to like the place.

A sheep (which I was unable to get a photo of) was running about the place, acting very much as if it were a playful domestic dog.  Indeed, had I not heard it "baaaa"-ing when I first saw it, I might have initially mistaken it for a weird looking dog until I got close.

A fellow missing all but one of his top teeth checked us in, and proceeded to, for reasons that weren't entirely clear to me, try to convince my crew and I to take a room with multiple beds rather than taking the three separate rooms that we had actually reserved.  He also tended to talk far more than necessary, and his wife yelled at home from another room most of the time that we were talking with him. He informed us that he and his wife lived in one of the many trailers that were parked around the hotel, though from what we could gather they had spent most of their time in various rooms of the hotel itself.

Suffice to say, we were nervous as the the quality of this establishment.  But, we need not have worried as it turned out to be nice, if odd.

The place was originally built as a bar, and later had rooms added on so that it might be used as a hunting lodge.  The bar area now functions as a lobby and common room - yes, a common room in very much the "Medieval inn" sense: it was a room that remained open 24-hours a day, which had tables, couches, and stools on which the patrons might relax.  There are drinks available, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, though this isn't really a bar or restaurant of any sort.  There is a piano, and atop the piano is a mannequin, as you can see:

Then, there's the nude photo of Marylin Monroe on one wall, accompanied by a portrait of John and Jackie Kennedy, a line of baskets allegedly from Africa, and a Bible where one would expect the sheet music to be on the piano (and I checked, this isn't a Bible with a hymnal appendix, so it's presence in the sheet music location is decidedly odd).

And then there was the back room, a secondary common room, with couches, a fireplace, a television (one of only two in the hotel), and a seriously mishmashed collection of old books available for anyone to read.  Oh, and for no apparent reason, there are children's bunk beds in this room.

The hallways that led to our upstairs rooms rather reminded me of the Shining, but the rooms themselves were pleasant.

 

All in all, the Snowline Lodge was a good place.  The only downside was that there was no food on-site, and no fridges or microwaves in the room, so that we had to drive a good 15 miles in either direction to eat.  But we slept well, the staff turned out to be both efficient and friendly, and I would be happy to stay there again, which is not something that can be said for most of the hotels in which I have stayed for work.

The Rush Continues...and There's a Sheep

Back in September, I wrote about the tendency for projects to get rushed through in the fall, before either winter snow blocks off access to project areas, or winter rain makes it impractical to slog through the mud to get to locations or dig in them.

Then, last month, I wrote about how one of these fall rush projects had become a "freezing-your-ass-off-during-the-winter project" in which we broke shovels while trying to dig through frozen ground in an attempt to ward off frostbite.  At that time, I had believed that once we had completed what work we could, we would be done until spring thawed the ground and melted the ice off of the roads, and then we would return along with the warmer weather to finish the job.

Oh, was I naive.

See, our client really needs this project done ASAP, though I am at this point not exactly clear on why anymore.  So, Tuesday afternoon - what was supposed to be a day off - I was contacted by the client and my boss and asked to put together a crew to head out Wednesday morning.  I busted ass, calling everyone I could think of, finally managing to pull a crew together, arrange for a vehicle, and get lodging for the crew by Tuesday night.

So, on Wednesday morning, we all met at the office, headed to the storage unit to get our field equipment, and headed out.  We arrived in the field late morning, and were a bit surprised.  We had, based on both weather reports and on previous experience in this location, expected to be very cold, and expected to encounter frozen soil that we would have to chunk out with breaker bars and chisels.  Much to our surprise and delight, we found that the weather was actually warm.  We quickly discarded our heavy coats and wool hats, and within 45 minutes were down to our t-shirts.  Moreover, the ground had thawed a bit, and digging and screening were both absurdly easy.  We completed a site in a few hours, giving us time to scout some of the roads that had been blocked by ice and snow a few weeks earlier.  We found that all but one of these roads, while still frozen over in parts, were passable. 

So, I am looking forward to getting this project our of the way.  We have two more sites that we can get to.  Both of them are in areas which are likely to still be frozen, so I don't think that the next couple of days will be as easy as today...but they will be easier than they were. 

And then, we finished up our project, and came to our hotel.  None of us had stayed in this hotel before.  It appears to have been an old hunting lodge converted to a hotel.  There are motor homes parked all about it, every one of them apparently having been here for quite some time.  The lower room of the hotel, a true common room, is open 24 hours for whoever wishes to use it.  It has a piano, numerous couches, several shelves of ratty paperbacks, a moose head mounted to the wall, a nude photo of Marylin Monroe on another wall, and a mannequin dressed in a short sundress sitting atop the piano.  Wandering about the hotel grounds is the pet sheep - yes, you read that correctly - which, despite being a sheep, behaves as if it were a dog (replacing the barking with "baa"-ing). 

The hotel rooms, however, are rather nice, and this is a pleasant enough hotel...if a bit odd.

Anyway, the rush to get this done this week has again disrupted my attempt to write entries on a regular schedule.  However, I will try to load some photos of this place by early next week...it really does need ot be seen to be believed.

Another Hotel

So, I'm in the field again. This time we're working in the Sierra Nevadas, performing surveys and site record updates for a transmission line that stretches through a rather remote area of a national park. Thankfully, we're not camping - after a day spent working, a shower and hot meal for which you didn't have to build a fire are nice - but we are staying in a rather remarkably unremarkable hotel. It is, as far as I can tell, clean enough, and the location is convenient for our work. However, it is a the lone building for several miles in any direction, and is extremely isolated, meaning that we have little in the way of cell phone coverage (which doesn't seem like too big a deal until you consider that I have to be able to receive and send phone calls both with family members and with co-workers - being in the field on this doesn't mean that I am not still responsible for other projects), and the internet service, while obviously existing, is poor. It took me nearly an hour to upload this entry, which is a process that can normally be completed in under a minute.

So, the point of this is that while I had hoped that the relative isolation of our lodgings would allow me to actually write entries and post them, I will be able to write them but may not be able to post them. I will, however try to update as I can.

In the meantime, consider that I am a room barely large enough for the bed, in which it is impossible to use the shower without ramming one's knees into the toilet, and where there are a few odd stains in places where, frankly, I don't think there should be any. It's yet another hotel adventure for you to consider should you ever start thinking of archaeology as a glamorous career.

Hotel Research

(note, this post was written a while back, I am not currently at this hotel)

As I write this, I am sitting in my room at a crappy motel. Last night I looked at the wall and noticed that, aside from the mold in the shower, there is also evidence of the previous tennant's spitting habit on the wall next to my bed. And, of course, the motel owner says he'll have the folks clean it - but they don't.

Yep, archaeology is a glamorous occupation.

But, you know, I have my tape measure, my compass, and my graph paper...I could map out the spit pattern on the wall in full detail, draw up a schematic, and pioneer the field of spit-on-the-wall studies. Indeed, what might the patterns of wall spit reveal about the person who had previously occupied this room, and the society from which he came? Why, even now, a myriad of research questions come to mind - was the spitter using chewing tobacco? Was he stoned? Had he had a bad day? Was he having a good night and simply had some odd sexual habits involving saliva and walls? No doubt more questions could be answered, and these are but the tip of the iceberg!

I could then provide a copy of the schematic chart to the motel owner for his approval - in my mind's eye I can see the happiness on his face, as a single, solitary tear of joy rolls down his cheek as he receives this happy gift.

But why stop with the spit patterns? I could also map out the small, brownish stains in the bathroom (I don't want to ponder their origin). Indeed, the entire motel room could conceivably be mapped and examined - who knows what treasure-trove of data exists untapped in the motel room wall stains?

I think I have found my new calling.