Alaskan Dinosaur Expedition

July 16 update: My companions

I look at the list of people for this trip, and, of the eight names, I recognize Roland Gangloff's and mine. The rest of these people have addresses in the Fairbanks area and are just names to me right now. I notice one person who’s last name has nine letters. Except for the first letter, all the rest are either an A or an S.

I'm not sure when and where I first met Roland, who now works for the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. But I'm sure it was through some connection I had while at the University of California, Berkeley. In a field full of egos, Roland always appealed to me because he was a down-to-earth kind of guy who could admit it when he didn't know something.

In fact, my first trip to Alaska several years ago was in part, initiated by Roland. We ran into each other at a professional meeting and he told me that Fairbanks was hosting the meeting the following year. I went the next year, and my infatuation with Alaska became firmly established. We've managed to maintain a loose association ever since, though it became closer after Roland invited me to participate in this expedition.

Although we both enjoy good beer, I don't think this was the cause for the invitation. Rather, I have a level of expertise in studying the processes responsible for the formation of fossil deposits that appeal to Roland. With joint support from the Dallas Museum of Natural History, the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man at Southern Methodist University, and Arco, I anxiously await the beginning of this expedition.