Life at the site has been ok, the road has gone to hell over the last week- there are now 1-2 ft deep ravines at random spots along the road which are invisible until youre in them. No more flat tires though, guess ive found all the sharp rocks already. On a totally different note I finally turned 21. Went to alpine for the occasion after getting off work about 9. Hazel and I picked up Aaron and went to erics house where he and ryan were we all hung around until it was midnight and I could get into the bar. Got to eat brisket and sausage while arguing about deer. The non texans didnt realize how big wtd hunting is in texas and that in reality deer are worth more than cattle to many ranches these days. This led to a discussion of exotics in tx, illustrated by a variety of skulls that eric had. Which of course broke down into the totally nerdy (but what you expect from me and my friends) discussion of skull morphology and sagital crests. At 1200 we listened to Everclear and then the Road Goes on forever and the Party Never Ends then loaded into erics truck and went to the blues. After convincing the bouncer that it was after midnight so I was legal I got my stamp and we went in. Got my first beer- a shiner, what else? and found Pancho and Carl who were already at the bar. There was a band that wasnt too bad. Drank and danced until 2 then we went back to Ryans house and argued about GIS for a while. An added bonus was sunny (ryans pointer) slept with me, made me miss my pointer- 1 more week until i get him back (and he goes on a major diet). 530 came way to early and it was time to head back to van horn. Dropped Aaron off in Marfa then went to the site. Hazel got us stuck in the mud on the railroad road, and even after I messed with it for a bit 1 wheel was still stuck we were kinda pivoting around it actually, never seen that before. Since we were in about a foot of water I couldnt just get out and see what was up, instead I managed to climb out of the truck and into the bed so I could jump up and down over the stuck wheel. It caught and we got out and made it to the site. We grabbed t-bones and drove down to valentine to bbq them up. On the way there were a couple scaled quail crossing the road and instead of flying away they flew into the windsheild. They were in pretty good shape so I grabbed them and we threw them on the bbq also. Yeah I'm a redneck. Steaks turned out ok although the fire was too hot so one side got pretty seared. Noone had ever seen steaks being constantly rotated while cooking, guess thats just another thing my family does strange. Then it was back to the site for the evening shift. Back at the otel I grabbed some dinner then Hazel and I went to the piolet so I could actually buy my first beer. However there was no shiner or anything remotely drinkable (it was all 40s of what you would expect to find at a gas station that also serves as a greyhound stop). So we left but in the process ran into Angel who said hed be at the bar in a bit. So we headed to the bar and after a while Angel came in and got me a Corona (they dont sell shiner at Gilberts). Only problem was the bar only takes cash which he didnt have. But never fear Peter the otel owner had already told the bar tender he was buying our beer. All in all a pretty good birthday.