We closed the trip into the mine yesterday the way that they close it every day: rush to get to the elevator before final call. The 8-minute announcement sounded as the last CDMS people hurried out of electronics rooms and clean rooms, gathered their belonging, and collected at the exit. Jodi did a quick head count, verified everybody, and we walked down the rock corridor, past the MINOS cave door, and through the fence into the elevator shaft area. The elevator did its usual cycle: first, drop low enough in the shaft that the top tier of the elevator can be filled, then raise up high enough to fill the bottom car. I was in the bottom car, and enjoyed once more the pitch-black ride from the 27th level. When the elevator reached the surface, sunlight rising in a gentle crescendo as we neared the top, the top car unloaded first. This was when we all, down in the bottom car, got our first good look at the bats.
Bats are ubiquitous in the mine, and are even part of the CDMS logo. This was the first time I’d ever seen bats in this way, up close and overcrowded. They perch upside-down under the lip of the elevator shaft opening, huddled together by the dozens in layers. Come sunset, they swarm from their perches and hunt insects, but at that moment they were sleeping. They were so still, you’d think they were all dead, but we all knew better. The cage rider at the front of the car slid the door open a little so we could get a better look – it was one of the most impressive sights I’ve witness in nature.
Later that night, we headed to the Vermilion Lake Supper Club for dinner, and to have some good conversation and experience a dining sensation known simply as “The Bamboozeler”. This monolith of northwoods cuisine is nothing less than a three-foot-wide pizza topped anyway you like, enough to serve 6-9 people (free if one person can eat the whole thing). When it arrived, we snapped some pictures (including one with my hand for size comparison ).
We went to bed last night a little early, to make up for the many early rises we’ve had all week. Our sleep, however, was broken at 4:30 by sheets of rain pounding on the ground, the crescendo of thunder, the thick streaks of lightning striking in the distance. Jodi got paged almost immediately by the automated detector systems, right after a 5 second power outage. While she worked on her laptop to try to gauge the situation, I stood by the living room window and watched the thunderstorm. Finally, some weather I can’t get for free in California.
Jodi ended up braving the storm to get in her car, go to the surface building, and check on the data processing farm. She came back after about 20 minutes, drenched and exhausted. She managed another hour or so of sleep, and I decided for the first time this week to sleep later than her so I’d be ready for my 10 am practice talk. Now I see that the day expects to give us more stormy weather, but we’ll have to wait and see. The weather here is so fickle, so temperamental, we might have drenching rains and violent lightning, or blue skies and cool breezes. I love this place.
