pelf-ism is contagious

I had a very amazing adventure yesterday, at the “mighty” Tennessee River. I mentioned yesterday that we were going to set up some basking traps, and soon after running some errands, Dr. Wilson and his graduate student, Robert, started preparing for the trip — they loaded the 27-foot boat onto the trailer, and then hooked the trailer onto the truck, and I helped load some of the 15 basking traps onto the boat.

A basking trap is basically a rectangular enclosure attached with 2 covers made from aluminum that serve as the “ladder” on which the turtles will climb if they wanted to bask. Once the turtle arrives at the top of its climb, the aluminum cover will tilt and the turtle will fall into the rectangular enclosure (see images above and below).

We spent 3 hours deploying the basking traps in the river, and my, I was amazed at the sheer size of the river! The Tennessee River is so many times wider and longer than the Setiu River that I am now quite familiar with. In fact, the Tennessee River is so huge that I thought we were in the Gulf of Mexico already! It was very windy, and very cold, and the water was very choppy. It felt like the last time I was in the sea in a small boat, deploying fish traps to trap fish larvae!

Dr. Wilson said that we will be deploying some baited traps on Monday, and that we will be checking out the traps in the coming days and week, and it would be interesting to see the species and number of turtles that are trapped in the basking traps, baited or not.

But before that, we’re going to a “spring party” at a UTC Professor’s house tomorrow night, and I have no idea what to wear. I mean, casual or formal? Traditional? Simple?

ARGH!!

You know what? I salute those people who could still blog whenever they’re on vacations or whenever they’re traveling.

I left Malaysia on the morning of April 30th, and arrived at Chicago on the afternoon of April 30th (!!!) and that means I have been traveling for, what, 24 hours? And I couldn’t find time to write a blog post! Can you believe that there is no WiFi at the Beijing Capital International Airport? Hmm..

Anyway, I arrived at Chattanooga yesterday night at 10:40 pm (10:40 am on May 1st, Malaysian time) and I will be staying here for 12 days. My hosts are very friendly people, and their 4-year-old daughter is super cute

The weather here is fine too, though it gets a little too chilly at night. During the day, it’s as cool as Genting Highlands, and I was told that it gets warmer in the afternoon.

I’m now at the University of Chattanooga Tennessee (UTC) waiting for Dr. Wilson to get some stuff done. We’re going to the Tennessee River after this to set some basking traps (traps that catch turtles that come up to bask/sun). Apparently, there are 9 species of turtles in the river, and Tennessee River is HUGE, and this is going to be an adventure for me!

I will write again whenever I have the chance to

Hi Plastron, Hi Franklin, Hi Colourful World, Hi Tine, Hi Littlebro, Hi Naoko, Hi Tears in Heaven, Hi Zhu (and also a big hi to others),

My sister has arrived safely in the States, please do not worry. She’ll be back in a few months, OK?

Meanwhile, take care and remember to come back often as I will be taking care of this site. wuakakaka….. Have a fun day.

Cheers,
Pelfy