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We had our graduation at South Mountain Community College (SMCC) and I said goodbye to my colleagues and students. Dr. Alisa Cooper is a good friend who is transferring from SMCC to a sister college (Glendale Community College) and this was our last graduation ceremony together. I also handed out tokens of appreciation to colleagues who have supported me through my NASA interview process. Graduation marks the beginning of summer break and my opportunity to learn and experience new things.

This summer I will be a visiting researcher at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). I am very fortunate to have this opportunity. For the past year I have been learning about remote sensing technology. At GSFC I will be working with Dr. Wayne Esaias on the Honey Bee Net http://honeybeenet.gsfc.nasa.gov/. The three research questions they are trying to answer are 1) How will plant-pollinator interactions respond to climate and land cover/land use changes? 2) Can modern ecosystem and climate models, based on extensive satellite observations, help us understand these changes? 3) How far north will the invasive Africanized Honey Bee (AHB) establish permanent residence in North America, and how will climate change affect this? I hope you will check out the web page above and follow along as I blog about my summer experience.

In order to get to Goddard I asked my best friend Diana to fly out to Phoenix and drive across country with me. Diana is a graduate student at University of Pittsburgh where she is studying infectious disease. She also happens to have an internship in the D.C. area this summer at the National Institutes of Health.

Today we packed up my new Hyundai Elantra Touring and headed out on our cross-country adventure. My previous car was a 1989 Chrysler New Yorker…a great car but no longer up for the long trek and had to be put out to pasture. The touring had plenty of room for all of our stuff.

Di and I have traveled a lot together but this is our first trek across the U.S.. We decided take the southern route with our first destination being Big Bend National Park. Both of us have national parks passports and have made it our goal to visit all the parks.

Today we drove from Phoenix to Deming, New Mexico. Along the way we got to find out just what the “Thing” is. Do you know what the Thing is? Diana was convinced that the “Thing” was alien. But based on the shoe size of the “Thing” I was going with a bigfoot like creature.

I would show you what the “Thing” is, but for a dollar and some adventure you can find out for yourself! We are now off to Big Bend National Park. Diana is a professional photographer so I imagine our pictures will be great. Check back when you get the chance!