OK; it's Friday - time for a moo -- ah, ah reindeer tale:
SONDY REINDEER By Wilton Strickland In 1978, at Sondrestrom Air Base, Greenland, I occasionally drove up a VERY steep ice/packed snow and ice road (first photo link below) with fine gravel sprinkled on top of it to a plateau and hills above the base to view some "countryside" and observe a small herd of reindeer (caribou , 2nd photo link below) that lived there. I'd pull up beside several of them 3 or 4 feet away and admire/study the way they scratched away snow covering their food (dry grass), take a bite, chew, etc. None of them ever showed any fear at all of me; 'went up to see them one afternoon, and found two reindeer heads lying by the road. 'Few days later, my Danish contractor chief engineer invited me to his home one evening for dinner - 'had some mighty fine reindeer stew. Also of special interest up in this area was the rounded top of a hill where a glacier and the ice cap, then visible on the horizon about 15 miles away, had polished a large area of granite to a mirror finish. 'Enjoyed driving my truck up onto it and watching my many visitors, including a couple of USAF generals, other military and civilian officials from headquarters and Danish, Canadian and Swedish government officials ponder the awesomeness of the time and power of grains of sand and fine powder-like sand combined with ice under tremendous pressure and its imperceptible movements to perform such a task. (edge of glacier/ice cap in 3rd & 4th photo links below) BTW, I was never so bold or foolish as to drive up onto or try to stand on the mirror-like granite when it was wet. BTW, getting back down the VERY steep road, especially in winter was "puckering" - entailed constant pumping of brakes to keep truck from getting too fast and careening or slipping on ice off cliff, etc. See 5th photo link below - summertime hill descent. (Photo really does not do it justice - it is STEEP; seems even steeper on ice.) 1 http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3184/2944195465_1a35be8a5f_z.jpg 2 http://www.malmquist-site.com/caribou.jpg 3 http://tinghuus.com/graphics/om_gns.jpg 4 http://www.vacationreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/greenland.jpg 5 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Tacan_near_Kangerlussuaq_%289%29.JPG Wilton _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
