Back in the car

Along Highway 160 in Colorado, the land changed dramatically as we drew closer to Trinidad. Mesas covered in pinyon and juniper pines suddenly appeared on the horizon, and the endless high plains turned into arroyos, river canyons and -- yay -- road cuts.

We have come to like road cuts. See a silver Toyota with a black cargo shell by the roadside, flashers blinking, a family scrabbling around the rocks, that's us. In Kansas, just before Yates Center, one random one yielded fossilized oyster and scallop shells, coral bits and sponges. Round Mound, a large cut we explored early Tuesday morning near Yates Center before the heat kicked in, yielded a treasure trove from its sedimentary rocks, including two coveted trilobites.

So when we saw a promising cut, after miles of unceasing emptiness, we turned around, pulled over and hopped out. But we were no longer in Kansas, and the rocks were only that. Then Michele yelled. A trilobite? Ooh, a whole fish? No, a very live scorpion. It scuttled away after she overturned a rock.

OK. That's it. No more fossil hunting. Back in the car.

Nobody protested.