I've reviewed the grant budget and discussed ways of handling this trip with our travel and accounting offices here. As you all know, the expedition is now quiet a lot larger than originally planned and budgeted, but I think we can pull it off. Though all of you have indicated your interest and willingness to join the trip, I've been unable until now to clearly describe what support I can provide for everybody, so I've been considering everyone to be tentative participants to this point. Finally I can provide details, so the purpose of this note is to:
1. provide a pretty firm idea of what the grant budget will allow me to contribute financially toward this growing expedition and,
2. suggest what I consider to be a workable vehicle situation.
3. If after reading all of this that follows, you are still agreeable, in order for me to live up to this agreement I'll need to officially sign each of you up in advance as participants with the University. The data they need ASAP are:
Name
Social Security Number (o carnet o como se llama el numero para identificacion nacional de Mexico?)
Permanent address
phone
FAX
description of services to the project (I pretty much know, but send your rendition of this anyway)
For vehicle owners/drivers to be paid mileage from the project (as I propose below), I'll need daily records of odometer readings and locations.
4. If you feel that you need a cash advance toward this trip, I can probably swing it at least in part (not exactly what the bureaucracy does easily), but I would need to get started very soon on the paperwork, so let me know. An after-the-fact payment to you would be easiest for me, but I realize that some of you might not be able to front enough cash to do this trip, so don't hesitate to ask.
THE DEAL
First, I'll review and provide contact info for all participants who've "tentatively" confirmed to date (hopefully you'll all be able to formally confirm, but I'll add that the trip is now closed unless others want to drive along and operate completely independently):
1. Dean Hendrickson (deanhend@mail.utexas.edu)
2. Tom Iliffe (diver/biologist - ILIFFET@tamug3.tamu.edu)
3. Tom Morris (diver/biologist - phone (352) 373-0741)
4. Jean Krejca (speleologist and vertical ascent/descent assistance, biologist - phone 1-800-210-0454)
5. Jean's assistant (unspecified)
6. Juan Manuel Rodriguez (hydrologist & co-PI; phone 011-52-878-2-50-20 - Colegio de la Frontera Norte)
7. Hector Espinosa - ichthyologist from UNAM (estimated 10 days only) (hector@servidor.dgsca.unam.mx)
8. student coming with Hector (estimated 10 days only)
9. Alan Riggs (diver/geologist from U.S.G.S., Denver; invited by Dean) (ariggs@usgs.gov)
10. James Brown (diver invited by Tom Morris) (jbrown@vx195b.kodak.com)
11. Harris Martin (diver invited by Tom Morris) (caveslime@aol.com)
The original proposal had 6 people (1-4, 6 and 7) in a single rented van, so I'm committed to cover expenses of at least those completely. With the new add-ons we're spread pretty thin, but obviously, everyone will add significantly to the success of the project, so I'm willing to spread resources as evenly as possible as explained below.
Vehicles potentially available (and their people/gear capacities) include:
1. Dean's 1968 Chevy 3/4 ton truck (2X4) with camper (3 in cab - 4 possible, but tight - lots of gear)
2. Tom Morris' 4X4 Jeep pickup with camper (2 in cab - considerable gear)
3. Juan Manuel's 2X4 Dodge Ramcharger (5 comfortably - fair amount of gear)
4. Harris Martin's Ford Aerostar van (4-5 - fair amount of gear)
5. Rental 15-passenger van (with seats removed, 6 people - fair amount of gear).
I'm leaning toward taking vehicles 1-3 and providing vehicle usage reimbursement at standard mileage rates ($0.27 I think) to their owners. That will more than cover their basic gas costs, and will leave enough to give ALL participants (1-11) each $25 per day. I then suggest that we each buy equally into a camp food pool and pay our own hotel, restaurant and beverage bills. There's not doubt that this will work out easiest for me, and I think it will prove easiest for everyone involved. Basically you'll all be like consultants on the grant. I'll need to get receipts from you for the money I provide, but I am then relieved of keeping detailed accounting, the mountain of receipts, etc. I'm pretty sure that $25/day should cover our basic expenses given that we'll be camping as much as possible and can share hotel rooms.
The down side of this vehicle arrangement is that it will be a bit tight for people, especially during the time Hector and student are with us (4 in cab of my truck, or 6 in ramcharger - tight either way), and it may be tight for gear carrying capacity. My camper will hold a lot, but the equipment list is really long. We'll probably need more gear-carrying capacity, so I've lined up a loaner trailer from our Vertebrate Paleontologists. It's a high-clearance Model-T pickup bed with plywood camper - will take quite a lot of gear and is heavy duty for rough roads. I don't particularly liking hauling trailers, but I'm having the wheel bearings packed and my truck wired to match the connectors on the trailer just in case. I suspect we'll end up taking it.
As I looked over the equipment list (now also on WWW by the say should you need it - http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~deanhend/march97/), and the vehicle situation, I wondered whether all the gear will fit. In case it doesn't (likely), I just today confirmed the loan from our Vertebrate Paleontologists of a high-clearance, heavy duty trailer - a Model-T pickup bed with plywood "camper". While I don't really like trailers, I suspect we'll need a bit more room than available in the 3 vehicles, and so I'll drag this along.
Now a few thoughts on the alternatives. The rental van might work well, but will cost $65/day unlimited mileage) + $15/day in insurance, + gas, of course. These vans offer good ground clearance and are quite tractable on bad roads, but the rental would cause me to have to decrease per diem across the board. If we go with it, I guess it would replace Juan Manuel's Ramcharger, and would have more cargo carrying capacity than the Ramcharger, but at quite a lot higher cost. The Ford Aerostar I'm pretty sure will prove to be a bit low for some of the roads we'll be on. We might work around that at times by leaving it while we go off on bad roads. My truck (with very low ratio 1st gear and tall tires), Tom's Jeep and Juan Manuel's Ramcharger are good on bad roads. This is not to say that I oppose other vehicles coming along, but if they do, I simply can't pay for their operation as part of the project.
Those coming to Austin can leave vehicles either in front of my house (should be fine) or at my office (probably even safer, but I'll need to know in advance to arrange parking permit). Tom Iliffe has offered his house for anyone going through Galveston en route to this trip. Given the possible gear-carrying bottleneck, our best bet might be to all get together in Austin on 5th and do a group packing session here rather than in a hotel parking lot in McAllen (as I think I previously mentioned).
So, that's my plan at the moment, but it's still open to some change, and I'll entertain any suggestions any of you might have. There is little time to sort out final details now, however. I'll be gone on another trip in Mexico from about Feb 13 - March 2, so most everything has to be firm and relevant paperwork in the university system before I leave on that trip. Again, if you'll be needing an advance of at least part of the funds, please let me know ASAP so I can get that in the works.
Dean
(Sent to all participants - 1/24/97)