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letters to Schultz & Lucile

cut leaves. We finally left Hassan's about sunset, and he gave us 2 pairs of sandals, and we must come again. We returned shortly to Dhahran, and I attended the movies, and Ed saw friends. On the drive back, we had a good talk, and I became convinced of Ed's sincerety in his work, and we ironed out some wrinkles. If for nothing else than that, the day was well spent.
June 26 - Dusty sky again today with average  strong shamal. I found out by phone today that there was a plane to Jiddah on the morrow. So I rushed out to the pier, and worked like a beaver getting my stuff together. I finally ended up with a 16 gal. can of cubé root, and a box stuffed with nets, and bottles of formalin. Mr. Scott helped me get on the Dhahran bus, and I made Dhahran about 3:30 with 3 others along. Things were more or less fixed by Mr. Johnson when I arrived, and I got a room for the night, got a haircut bought a shirt. I saw Jim Stewart tonight and had a good chat. I also wrote letters to Shultz and Lucile. King Abdulla of Trans-Jordan and his retinue were driving all over the place, and the place was alive with Arab soldiers.
  June 27 - Shamal in the early morning with visibility less than 1/4 mile. I got up about 5:15 A.M. had breakfast and was stupid enough to mail my key. The dispatches appeared at 6 A.M. with a taxi, and my driver smelled like something between a slaughter house and a dirty sock; so it was good the wind was blowing. My driver barely knew how to drive but he was good hearted. By 7 A.M. I was back in the house again, and the door was locked. The airport was closed to all outgoing planes. They hoped it might clear by 4 P.M. but have doubts. Because of weather all flights were cancelled, and I remained the day in Dhahran, and wrote a letter to Mother (Mendam) and a provisional reply to Eric Maurer's idea of a round the world cruise included in another
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letter to Lucile. The idea of a cruise appeals to me though I fully realize the sacrifices and danger that may be involved.
  There were small cumulus clouds in the sky above the horizon this evening. The horizon was still dusty.
  June 28 - 5:30 A.M. a shamal is in evidence with dust all around. I saw a few clouds at 5:00 A.M. now I see only dust. It is rather doubtful to me that the vision will be much better this morning than yesterday. When we reached the air field you could still see a shack about 1/4 of a mile down the field; by 7:30 A.M. you couldn't see it. For a while we were going off on 672 but because of one failing motor we changed to 673 and I got my stuff on the plane at the last minute without customs even looking at it. We got our seat belts fastened; then the pilot walked back and said it was all off, but I left my formalin & nets and collecting can on the plane, and just took off my small bags. About 10 A.M. I got a ride back with Mr. Truin ?, who was also trying to go to Jidda. I called Mary Leonardini to say that I had not forgotten that she wanted me to give a lecture, but we decided it would be best to put it off until I returned from Jidda. Apparently the dust is all around again today, and I was glad to get a shower to get rid of some of it. Letters to Lucile and the Bertrams. I wrote up a fish list of fishes collected to date for Dr. Schultz. 97 species have been collected and pickled. 112 species have been observed and roughly identified.
  June 29 - It was worse this morning than all the other mornings. The desert dust was hanging in the sky all over. Visibility may have been 1/8 mile. I called a taxi to go to the airport just to make sure, and nothing doing. I returned to the room and wrote up a list of fishes with Arabic, scientific, and rough English equivalents. I totaled 76 arabic names; plus 19 names of other marine animals or plants. At 1 P.M. I heard about the plane leaving and thanks to Jan Peterson in a Red O-X [[D-X?]]