ROCKFORD - Kim Cairns never viewed herself as an Indiana Jones type. At 50, she sells fabric to retail stores from her home in the Central Illinois town of Ottawa along the Illinois River.

But for one week last summer, Cairns and her great-niece, 13-year-old Tyler Hougas of Ottawa, went on an adventure of a lifetime to the Badlands of Montana in search of dinosaur bones millions of years old.

They traveled so far into the remote arid region known as Hell Creek that Cairns' global positioning satellite system couldn't pinpoint her. She got lost on the way to their base of operations, Camp Needmore.

That's pronounced as it's spelled, need-more.

"The name says it all," Cairns quipped.

She and her great-niece braved temperatures in excess of 100 degrees and learned that rattlesnakes really do slither around at night contrary to what Cairns thought before her trip to Hell Creek.

And, they want to do it all over again this summer. Cairns and Hougas are re-enlisting in the Burpee Museum's army of 75 citizen scientists who work in three 25-person, week-long shifts to unearth the skeleton of Homer, a juvenile Triceratops. The bones of the rare plant-eating dinosaur (actually, more than one has been found there) date back 66 million years. By comparison, though exactly when human ancestors evolved hasn't been pinpointed, hominid skeletons have been found that date from 3 million to 6 million years ago.

Dinosaur remains are found near fossilized shells, proof the beasts once lumbered over the coast of an ancient ocean that is now the state of Montana.

"I can't describe it," said Cairns. "It's not something I can fathom. I have nothing to compare it with. It's like planet earth was something totally different."

On earlier excursions, Burpee scientists reclaimed the most complete skeleton of a juvenile Tyrannosaurs Rex, known as Jane, that would have eaten Homer if given a chance.

Archeology is far from a dead subject, said Jill Trojniar, who does marketing for the museum. Since Jane went on exhibit at the Rockford museum in mid-2005, visitor numbers climbed from 60,000 annually to 200,000 last year. Trojniar said new discoveries like Homer and events like Paleofest, a two-day, family-oriented exploration of all things archeological Saturday and Feb. 18, keep people coming back.

Cairns became interested in the ancient geology of North America when a sand mining company opened a mine near her house. She could look across the road and see huge boulders deposited by glaciers that receded through Illinois about 20,000 years ago - relatively recent in terms of earth history.

She stopped by Burpee Museum on a business trip to Rockford and learned about the Highway to Hell Creek excursions. She decided to take Hougas along for her birthday present. Hougas was game after living for a time close to the historic Illinois River where she combed the valley floor for arrowheads left by American Indians hundreds, even thousands, of years ago.

Their trip was set for the first week in August, the same time motorcycle enthusiasts were heading for Sturgis, S.D. A policeman pulled Cairns over for speeding and asked where she was going.

"Ekalaka, Mont.," Cairns said, to dig for dinosaurs.

The officer let her go without a ticket after mumbling something like that excuse was a new on one on him.

More than 70 miles and a wrong turn suggested by a confused GPS later, they arrived in the middle of nowhere at Camp Needmore. Government workers had built the facility during the Depression. Bunkhouses held about 10 people each. There was a bathroom/shower building for each gender. But one of the comforts of home Camp Needmore needs more of is air conditioning: There wasn't any.

Still, Cairns grew to appreciate what they had when a group of young women from a college-sponsored archeological expedition showed up asking to use their showers. It was their only chance to wash for a month.

The museum provided breakfast and dinner and a sandwich for lunch. Each volunteer archeologist provided their own snacks and drinks, other than water, that they carried to their work sites.

One group would be chosen to work on Homer each day. They carefully removed the "overburden," the clay-like earth on top of the skeletons. Then, they covered the fragile bones with chemicals to stop them from deteriorating in the air.

Others fanned out to "prospect" for new dinosaur sites looking for "float," small pieces of bone washed down from above, in the terrain where hill meets hill with no flat space in between. At times, the grade grew so steep as they drove over trails, all they could see was sky ahead. Cairns likened the landscape to something alien. Only cattle and antelope roamed there.

"It was the surface of moon," she said. "It's in the badlands, and dry, very much a desert climate. It reached 113 degrees. You could easily get lost in these things. It was pretty shocking to think there is territory like this where there is no human evidence. By the same token, you can understand why nobody wants to live there."

But, Cains found a piece of heaven even at Hell Creek. On one occasion, one of the guides told her to stop and listen. She told him she didn't hear anything. That was the point, he said.

"You don't hear anything. No white noise. There is nothing but dead silence. I've never heard that before. Even in your home, you have white noise. There was none of that," she said.

Another time, Cairns looked up to see a moon so huge it barely fit inside when she made a circle with her arms.

"This is an experience every adult should have to do, not necessarily the dinosaur thing, but to see the terrain, and be a part of it for a few hours," she said. "It gave me a whole different perspective."

Any fossils found on government land had to be left behind. Cairns left the tooth of an ancient crocodile. But she was able to bring back shiny black fish scales of creatures that swam in the ancient ocean millions of years ago. She also brought back petrified wood from the ground near where the skeletons rest.

She returned to Ottawa with something else, about the size of an acorn. She thought it was something rare until one of the Burpee archeologists examined it.

"It was dinosaur poop," Cairns laughed. "I thought it was like gold. But he said they find it everywhere."

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Highway to Hell Creek

What: An archeological expedition the Rockford-based Burpee Museum of Natural History leads to Montana.

When: May 27-June 2; June 3-9; July 30-Aug. 5.

Who: A maximum of 25 volunteer citizen archeologists on each of three trips.

Why: The Burpee Museum has government permits to conduct archeological excavations. Workers are in the midst of unearthing the skeleton of Homer, a juvenile Triceratops.

Cost: The week-long adventures cost $750 per adult and $600 for students.

Other options: Burpee scientists also lead half-day outings to quarries in Illinois to find fossils.

Museum admission: Adults, $5; children ages 3-17, $4; Wednesdays are free.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

More information: www.burpee.org or (815) 965-3433.

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Paleofest

What: Eight of the world's best-known dinosaur-hunters and paleontologists. Includes seminars and hands-on learning experiences for the whole family.

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Feb. 18

Where: Burpee Museum of Natural History, 737 N. Main St., Rockford

Cost: Lectures, two-day package, $70; one-day package, $40; single lectures, $10. Workshops, one-day package, $15; single workshop, $8.

Meet & Greet reception: 5:30-7:30 p.m. Saturday. Cost is $20/person.

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More archeology

• Dickson Mounds staff archaeologists will be on hand to identify public artifact collections and guest geologists from the Lincoln Orbit Earth Science Society will identify fossil and rock collections at Dickson Mounds Museum in Lewistown from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 25.

• At 3:00 p.m. Lincoln College student Judd McCullum and his zoology professor G. Dennis Campbell will give a presentation on their recent discovery of mammoth remains on a school field-trip.

• Colleague Dr. Jeffrey Saunders, Curator of Geology for the Illinois State Museum will follow them with a presentation of: "Tales Told by Elephants Found in Illinois," which will review scientific debate over mammoth species that occupied late Pleistocene landscapes in Illinois, and how recent mammoth discoveries in Logan and Calhoun county help to bring the Illinois mammoth record into clearer focus.