Day 9-October 19th '11

Day 9- October 19^th ‘11

Today I’m riding along with Talia on a “crew tour”.

When a C-17 is scheduled in for a landing the Air Force/ National Guard Commanding Officer emails ahead of time and asks if a certain number of the crew can tour the town. So Air Services (me/us) schedule a van from Shuttles and when the plane is on final approach, we go to the Ice Runway and pick up the few military crews taking the tour.

The tour consists of driving by significant buildings, pointing out historical sites and answering questions about town life. We stop at the McMurdo sign overlooking the Discovery Hut while they take pictures or have us take pictures of them. Pictures like this are called the “Hero Shot”. I’ve heard tell of some people who do these pix in little to no clothing. These are then called the “Super Hero Shot”. Luckily these guys weren’t into that today on this very freezing cold day with cutting wind.

After the pictures we take them to the store, which we have prearranged to be open for them to have the store to themselves to shop. It’s like having a private shopping spree, where we get asked what we would like if we were one of their wives, girlfriends or kids.

When shopping is done, we take them back to the runway and their plane that has been unloaded, reloaded and fueled. At this time they will ask for their passports to be stamped.

In actuality, it isn’t an official stamp. Only Thailand has shown any displeasure about someone’s passport having this stamp that is simply the post office’s stamp cancelling stamp. But everyone wants it to show them having been on this continent. So I stamped the crew’s that were in the van and the pilot ( captain) tells me that there are other crew still on board that would like to be stamped also. So he invites me aboard the C-17 to stamp the rest of the crew’s passports. The captain also asked if he could take my picture with my camera with the plane in the background. Super nice guy.

So I went into this hulking cargo plane and stamped with pleasure, passports of some of our finest military personnel. Though I’m not a customs agent or official immigration officer, I was happy to do that for them.

It was a great day!

Day 6 October 16 '11 Part 2

This is one long glacier. I think it's the Beardmore.

The view was stunning.  Soon we were on the ice runway. Soon I was off the plane into the bright, white, pure world of Antarctica. It was cold, crisp and smelled of nothing. Nothing smelled wonderful-pure, fresh, clean. The sun was so bright and there was so much to take in. The multiple splotches of red parkas against the stark white canvas was even beautiful. I was so enamored with my surroundings, I failed to self portait myself off the plane or by Ivan, nor did I remember to ask anyone to take any of me. I can try and re-enact later.




Ivan the Terra Bus in the background. I'll post a better pic later.




The pointed mountain is Observation Hill (Ob Hill for short) the mountain behind it is Mt Erebus, the most southerly active volcano.

   

 We were shepherded to our transport, IVAN the Terra Bus. All crammed in, we were taken to our welcoming orientation at the Chalet a short 15 minute trip into town, given room assignments and keys and sent off walking to our prospective dorms. The roads were "sanded" with chunks of volcanic rock and stones. Easy to twist an ankle if you aren't careful.

Our baggage would be available for pickup in a few hours, so in the meantime I found my room, picked a bed (choice of 6), and went and got my bedding. I was too tired to make my bed. I just curled up on my bed with my Big Red parka and took a nap.

My bed for the next 4 months



My room has that homey 'orphanage' feel.



A few hours later, I heard someone come in. It was little mousy Chelsea. She and Rosemary from Cordova AK were my roommates to start. They told me our bags were in from the C17 up at building 140 which was also my work office building coincidentally. It was a harsh walk up the hill. The altitude was making me shorter breathed than usual. I’m out of shape but the huffing and puffing that I was experiencing was beyond normal. I thought I was gonna die. Thankfully, there was a shuttle taxi service back to the dorm with all my bags. Unfortunately there were no luggage carts here, so I was schlepping them all by myself 1 or 2 at a time. I was exhausted all over again.

Chelsea was encouraging me to get something to eat before I passed out again. I barely had the energy to make my bed or take care of my stuff. Not that there was anywhere to put them, but that’s a story for another post.

Work starts tomorrow 730am.  I’m already exhausted.