Coming and going

Yesterday was alternately exciting and boring. I was scheduled to leave Pole so I spent part of the morning packing my remaining belongings and cleaning my room. Part of that task was stripping the linens off my bed and bundling them into a pillowcase. Since the last few flights were cancelled, I waited until the last minute to strip it so I wouldn't have to remake it. I was also a little distracted because...



The British group finally paid us a visit prior to catching their ride home. This group included the Prince and the two celebrities.

They drove from their camp to the station and were treated to a tour which included the science area where I was working. Ralf, a former winter-over and current IT expert, gave a presentation on IceCube and I chimed in with one minor fact. I didn't get to drink with McNulty, but he did give me a smile on the way out.



Our part of the tour ended at around 10:45 and the plane was due at 11:30 so I finished packing and moved my stuff out of my room, then grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading out to wait for the plane. After 20-30 minutes of waiting outside, they waved us onto the plane!

It's about a three hour plane ride from Pole to McMurdo, but there is some great scenery!



After landing, it usually takes around an hour to go from the Pegasus ice runway into the main base. We were dropped off by the main building, and everyone walked to the housing office to get our room assignments. I went to my room and stripped off my winter gear, unneeded because it was a balmy 32 degrees. I walked over to the laundry facility to pick up my linens, carried them back to my room to make my bed, then walked back to the laundry to get a pillow since I hadn't noticed that my bed was missing one.

When my bed was finally made, I figured my bags would be available so I walked up the hill to the cargo area and fetched my luggage and lugged it back down to my room.

By that time, it was suppertime so I grabbed some food in the galley then headed over to the Crary library (where transiting scientists go to use the Wi-Fi) and soaked up some sweet, sweet relatively high-speed Internet!

This morning I got up and took a shower!!!! then checked the McMurdo website to discover that there were no flights or bag drags scheduled for today. I resigned myself to at least a couple of days in McMurdo.

However, I got email a little while ago alerting me that I'd be bag dragging at 8PM for a flight tomorrow! This could mean that I'll be flying home as originally scheduled. Of course, this season has proven that one can never assume things will go as scheduled!