Antarctica, the return from the "Harsh Continent"

As with everything, we had to hurry up and wait. We conducted the "bag drag" to the Movement Control Center (MCC) at 9PM the night before and then gathered around 10AM at the MCC the next morning for movement to the Pegasus Airfield for our C-17 trip. This flight was affectionately called the "Freedom Flight" for obvious reasons. Of course, we had to travel in our beloved Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear and get crammed onto Ivan "the Terra Bus" for the trip back to the airfield.

We arrived at the Pegasus Airfield at 11:30AM to be greeted with a, you guessed it, delay by the Air Force. Therefore, the plane that was scheduled to arrived at noon was now enroute to land at 2PM-ish with another hour for unloading and loading cargo making it a 3PM-ish departure. We stood on the Ice waiting for a couple of hours and watched the plane land, taxi, offload, and upload all of the cargo. Then, we anxiously awaiting our box lunches and hurried to get onto the plane.

All in all, we spent 15 days on "the Ice". That isn't bad considering most of the contractors spend close to six months there. We spent just about every night at Gallagher's or the Wine Bar (forgot what it's officially called..."The Mountain Inn"?). We toured the gym and they appeared to have nice equipment but we never stepped foot in there. And, of course, we spent a night at Black Island. In my opinion, no true experience is complete without doing some time (albeit just a night) in a field camp.

We were lucky enough to be with a producer from PBS filming a Nova episode and a writer from MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15834019/) who were focused on global warming. In fact, two of the folks we traveled with were captured in their online photos in the front row of seats.

All in all, it was a good trip and a lot of fun. Quite an interesting place and we didn't even go to the Dry Valleys or to the South Pole. Of course, we also didn't have to stay deployed for approximately six months either.

Can't wait 'til next year. Hopefully, I will be lucky enough to go down there to do the work we have been preparing for since 2004.