Now that was a long....day?

Got up Friday at 5am. Left hotel at 7ish.....just sat down in new hotel room....3:30 am Sunday, EST. Had 7 hours of waiting in Denver airport, but I knew I was safe there...

then finally got to LAX to find a 4 hour delay waiting....

So what to do while you wait at LAX at 2 am? You think they would have left the stores and restaurants open...

Then the plane arrived to take us to New Zealand....

But I finally made it. New Zealand. Landed in Auckland then flew to Christchurch. More to come. Clothing issue tomorrow, then Antarctica the following day.

 

One of the Islands north of Auckland....

Snow capped mountains of Christchurch..

Last Night in U.S.....

Well this is it; my last night in Denver, and the US. I have a few more "classes" and safety briefings, in the morning, then off to the airport. I head to the airport 12:30 pm on Friday, and land in New Zealand 1:45 pm on Sunday. Its about 17 hours of flying, plus a whole lot of layovers and waiting.

So, until next time, this is my last US sunset, and one of my last period for 6 months.......

Day One...getting to Denver

Well, got up at 5:45am and went to Sarasota Airport. Early bird gets.....to wait for an hour until the counter opens. Usual travel woes from there. Smaller seats, no food, crankier passengers, and cost you more. But I'm here in mile high Denver/ surrounding area. Got to say once the rain and fog lifted, The Rockies are pretty impressive. Going from Florida where a speed bump is a hill to this......

Wow!!! Picture doesn't do it justice. Try to get better ones. Looking at those mountains puts things kinda in perspective. Me little...World big! The adventure continues..........

Packing your life in to two bags....

So I have been faced with packing everything I could need into two bags. Two bags for six months in Antarctica. Hmmm....

They can be 70 pounds by my instructions for travel. OK. Then I come to discover airline standard is 50 pounds. So I race to Publix to put my bags on the scale and find out they are both about 45 pounds.
This being said, my life for the next six months will include a whopping 90 pounds of personnel items. I guess  I will find out how important "stuff" is to me. I mean, "I am a material girl and this is a material world"

Sorry, its been a long weekend.

I came up with a sure fire way to identify my bags at the airport. I was once told to tie ribbon on the handle. Nice, but feel a little funny picking up my bag with the flowery neon ribbon. So I went with Army duffel bags. I've packed enough to know I can jam 200 pounds in one if need be; they are durable, not that they mistreat your luggage at an airport; and with the current nationwide love of the military, I figure nobody will mess with them. I need to mark them, but with what? We used to put out name, unit, and social security number on them. Ok; name I got. Unit? Company E for Eskimo? Social security, not a chance these days. So just name and a creative (I think) little "M" on the bottom. Thanks to Monster Energy drinks for the midnight inspiration.

 Stressful, yet I feel like I'm ready. I have watched "Into The Wild" and "127 Hours" so I know what not to do. I've seen "Ice Road Truckers" and "Air Alaska" so I know what 20 below looks like. I guess now its time to cut off the cable and go truly live life.

Thanks to everyone for your support and good wishes. Keep following this its sure to get interesting.

In about 33 hours the adventure will begin........

New Address

Not much to report yet. Still in final coundown. Nine days to go. So here is my address, don't know who writes but....

William B. Morris, NANA

McMurdo Station

PSC 469 Box 700

APO AP 96599

Want a reaction from the crowd?

   So this is my attempt to keep everyone informed of what's going on. The title of the blog is what I heard from 99% of the people I told. My mother asked me the question two or three times, and I assumed it was her hearing at first; then it dawned on me how it must sound.
   "What's new?" " Oh nothing much going to Antarctica...."  Yeah I guess it sounds weird. Well that's what I'm doing. I have a 6 month contract as a cook at McMurdo Station Antarctica. There will be about 1100 people there for the "summer".
   So this is the first post of many I hope depending on schedule and such. I leave Sarasota on Tuesday the 16th of August. First stop Denver Colorado for inprocessing and such, then on to Christchurch New Zealand for 2 or 3 days to get cold weather gear, then..... "The Ice".