inevitable end

I woke up Monday morning, after a weekend of stormy weather, resigned to the idea of spending an extra day in McMurdo. Usually we bagdrag a day before our flight, but since there was such a small number flying off on our flight, we were able to keep hold of our luggage until the morning of our flight. This was fantastic, as we were delayed and still had access to all our clean clothes and toiletries!

Laura helped me pack and clean up my disaster of a dorm room, so this was one more day to spend with friends and leisurely eat lunch and dinner in the galley with no busy-ness of work. It felt good to have some breathing room.

As much as we all like to think we are holding up the world from Antarctica, we do get one tremendous flight off of the Ross Sea. The cost of these flights is tossed around quite often; and as a civilian, I find it quite amazing to be able to have so many trips in an AirForce C-17 cargo plane.

The plane was already on the ground when we arrived, but a large amount of cargo was unloaded as well; including a bulldozer that had been out for repair in New Zealand. We waited in anticipation of leaving for a long time, but also got to catch up with a few people who were working at the airfield and say our goodbyes again. Then we all walked up the stairs into the aircraft, chose a seat, and waited for take off and cruising altitude so we could take off our ECW and be ready to re-enter the living (and much warmer) world.