Last day in the cold! 

October 31, 2005

It’s finally over! We left pole on the October 28th at 11:00 AM and made the three hour flight to MacTown. When we arrived our friends Tom, Andrea and Peter surprised us by showing up at the airfield. It was a short visit but a good one. Tom brought some chilled guiness which tasted “oh so good” after drinking the old stale beer of South Pole for two years. About 20 sips into my fresh beer the bus driver said it was time to go so we loaded into a bus that was too small for all of us, so Jodi, several others and I had to stand. The driver took us about 200 yards where we waited for an hour, feeling cramped, cranky, and stuffed like sardines we became impatient. The driver was a young girl who was relatively new to the program and hadn’t become one of the jaded, bitter cynical veterans that she had become responsible for. She was telling her passengers how she wasn’t used to the cold of Mac town and had to wear thermal underwear everyday. It was 20 degrees and we were all enjoying the balmy temperatures wondering how the driver could ever be cold and all rolling our eyes thinking “grow some hair!” Fortunately, as with all things in life, our stop at the corner of hell and purgatory ended and the pilots indicated we could approach the plane. I am not sure whether I departed or was thrown free of the bus but once outside I grabbed a sack lunch for and Jodi and I and entered the largest airplane I had ever seen. The inside was a cavern with a polished aluminum floor, plastic injection molded walls with strap, chain and hook holders and insulated pipes overhead. The plane appeared to be a flying sport utility vehicle; I was very impressed. Jodi and I took seats along the outside walls and were in the process of getting settled in when they announced we would have to return to the bus because of a weather delay in Christchurch. I could not believe it, how could such a mighty airplane and the United States Air Force be at the mercy of weather. Grudgingly we returned to the buss and went to MacTown, where they let us out at the Mac Ops building amongst all the cargo and baggage we sat waiting for word of when our flight might leave. Fortunately Andrea heard about our delay and met us so we could visit some more. It was nice seeing a friendly face after the harsh faces of pole. About 5:00 PM they let us get some dinner from the galley and told us to monitor channel 7 on their closed circuit television system. Andrea walked us by her office and showed us where Peter works. I was amazed at the people rushing around and the general buzz of the place, it was like a city. Jodi and I then went to the galley and grabbed some dinner, Andrea joined us later and we visited for awhile, talking about the trials and tribulations of winters. At 6:45pm we returned to the Ops building and were transported to the airfield. I entered the C17 and was just as impressed as I was the first time but this time I was really excited to notice 120V power plugs along the wall where I could power my laptop and watch movies. I set up my inflight entertainment system and waited for the crew to finish flight preparations. Around 8:00 PM we finally departed with the roar of 4 very magnificent jet engines that made the occupants of the airplane know that this airplane could not only fly but also it could also haul ass. It felt upon lifted off as if the earth had decided it no longer liked the airplane and evicted it from its surface. We zoomed to cruise where Jodi went to sleep and I watched Madagascar, and West Wing. At 2:30 AM we landed in Christchurch, collected our baggage and were processed by customs. After that Jodi and I walked to the CDC so we could return our cold weather gear and begin our vacation. Unlike last year they had shuttle buses waiting to wisk us off to our hotels once we had completed returning the gear. At 3:30 AM we were finally in our hotel room and ready for bed. We slept until 11:30 am and then walked to Dux where we had some lunch and ran into some other polies. We sat there all afternoon, enjoying the fat air, watching it rain and enjoying conversation that had the sound of excitement and possibilities instead of the of the all to familiar sound of cynicism. During the day we had heard Mike Houle or “Meho” was having a party and he stopped by Dux to spread the word. We were not to sure about going but decided to venture that way to check things out. It was about a 2 mile walk and when we arrived we met his wife Christine, two kiwis named Stefan and Tim and an American named Bonna. They were a bunch of fun, Stefan and Bonna bantered back and forth making us all laugh over a bunch of Steinlagers. Throughout the evening various polies would walk up the drive way with groceries in hand and join the fun. Meho fired up the grille and cooked some chicken, steaks, sausage and hotdogs. It was nice eating outside from the grille much like Americans do on the 4th of July. Once Jodi and I had our fill and it was getting late we walked the 2 miles to our hotel and went to bed. I have to say our first 24 hours off the ice were pretty good!

October 25th

Time is getting short! We are scheduled to leave the ice on Friday and still things seem very far away. It is nice having the new folks here; they have added new energy to the place and have helped lift the fog from my consciousness. I have not written for some time for several reason but among them is I lacked the motivation to log in and write a short note. So much has happened between then and now.

Jodi’s depression has faded, not entirely, but mostly and I expect she will be almost good as new when she feels the warm sun and gets to experience something new. I am the same in that I felt very tired, unmotivated and down right blah from about mid winter until now. Every day seems the same and no day stands out in my memory, they all just seem to run together into a stream of time that feels like I lived the same day repeatedly. When the first planes were to arrive all the WO’s walked around dreading their arrival and some wanted to hide from the “sunny, bright and cheery faces”, very few wanted them to arrive. I felt the dread of their coming but I also knew that change was something that was inevitable and would provide some diversion from the stream of days. Well they landed even though the temperature was below the minimum and the third plane came here without landing. It is rumored that the landing gear on the second plane froze, so the third turned around to avoid the same problem. The temperature has been to cold for any more flights. I think fate dealt the WO’s gift because only a few new faces arrived and most of those were familiar so the transformation from winter to summer was cushioned a bit.

A really strange thing when I saw a friend from last winter walk off the plane for his summer season. I was overjoyed to see him and gave him a big hug and started to cry, I don’t know what was going on but it felt like the waves of joy rushing over my soul washing the sadness of the long winter away. I have never felt so much relief in my entire life.

Yesterday, we both received our end of season reviews and we each earned a level 5, the highest a person can receive. It is rare that office people get high-level reviews because the people doing our reviews are often trades people who through hard work have risen to a management level. Unlike us they don’t have formal educations and they kind of resent the privileges that our privileged lives have afforded us. They are good people and I respect them immensely for their hard work, I could never match the output of their bodies but that has never been my greatest asset and I think in receiving that “5” they recognize what Jodi and I are good at.

Freshies! One of summers changes is the arrival of fresh fruit. I can only imagine what the early immigrants crossing the Atlantic from Europe to America felt when they spied the first fresh fruits and vegetable they had seen in months. I also remember how as a kid my parents would put an apple or orange in my Christmas stocking and I would grateful but not excited, that same orange a month ago would have been a gift from heaven and I would have savored it like no other. The planes brought us mostly apples and oranges with the occasional mangos and melons and every day since I have had them with my breakfast, lunch and dinner.

On Friday October 28th Jodi and I will leave South Pole (yes I can say it now because time is short and retribution difficult) for what we currently hope will be the last time. Every morning I make the walk from my temporary housing to the station, I look around and try to experience everything as much as possible. The biting cold, the roar of the power plant, the clanking of the tracked vehicles and a place devoid of color and smells, it feels like home and familiar. It is kind of scary to leave not having a future planned, but then I remember how scary it was coming here, not knowing what six months of cold darkness would feel like. Knowing this I sense it is time to move on and experience something new!

October 18th

Today I finished the race to McMurdo, 850 miles of running, skiing, biking and rowing. I feel thrashed and worn out. It will be nice to take some time off and let my body heal so I can begin the long ride across South East Asia.