Ship Offload

Some cool overhead pics of McMurdo and the sound...

It's weird that our entire existence centers around this tiny, somewhat ugly town for half the year. Even after three years though, we still think it is a great gig :)

The blue building is the hub of town. After three seasons, I know this town like the back of my hand, yet once in a while someone will ask me to take them to, for example, the soil burner (a large oven which cooks contaminated dirt all day) or Larryville (a part of the Ball Park parking area where a guy named Larry used to live in a Millvan some years ago) which I haven't been to. I still learn something new about this place, oh, about every other day.

There is a nasty bug going around (the Crud in Antarctic lingo) involving fever, cough, runny nose, etc. Everyone has it, and I am very nervous about getting it. I've had it both years getting off the ice and I am determined not to catch it this year! Elizabeth just had to take two days off because of it. It doesn't help that I am cooped up in vehicles with people who are hacking and sneezing...

The new shuttles vehicle coming off the boat (without the trailer).

These tractors are sitting on the pier still because apparently they are too wide to drive across. Rumor has it that they will wait until the ocean freezes over again, then they will drive them across the ice.

Cute! It looks like a toy, doesn't it?

Today is my last day off, then I work right up until the day I leave (14th). They have to get about 30 more missions in to Pole, plus the container ship is still being loaded up, so the town is in super high gear. The winterovers have arrived and going around saying they can't wait until we get out of town :) There is such a funny predictable  rhythm to this Antarctic life.