It’s Saturday here the day we celebrate Thanksgiving. They do that so people can have two days in a row off. I’m sending this from work. We are one of the few places other than food services that work today. Don’t ask me why there is not a single airplane or helicopter scheduled to fly today but what the heck I have a good book and an Ipod full of Christmas music.

Meals on Thanksgiving and Christmas are set up a little like on a cruise ship. There are 4 seatings 3, 5 and 7PM and midnight for day workers. During the week you sign up for the seating you’d like then today you line up in the hall to wait for the doors to be opened to the dining facility. Then you hope more people don’t show up than signed up or there won’t be enough seats. Kind of makes the event like a high school click though as everyone runs around asking, ”what seating are you going to”, and “who are you going to sit with?” The food service folks do it because the dining facility can’t accommodate everyone at one seating. They really do try to make it a special meal. Tablecloths are on all tables, special decorations are set and they prepare a traditional Thanksgiving meal complete with pies! I was drafted into a table of people called the bow tie club so I must learn how to tie a real bow tie between now and 5:00. I have an instruction sheet but you know how they are and I’ve never been particularly good at tying knots. I hope I don’t hang myself.

To all my friends and family and people I don’t even know who read this blog I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving and are looking forward to a great holiday season.

One of the real treats here is stopping in at the dining facility after dinner to listen to and watch travelogs. These are presented on a random basis by people stationed here. We have a large projection screen on the wall and a sound system with microphones. These world travelers provide us with slides and narration of places they visited while off the ice.

The presentation this week was by a woman named Velvet. She and her husband, who is not on the ice, took a twelve day hike around Stewart Island. It’s a small island south of the South Island of New Zealand. It is, loosely speaking, a well traveled route. Most of the pictures she had showed them tromping in calf-deep mud. Along the trail are a series of cabins. In the cabins is a toilet, of sorts, a sink and running water and a small wood burning stove. Beds with a “mattress” are also available. Of course on the trek you have the normal hiking hazards, large rocks, clinging vines, biting flies and more mud. The time of year they traveled was fall so they had a couple of days of nice weather but most of the time it was cloudy and cold. (Is this sounding fun to anyone yet?) The rewards are a number of bird species not seen in most places, including the elusive Kiwi, Beautiful flora and fauna and beautiful ocean and mountain views. The pictures and the narration were really entertaining sitting in a comfortable chair with a nice cup of spiced cider. I think this is a trip I will just live vicariously through them.

I just remembered one other thing she mentioned. To get to the island you travel via ferry or air from the town of Invercargil. They elected to take the ferry and knew they were in trouble when the crew met them with barf bags and wet wash cloths when they boarded. Velvet said it was the worst ferry trip she had ever been on. It only lasted an hour but seemed like four hours. It was so bad she said she was going to fly back until she saw the airplane she would be flying on. She elected to take the barf ride back at the end of the trip. By the way the cost per person for the 12 day trip was about $500. Wow, that’s so cheap I think I might give it a try. (NOT) Incredibly she said they are thinking about doing it again this year. Good luck with that!

I think we had another first yesterday. An Australian registered Air Bus 319 flew into McMurdo and landed at the ice runway. This event has been in the planning stages for a couple of years. The thought process is that eventually the National Science Foundation will contract out the transportation of personnel into McMurdo. That will free up the C-17 to haul cargo only a role it is well suited for. It was pretty cool watching him circle the field and then set up to land. He was very concerned about what we call “the breaking action” or how well he will be able to slow the aircraft down after he touches down on the ice. He approached the runway at his minimum approach speed and flared just above the runway and very gently lowered the plane onto the ice. He was able to stop without difficulty and taxied to parking. The crew spent several hours touring the station and then headed back to Christchurch. The plan is to make one more trip today but the weather may not cooperate in that effort. We’ll see.

Last night about 7:00 PM a “Christmas snowfall” descended on the station. Snowfall was very heavy but the snow was dry and light with no wind so the flakes drifted slowly and delicately to the surface. The cloud cover softened the harsh light of day and gave a feeling of dusk. The temperature was warm and it was great just to go out and wander around.

We also had the monthly meeting of the yacht club last night. It’s always fun meeting new people and listening to their sailing stories. I met a guy named Charlie last night who has his sailboat moored in Hawaii. He spent many years there running one of the big telescopes. He now lives in Denver and is here as an astronomer working with the telescope at the South Pole. Interesting, interesting.

Last night ad dinner I met a fella by the name of Bud. It turns out he is the head of the medical department for Raytheon Polar Services. He has just recently started in this position. In an earlier life he was involved with NASA on the medical side with the later Gemini program and the early Apollo flights. It was interesting listening to him share stories about NASA in the early days. He will only be here for a couple of weeks and I hope to be able to talk to him again before he leaves.

I’ve been watching another man at the coffee house recently. Whenever I come in I see him. He sits at the end of the bar, always on the same bar stool. His nick name is Atlas. He is a large burly man with a very gregarious personality. I never see him with anyone specifically and he always seems to be there. During the evening I watch people stop by to visit with him for a few minutes or maybe just give him a hug or a peck on the cheek. Men and women alike seem to stop to visit (Although the men usually don’t peck him on the cheek). No one ever seems to stay for more than five minutes and then they move on to the group they are sitting with. He just seems to hold court there. I’m not really sure what it’s all about but I will try to find out before I leave.

With warmer temperatures come melting snow and little creeks of slushy, muddy water everywhere. The road crew dumps and spreads fresh snow every morning on the main street but by noon it has all turned to mud again. It won’t be too long and I’ll be out hiking mostly on volcanic rock. The snow is to cold for long hikes.

The ice edge is in to about 20 miles and just barely visible from the peak at arrival heights. I was able to get one of our guys our on a trip to Cape Evans this week. That’s about an hour and a half in one of those big dinosaur looking vehicles. The ride is bad for your back but good for sightseeing. Joe said he saw several penguins and a few seals, one just sticking his head up from a hole in the ice. He had his camera with him and got some good pictures.

I think I’ll make a trip down to the big gym tonight for another Cha Cha Cha class.