8 November, 1999

Arrival at McMurdo Station

With several days of delay and only one false start, we finally made it to the research station. I fondly call this the adult science camp! There are many ways that this place is like camp. All of the food is prepared for the scientists. The cooks are excellent, so the food is probably much better than any ole camp. There are people here to do the dishes, sweep the floors, take care of the heating and water supply, mechanics to keep the vehicles working, hair dressers, recreation planners, communication operators and many more. As a scientist, all one has to do is plan ahead for what equipment and supplies are needed for doing the experiments and finding ways to answer research questions. There is no real traffic here. If someone needs to travel very far, they go by air. Commuting to "work" is delayed only by the weather, not too many cars. If it becomes really windy with blowing snow, then the helicopters are grounded and everyone can take a break, or worry about not getting to their field site. Most scientists walk to work at the Crary Lab, stay in the lab all day, and many work evenings. The field season when they can be here is short so they must make the most of their time.

The people who will parcticipate in our workshops are ASA employees who do all of the hard work to make this such a nice place for scientists. These people are generally interested in the science that is happening here. We will work with 24 of them in the coming weeks as we explore all of the science, share projects with our group and help them with communicating with schools who signed on with us.

This is the plane that carries most of the people and heady equipment to various places in Antarctica. It takes heavy trucks to the field camp for the ITASE project, fuel to the south pole and people to and from New Zealand when the sea ice runway starts melting

This is the plane we took to Antarctica boarding in Christchurch in full ECW gear during a fine summer day. This C-141 can only land on the sea ice runway because it has no skies for landing. The sea ice is nice and smooth, but after landing it takes a long time to slow down. When the sea ice runway closes, everyone must take the Herc 130. What difference does it make to the passenger? Look over the pictures and see if you can figure out the answer.