6 November, 1997

Hi everyone,
I have had the best time getting to Antarctica and I am still not
there.   I left Montana and flew through Salt Lake City where I got to
see the great Salt Lake from the airplane.   Boy was it ever neat.  Then
I got to fly to Las Angles and see all the neat  lights of the city that
stretched for miles and miles.   The plane I left on there was a really
BIG plane.   It was a  Boeing 747 and it had a neat upstairs.

Captain Don Lake and First Officers Mark Ketscher, John Vaughn and Sam
Sutton let me sit in the cock pit and even get my  picture taken with
them and me on the controls.  Boy was it ever neat to see from way up on
top the outside world from a large window.   I love to fly.  I wonder
how it is done?   Have you ever flown a paper airplane?   If not maybe
you and your friends can make some neat ones and see which one will fly
the longest and the furthest in the air?   Do you know who Bournoulli is
or what he said about why things fly?

We flew all night long and ended up in New Zealand after going over 6500
miles and at a speed of over 400 miles per hour.   I think we flew
mostly over the Pacific Ocean ,   could you check that out for me?
The sun came up over the ocean with the prettest oranges and yellows
that I have ever seen.   The sky was so pretty and then when the sun
peeked through it was like a great big golden ball.  Really neat
stuff!!!!

I am stuck in New Zealand right now so we have tried to travel to near
by places and see what is there.  We  have seen the ocean and walked to
a neat glacier water fall.  You could actually see the great glaciers on
the mountains around us.  Most of New Zealand that we have seen are
filled with pretty green grasses and beautiful colors of flowers.  I
really like the orange and yellow ones cause the remind me of honey.
Did you know that it is almost summer here and it is so nice?   I love
New Zealand and the people here even have neat accents!

I will write and tell you more about the neat stuff I have done and will
do when I get to Antarcitica.  Boy, I can hardly wait to get on the big
planes again and get to the neat continent at the bottom of the
world!!!!!