Continental Lands at GJT

Starting this week, Continental Airlines is offering twice a day flights
from Grand Junction to Houston. This brings a total of seven cities
that are served by Grand Junction Regional Airport. Besides Houston,
we can fly to Denver, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Dallas, Las Vegas and
Los Angeles nonstop. We have a great little airport here and it's getting
bigger and busier all the time!

Finally Home!

After a long flight and almost as long a layover in Dallas, I took
off for Grand Junction and found it to be a very snowy and wintery
scene.


It's always great seeing Mt. Garfield and the Grand Mesa. Two more
signs that I was home.


Of course Lynn was waiting for me at the airport, and she was the
main sign and reason I was home at last after being separated for
five plus months. It will be fun spending the next seven months in
our happy little desert town!

On the Way Home

At the beginning of the day, I was faced with 44 hours of traveling
to get home. Yes, I like traveling, but even for me, that's a long time.
My "day" would take me from Christchurch, to Sydney, to Honolulu,
to Dallas, and finally to Grand Junction. A very long trip indeed!
My longest layover (9 hours) was to be in Honolulu. I've never
been to Hawaii before so it turned out to be a real treat. My friend,
Liz, who we travelled with in Peru and Ecuador was staying the week
in Hawaii and was renting a car, so she generously offered to take
me on a ride around Oahu.


Nine hours isn't a lot of time, especially when I had to get back to
the airport to catch my flight to Dallas laster in the day. So, to get
a brief overview, we took off to the north shore. Along the way, we
went by the Dole Pineapple Plantation. Much of the center of Oahu
is rural and mountainous, filled with large farms like this one.


We ran across this fun sign in a small town named Waialua. Just a
sign of things to come.


We saw all kinds of surfers off of Puaena Point and the biggest waves
I had ever seen. They were HUGE! I had heard that the waves on
the north shore were big, but it was way beyond my expectations.
It didn't make me want to be a surfer anytime soon, but if there
are any surfers reading this, this is the place you want to be!


All along the rest of the north shore it was really beautiful. Kind of
like the Hawaii you picture in your mind and not the urban, big
city feeling of Honolulu.


We also drove by a number of fruit stands. We stopped at one and
they had great fruits and vegetables of all kinds. Some of which I
hadn't seen before. Lots of Pineapples, Papayas and Bananas.


Liz bought lots of fruit for her week-long stay and we both had
fun enjoying the smells of all of the fruit, including the Papayas.


As a vexillologist, I enjoyed seeing the Hawaiian flag, blowing in
the breeze.


My brief tour of Oahu was soon over and I had to get back to the
airport. Liz and I said our goodbyes and she went her way and I
went mine. Hers, hopefully a fun, weeklong stay in the islands, and
me, many more hours of flying and waiting before getting home.


I wasn't that thrilled with Honolulu's airport. It reminded me a bit of a
more tropical LAX, built about the same time I'm guessing, but at least
it was more organized, laid back and gave you the feeling of place.
I enjoyed the gardens outside of the gate area. Very tranquil.


Before getting on the plane, I noticed this mural. it reminded me a
bit of the Paul Gauguin murals we saw in the airport at Tahiti. It was
a nice calming scene before getting on a 7 hour flight.

DEN+LAX+SYD+CHC=UGH!

I'm sitting in Denver at the airport and I'm wishing that the
next 24 hours were over. That's how long I'll either be
flying or waiting in airports over the next day. 19 of those
in the air. After bidding Lynn goodbye at the curb, I started
this journey. A very long time from now, I will be in
Christchurch.

The Day in Denver

Lynn reminded me tonight that in all the busy-ness yesterday,
we had both forgotten that my Dad passed away, one year ago,
on September 24th. I miss my Dad terribly and I think of him
almost every day. However, I think he'd be ok with the fact that
we forgot as we are making it through the grieving process.
Although not having him here with us is not easy, I hope it will get
easier with time.


So...today, I started the two day process of orientation at the
Raytheon Polar Services Company in Centennial, Colorado. It
seems like the information changes very little year after year, but
attending is one of the requirements of working on the Ice, so
it's something we all deal with. I liked these flags that were flown
at the Pole that are on display at the entrance to the building.


After my orientation was over, we received a message from our
friend (and my boss) Susie. She had left a binder and her itinerary
at the office and asked if we could bring it to her at the airport.
Not a problem, as we drove it there and saw our friend Liz there
waiting with her. For those of you that might remember, Liz
traveled with us quite a bit in Ecuador and Peru. I will see both
of them in Christchurch and have dinner with them the evening
before they head to the Ice. The day before me.


We enjoyed an excellent dinner at a restaurant called Citron New
World Bistro in Denver. We had been here several years ago when
it was still a Marie Callender's Restaurant. Definitely a nice last
dinner in the US for quite some time.


Of course we still had the evening ahead of us and one of
our favorite cheap things to do is going to Border's Books.
We had a big pot of tea and read some books and magazines.
Yes, not exactly an exciting Friday night, but something we
like to do. A relaxing last night in the States.

And Away I Go...

Ready to start season number 10 on the Ice, I started my trip.
Today was a long day. Lynn dropped me off at the airport
in Grand Junction at around 11:30 and immediately drove
off for Denver. My flight left at around 12:30 and after about
40 minutes, I was in Salt Lake City.


The plane from GJT was pretty small...about 25 people, but this
plane from SLC was about 75people. Quite a bit bigger. I sat
next to a woman from Israel who was going around to cities in
the western US selling body muds and salts from the Dead Sea.
Interesting.


When I landed in Denver at around 4:45, Lynn was waiting for me
and had been there about an hour. Amazing that it took her less
time to drive than it took me to fly.

Ta-Dah!

IT ALL FITS !!!

Tomorrow, on my first leg of my trip to the far south,
I head to Denver for orientation. Lynn's going to go
with me, but since she doesn't have a plane ticket, and
I have to use the ticket they gave me,
she's going to drive there after she drops me off at
the airport in Grand Junction and then meet me at
the airport in Denver...yeah...kind of crummy but
that's how it has to work. So off I go on another trip
to the Ice. Only 5 months this time though...

Leaving Las Vegas

We are now officially carless. At least for a few days.
We had been borrowing Lynn's sister's 4-Runner for
the last six weeks and we met her in Las Vegas where
she was returning the Eurovan campervan she had been
renting. As a result, we looked for a one way ticket
from LAS to GJT. Not an easy task when you're looking
for something inexpensive. We were able to find a
great deal on Allegiant Air...one of the newish low
cost carriers that now crosses the country. I had also
never flown out of Las Vegas before so I got to add it
to my list of airports flown through (57 total). Allegiant
is not a bad airline at all. Much better than I expected.
The seats were comfortable, the service friendly and
even though there was a charge for everything, we both
flew, including taxes for $100 one way. I'd fly them again.

The Nasca Lines

Just north of Nasca, Peru lie the enigmatic Nasca Lines and geoglyphs
that were formed by the Nasca people between 1400 and 1800 years
ago. Our flight lasted for 30 minutes and we saw almost two dozen
different distinct shapes. We definitely needed our air sickness meds
as the small six seater plane made some pretty scary dips and turns
to make sure we got great views of each drawing. Designated a World
Heritage site by the United Nations in 1994, it's not a easy place to get
to as we had to take a bus for six hours from Lima through miles and
miles of pretty bleak desert.


Click on Each Photo to Enlarge


The Astronaut


The Spider


The Condor


A Trapezoid


The Whale


The Hummingbird


The Monkey


A Trapezoid


The Parrot


The Tree and The Hands


Landing at Aeropuerto Maria Reiche

Back in Quito

After spending another delightful evening at the Lima
airport, we had a rather uneventful flight back on LAN
and ended up heading through customs at about 6:00am
in Quito. Although several times in Peru I was questioned
about the kilo of a mysterious white substance I was carrying
in my bag (it was salt from the Salt Mine in Salinas) we
breezed through customs here and took a quick taxi to
our apartment in Edificio Holanda where we were greeted
by our amigo, Wilson (pronouced Gwilson in Espanol).
Wilson is one of the security guards that monitors the
front door of the building and constantly challenges us
to improve our Spanish-speaking skills. A good guy
nonetheless! So immediately after entering the apartment,
it was lights out for the next 8 hours. Airport floors don't
offer you the cozy rest you might expect. Now we're
starting our next set of adventures in Ecuador's capital.

¡Adiós Perú!

After a long day of traveling, first from
Cusco to Lima, where we´ll find ourselves in
the familiar (3 times now) situation of sleeping
in the airport, we´ll catch a flight at 3AM for
Quito. We´ve really enjoyed our stay in Peru
and maybe someday we´ll be back.

Lima Peru

We arrived in Lima tonight for what promises
to be an interesting and fun two weeks in
the cradle of the Incan civilization. Of
course, we haven't left the Lima airport yet
as we arrived almost at midnight and decided
to camp out at the airport instead of spending
big bucks for a hotel room for 5 hours of sleep.
Early in the morning, we are catching a bus
for the 6 plus hour trip to Nasca, where we
will be taking a flight in a small plane on
Thursday morning to see the famous Nasca
Lines. Then on Friday, we are off to Cusco
for just over ten days. There we will visit
Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley. I am
sure that after these two weeks, I will
definitely have my archaeology fix filled
for some time.

Google Maps

View Airports I've Flown Through in a larger map
I've been playing around a little lately with Google Maps
and I have to say...It's AWESOME! I've been a closet
cartographer all of my life and even though I enjoy
drawing maps by hand, it's even more fun designing
maps with a powerful tool like this. My first map I
created was to show the head of the Notre Dame
Department of Archaeology where a ancient Hopewell
Culture Mound near my family's farm is located.
My most recent "project" is a map of all of the airports
I've flown through around the world. The best thing
about Google Maps...it's fun. And that's what it's all
about.

SBN-DEN-LAX-SYD-CHC

After 21 hours of in-air flight time, we made it
to Christchurch. Another summer on the Ice for us.
Sleep was the key word for us as we went to bed at
the Camelot on the Square at 7:30pm and woke up at
6:30am. All is well as we get our small amount of
Extreme Cold Weather gear this morning and then
head out to enjoy as much of Christchurch as we can.

VPZ

My Mom had an appointment today so while we were
waiting, I geeked out and went to visit the Porter
County Municipal Airport (VPZ). I knew I only had
a few minutes until my Mom's appointment was finished
and fortunately, that's all it took to look over this
tiny airport. It's so small, it makes our home airport
in Grand Junction look like O'Hare. Even though it's
small and has no scheduled flights or airlines, it's
very well appointed and has a friendly staff. I think
that most of it's traffic comes from Valparaiso
University. I attribute my geek-love of airports
because of our trips to VPZ when I was very young.
We would stop at Dairy Queen for Mr. Mistys and watch
the small planes take off and land at the "airplane port".
On several vacations we stopped at O'Hare in Chicago and
the Green Bay airport in Wisconsin as actual tourist
destinations. Not your typical tourist fare but I think
my Dad was interested as well and it was free. These
pre-TSA days were great for airport aficionados.
So today, my visit to the airport in Valpo was kind of
like going home. I felt very comfortable there.

Visiting Dad

Lynn and I got off the Ice on the 8th and after 23 hours
in airplanes, made it back to the Chicago area to see my
Mom and Dad. Dad was moved from the hospital on Thursday
to the VNA Horton Hospice Center in Valparaiso.


It's a really nice place that is really comfortable for
Dad and it's almost like he's in a living room. We're
going to bring his two pups up the first day it isn't
raining and I know he's looking forward to that.


I've enjoyed visiting with my sisters and brother as well as
my Aunt Sharon and Uncle Ray and cousin Diane. Diane was nice
enough to pick us up at O'Hare and even though they lost our
bags between LAX and ORD, our travels were super smooth.