Happy Independence Day!

I've heard from several people today that they don't
celebrate the 4th of July. They celebrate Independence
Day. Independence from our rule by Britain. To be
honest, I didn't think most people gave it that much
thought. Apparently some do. We went to the 4th of
July...I mean Independence Day, party at the MEC and
generally had a good time. I was a chili cook-off
judge and there were some pretty good entries and one
that tasted somewhere in between excrement and excrement
on one's shoe. Not a good choice. After watching many
younger and braver (or dumber) than I, stand on up to
ten crates at a time while harnessed to the ceiling,
we watched Moose and Barb conduct the annual auction of
stuff (mostly crap). Although Lynn entered a couple of
knitted hats and they fetched $20 and $25. The money
then went to a big pot where tickets were randomly drawn
for cash prizes. Alas, we were not big winners, but it
was fun to watch. The highlight of the evening though for
me was celebrating my Independence from being Corn-Dog-Free.
The cooks made homemade corn dogs for the event and after
many months of jonesing for a corn dog...I left satisfied.
Now if they can somehow find a way to replicate a Taco Bell
Bean Burrito!

The Clown Car

Today, our friend Sean gave me a ride in the John Deere
Gator 6X4 or as Sean affectionately called it, The
Clown Car. It's the smallest vehicle operating on
Station this winter and was a lot of fun to ride in.
I'm not sure why there aren't more of these on station
since they're perfect for departments such as Housing
that don't need a full-sized vehicle or need to go
onto the ice shelf, but need something to haul things
around in. In reality, The MEC, in which Sean is the
Supervisor, needs a full-sized truck, but they do
make the best use out of the Clown Car. Plus I'm
sure it's more fun to drive.

Tucker to Castle Rock

The MEC (Mechanical Equipment Center) is tasked this
winter to put 250 hours on the new Tucker tracked vehicles.
Once a week, Sean and Josh take two people from town out on
the Castle Rock Loop on a two hour trip. This week, Lynn
and I got to go. We hadn't been to Castle Rock before
and we hadn't ridden in the new Tuckers before so it was
a doubly nice trip. The Tuckers are tracked vehicles so
they roll over the snow easily and had no problem at all
climbing from the Sea Ice up the glacier headed to Castle
Rock.


I was pretty surprised how steep the terrain was around
Castle Rock and it's definitely a long slide down to the
bottom of the glacier. Lots of people make this 9.3 mile
loop trip on foot or skis, but they definitely have more
energy than I do. I was very happy making it in a warm
vehicle.


On the way back, we were riding along the top of the glacier,
so we were fairly high up compared to McMurdo Sound to the
right and the Ross Ice Shelf to the left. At this high
up, you could see that it's a lot brighter to the north,
but you'd have to go hundreds of miles to actually see
the sun. And this was at 3:30 in the afternoon. We had
a great trip and hopefully we'll be able to go out again
after it's completely dark to see lots of stars.