Made it to McMurdo

Well as you probably guessed from my lack of blog post yesterday, we headed out to McMurdo. They got us up and out to the airport by 6AM to get our gear on. They told us the weather was pretty sketchy so they wanted us there in case it broke but there was a good chance we'd head home. After going through security and checking in our bags, we sat down to wait for more instructions. At around 8AM they did our final screening and started a safety video but less than half way through it they told us to get our asses on the plane. So it was pretty exciting to finally be off after the delays.

We flew down on a C-17 cargo plane. It was a US Air Force plane with a crew stationed near Tacoma, Washington. The plane was half full with cargo and the other half was pallets of airline seats. I opted to sit along the sidewall, which I think was a good choice because there was lots of leg room. The flight was pretty loud, you needed earplugs all the time. But other than that, it was enjoyable. We got to go up on the flight deck and see the pilots. There was also a bathroom if you needed to go. I would say it ranked higher than a commercial flight.

The whole flight they kept telling us that it was pretty iffy to land. I guess the weather was bad so there was a good chance of boomeranging. But, as luck would have it, the weather broke just before we got near McMurdo and we were able to land. It was pretty chilly but all the gear they gave us kept me plenty warm.

This is getting pretty long, so I'm going to save my description of McMurdo for another post. I'll leave you with a picture of the plane we came in on.