Station 2 and Pegasus

Today I was out at Station 2, and drew the short straw to take Red 6 out to Pegasus for the C-17 flight. It took me 45 minutes to drive out there, and then we waited. First, we waited for the LC-130 to do their touch and go's, which is when they land and take off immediately, as in, at the end of the runway. Then the C-17 came in. It took them 2 hours to off-load cargo and refuel and take off again. The really neat thing is that the 'ramp' that the plane comes in on to off-load and refuel is right there where we were sitting. So we got really close to the plane, and I got some really good pictures, which of course I can't upload because the USB ports are being dumb. Which is why there haven't been many pictures for a while.

At any rate, I was at Pegasus, including drive time, from 11:15 am till about 5:15 pm. The good news is I got a nap in while we were out there. And I got to go see the Pegasus plane. See, back in the 60's or 70's, a Navy Super Constellation plane, called the Pegasus, crashed during some bad weather. Luckily, no one was hurt, but the plane lost half a wing, and the Navy, after salvaging what they could, just left the rest where it was. Over time, snow has blown in and over most of the plane, so all that is left to see is the top of the fuselage and the tail fins. The snow drifts make it easy to climb on top of the fuselage, and walk around on top. Sometimes people dig out the name and picture on the side of the plane, but we weren't going to do that. Supposedly there will be more boondoggles out to the Pegasus later on in the season, so maybe some of those people will dig it out and I'll get out again to see it. Pegasus airfield is where I will be leaving from at the end of the season. Anyway, pictures will be posted once I get them off the cameras.

I got back just in time for dinner, and after eating and fueling the truck back up, I got comfy. The slippers I bought are terrific, and work great for walking back and forth to the bathroom trailer. I'm hoping more mail came in on today's flight. The package I got from Chris only took 2 weeks to get here, and I've been told that now that most of the big cargo is in and the big push is done, mail will be very regular. Package mail can take as little as 8 days sometimes! I'm actually expecting a couple of packages soon.

Yesterday I hung out with a bunch of the guys and we watched football for most of the day. After football was over, a group of firefighters and a few others got the key to Discovery Hut and went out to Hut Point to check out the hut. It was horribly dark and dismal inside, and not at all as cozy and comfortable as the hut at Cape Evans was (and that's saying something!). No real beds, not even a real stove. The neat thing was that the one room had several sides of mutton still hanging, and a side of penguin, and several bones. Kind of neat in a weird way.

We went up to the cross and were up on the point itself, and saw some seals sunning themselves on the ice below us. Some of the ice closer to the shore was melted and the water was mostly open, and we saw a seal poking it's head out of the slushy top. We could hear it breathing even as far up as we were. They really breathe loudly. We went back for dinner and afterwards Cassidy and I hung out a bit more and I got some music from him, as well as the next 3 NCIS disks. The fire dept bowling team had a game at 9pm, so after heading back to my room and throwing in a load of laundry, I headed out to the bowling alley.

The bowling alley here is from 1961, and is the only manual pin-setting alley left in the world. Manual means that there are people at the end of each lane who pick up the pins that fall and put them in a setter, and send the balls back through a chute that drops them down a 'hill' and then hopefully momentum takes them back up to the top of the lane for the bowlers. The pinsetters are volunteers who work for tips, and they tend to wear bright socks or pants so that you can see them when they are down around the lane. There are only 2 lanes. The fire dept team lost by 10 pins. But it was fun.

After the bowling game, we went to Gallagher's bar, where we were holding a going away party for one of the firefighters from A shift. He got a better job back home and left today, on the C-17 I was on stand-by for. Sadly, his shift couldn't make it out since they were on duty, but I think we gave him a good enough sending off. We had the bar to ourselves (the bars are normally closed on Monday's), which was neat, cause we didn't have to fight anyone for shuffleboard, foosball, or pool. I played shuffleboard, which I did very badly at, but we still had fun. I made it back to my room by around 1130. It was a rough morning for quite a few people today.

It's days like today that make me think that it wouldn't be too bad to spend a winter down here. I admit to wanting to see the Southern lights, and be around for constant night. Then, I come to my senses. But I still think it would be neat to see.