Heading home

Wednesday, April 21: High 20F Low: -2F Length of Day: 21h 35m
Thursday, April 22: High 22F Low: 13F Length of Day: 22h 22m
Friday, April 23: High 23F Low: 11F Length of Day: 24h

By Wednesday, I'm really sleep deprived, but I know that I'll get to sleep on the plane. Thank goodness I have that ability. I really feel sorry for people who can't sleep on planes. It's about the best way to pass the time in my mind.

The CRESIS teams shows up around 3pm with the last data set of the mission. I'm about 80% done with the third data copy of the old data, and I really think I can get this data copied and everything packed up by 8am the next day. People stopped by with words of encouragement every once in a while, but at no time did I feel pressure to get finished any earlier than I possibly could. The scientists on this mission were really top notch, and I enjoyed working with the team. A small part of me is going to miss everyone, but it's a very small part compared to the part that would love to get home sooner than later. I'm about as motivated as anyone else to leave early, and I put the pedal to the metal to get it done.

Ben and Reed come by after dinner and we pack up about everything we could at that time. I'm up all night, but I get everything done as planned by 6am. At 6:30am, we have an all hands meeting to see where we are, and everyone is happy to know that we're headed home today! I pack up the server and the rest of the gear and head to breakfast.

By the time I'm back from breakfast, Ben and Reed and three other team members have hauled all of the gear down to the lobby. I pack up what's left of my groceries and head to the dorm where the Go North! people are staying. I figure they can use those groceries while the hotel will most likely throw them away. On my way back to the hotel, I drop off a sticker in the museum and hope that Miss Dell will get it and add it to the wall. I then take down the wireless router, grab my luggage, and head to the hangar.

We pack up the plane and are off the ground well before 11am. We are headed to Kanger in Southern Greenland first to drop off equipment which will be used in the next set of missions taking place in May. I immediately plop down in a seat and fall right to sleep and don't wake up until we land. Kanger is really beautiful, and the airport is surrounded by mountains. It was expected that it could take us a couple of hours to unload the plane, but the crew does it in 45 minutes, and then we are back in the air. As we head out and leave Greenland, you can see hundreds of tiny white specks in the water. Each one is an iceberg big enough to sink the Titanic. It's beautiful and eerie and fascinating to look at.

Our next stop is Bangor, Maine where we will go through customs and the crew will spend the night and rest before heading to Wallops. We get there around 4pm, make it through customs very quickly, and then head to a Holiday Inn. We all then head immediately to the Sea Dog Brewing Company where we drink micro brewed beer and eat mussels and lobster. It was a fantastic dinner and the beer was great. We head back to the hotel and I have a last beer with Michelle and Brian from the LVIS team before heading to bed.

CRESIS has gracious bought me a last minute ticket from Maine to Indy for Friday morning which puts me home a day earlier than I had expected. After a dip in the hot tub to relieve a bit of aches and pains the previous four days had given me, I have breakfast at the hotel and head to the airport. The Bangor airport is tiny and it only takes me about 10 minutes to get checked in and get through security. A stop in La Guardia, then off to Indy, a shuttle ride later, and I'm home.

It was 33 days, over 24TB of data (copied three times!), over 100 hours of flying, and over 40 new colleagues. I had a lot more fun than I thought I was going to have. The DC-8 is a fantastic plane especially one as cushy as this one. The NASA crew was so experienced and confident that you always knew you and the mission were in good hands. It was for me a once in a lifetime experience, and I'm glad I took the opportunity to go.