Tickets, tickets, tickets...

 How to get to Antarctica?
With 2 weeks until I leave, I finally received my tickets.  Flights to McMurdo Station in Antarctica leave from New Zealand.  I'm heading down a few days early to hopefully visit some old friends from my days on the South Island.  I'll be hitting 6 airports to get me to Christchurch, NZ (Manchester NH, Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, Sydney Australia, Christchurch).  The US Naval Academy offered to build us a webcam for our tower.  Sweet.  Except I need to fly down to DC to pick it up and then carry a 100 lb box with me to New Zealand.  I think I'll be over my weight restriction for flying to Antarctica but I guess we will cross that road when we get to it.  Thankfully Sept 22 just happens to be Ian's bday and we are going to hit up the Nationals game.  It's also helpful to have a friend that will change his work schedule to drive me 1.5 hours down to Manchester on a Friday morning.  Thanks Bill!

What's your itinerary?
I get a lot of strange looks recently when I tell people that I don't know.  Now that I have tickets, I have a few more answers but nothing is certain.  This is a common theme for polar research.  Weather has the final say on anything.  You can plan all you want, but unless God signs expect that plan to change.  I leave home on the 21st and get to NZ on the 25th.  I know I have 2 nights in DC, but I still feel there are some missing days in there.  We hope to be on the first main body flight of the season into McMurdo on Oct 1 (if Weather cooperates).  We will leave Antarctica when we finish, but should be sometime around Nov 12.  Rachel and I then hope to take a vacation in Australia, getting back home Nov 20. 

Will you have any access with the outside world?
I would like to tell everyone no.  However, thanks to mankind's incredible feats (which are still unfathomable to me), I should be able to click a button on a computer at the bottom of the world, send a message out to space, and into your computer seconds later.  No cell phone service.  Mail can be sketchy (remember that everything travels together to Antarctica: mail, people, food, equipment, etc.).  Email should be fine though but just don't tell anyone who needs something from me.