Superbowl in Barrow

Arriving to Barrow

“And to the right of the plane, you can see the northern lights,” the pilot alerts us on the BOS-SEA flight. What a great start to the ICE-MITT field campaign it has been so far: seeing the northern lights on our first flight, Patriots winning one of the best Superbowls in recent years, and all of the ICE-MITTs shipping successfully. It all makes me almost forget the fact that our toolbag got lost in Seattle and our blowing snow catching tower is lost in Anchorage.   It feels good to be back in Barrow, staying in the same hut I was in 3 years ago.  

Bags are packed, ready to go

After enduring a whole bunch of heckling during the flights to and from Seattle (perhaps because I chose to proudly rock my Patriots shirt), I took a quick nap in Anchorage and jumped on the earlier flight to Barrow in time to watch the game.  Rachel and Ellyn elected for the full night sleep, tour of Anchorage, and the later flight to Barrow.  While here, we stay just outside of Barrow at the old Naval base (NARL), which is also home to the local college (Ilisagvik) and my access to a TV.  Forest, a student at the college, is my new best friend since he called that the Seahawks would through a pass and interception rather than run it on the final key play.  At some point, a random person came by and delivered a platter of wings, jalapeño poppers, mozzarella sticks, and fresh fruit.  All in all, despite being the only Pats fan in town, watching the Superbowl in Barrow turned out to be a huge success. A couple of notes about Barrow: - The internet is reaallyy slooooowwww.  Unfortunately I think this means that I'm going to have a real hard time uploading any photos to this blog.  (editors note: photos added later) - Prices for goods, especially food, are hilarious.  I bought a box of wheat thins and a small thing of hummus today for $16.  Decided to skip on a box of cheerios for breakfast at $9/box.  - It's a bit cold here at times (Wednesday's high is supposed to be -22) so vehicles are either kept running or you plug them in when you are not using them. - Internet is really slow, so I need to end this post now or it won't upload.

Refueling in Deadhorse