Johnny reigns as Prom/Dairy Queen (long story) with his loyal subjects Morgan and Nina at his feet.

We had our fifth tent day in a row–Antarctica just does not let it go sometimes. In the morning I measured a windspeed of 35 mph at a brisk -8 degrees F. That is pretty chilly by all accounts. However, we still got out in the afternoon
to do camp chores. Tomorrow Johnny and Con are scheduled to depart our merry band to head back to McMurdo and showers for a day, and then to do recon work at Elephant Moraine. We likely won’t see them again until LPSC (the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, in Houston every March, for those non-planetary readers). To give them a proper sendoff, we had an event that I am calling ANSMET prom. Others may say that we had burger night. However, history is written by the victors, or perhaps just by those with the blogging equipment. So let it be known that we had the first ever ANSMET prom on this day. Johnny was unanimously voted the prom queen and crowned accordingly. Then Brian pulled out an incredible trick: He made ice cream from sweetened condensed milk, vanilla pudding, and snow. Guys, I know this sounds crazy but it really works. And THEN. Johnny pulled out a single-serve Soda Stream bottle and made a variety of sodas. We had ROOT BEER FLOATS. I think we can all agree that this was the greatest prom of all time, of all time. Now it’s time to get some shut-eye before the big departure tomorrow. It’s hard to imagine what our group will be like when we’re down two people, one of whom is the prom queen.

Field root beer floats from scratch. Yeah, we’re crushing it here. #winning

–Posted by Nina with a belly full of field ice cream and soda, south Miller Range, 14 January 2016