From left to right: the smiles of Alex Mishik, Minako Righter, Jim Karner and Jani Radebaugh

It’s abour 9 pm local time,  and the big news is that Jim, Minako, Alex and Jani are all in town.  They actually arrived about 7 pm,  but had to go through briefings and find their rooms and all that before settling down.  Brian and I greeted them as they came off Ivan the TerraBus, and the smiles on their faces were amazing.  I was doubly-happy;  not only was the field team all together for the first time  (well, mostly- read on) but in addition to our team,  some old Antarctic friends I hadn’t seen in years had arrived as well.  One of the best reunion moments I’ve had in a long time.

Representatives of the National Science Board are in town,  and unfortunately I had to leave my new friends and make an appearance at their farewell cocktail party. Not my best kind of event, and they seemed all talked out, but the Redneck Eggrolls were pretty good!  I think they were made from locally-sourced, free-range rednecks.

At 8 I snuck out of that party and went to MacOps where I called John and Duck on the iridium satellite phone. They’re still out at Elephant Moraine, and the good news is they’re happy and healthy-  bad news is they had a tent day due to high winds.   They did report the winds seem to be dying down and they (and I) have high hopes they’ll be out recovering meteorites tomorrow.

That’s it for now;  the team has a busy day of training tomorrow and we’ll talk about that….. well…..   tomorrow.

-posted by RPH from McMurdo.

PS:  Peter and Emily,  your mom is happy and safe and misses you.  We’ll take great care of her so she can tell you bedtime stories about Antarctica forever!