Antarctica

Thanks to the wonders of free wireless internet at the Denver airport I am able to start posting on this year's journey south. I started out the day way too early (0400) with a 0600 flight to Denver.
I really enjoy this flight as the path covers a significant landscape in my life. We fly beside the Pryor Mountains where I spent quite a few summer days doing bat surveys with my friend Paul Hendricks in abandoned mines and caves. Then there are the Bighorn Mountains where my friend Tim Thomas lives nearby and where I spent a few summer days with my friend Beau Patterson (whom I haven't seen in way too long). Then there is the Laramie Range to the left where I met my wife Laura at a barbecue held at an old one-room schoolhouse. Next comes Shirley Basin, site of one of the first Black-footed Ferret reintroductions, where I conducted my Master's research on reintroduction techniques and spent many nights tracking and spotlighting ferrets with a host of friends. The Snowy Range and the little town of Centennial where I bartended at Pat Self's old restaurant and bar to help get through school. Laramie, off again to the left, where my sister Chris and her family now lives and where I spent a few years grinding through graduate school with a host of great people. Then over the hill to the front range and DIA. This morning it was fogged in pretty good and we were about a half an hour late getting in. Thankfully I had changed my flights so that I had more than an hour in between flights. Soon I will be on my way to Miami and then an overnight flight to Buenos Aires.
Not sure when I will be able to post again but hopefully soon. While you wait you can get a different view of Antarctica from Noah Stryker's blog. Noah is working on the other side of Antarctica on some Adelie Penguin colonies at a remote field station near McMurdo Station. Thanks to Bill Schmoker at Brdpics for the link.