Departure

11/8/2005

Well I left my parents at the hotel where Raytheon had put us up, and headed out with Chris, Craig, and Robert in SUVs to DIA. There we met up with the other individuals who were at the orientation yesterday. While we were waiting I borrowed a cell phone and made some quick calls to friends to say some last minute goodbyes. Marijke was able to sweet talk the security people into allowing her husband escort her to the gate. They spent every last moment together. It would be 3-4 months before they saw each other again.

On the flight out to LA, I sat near Kevin who was a vetran of McMurdo. He previously was a science diver, but this time he was working for Raytheon at the airfields. He told me his 'war' stories and about swimming under the ice, which kinda made me want to go for that commerical diving certificate or at least a dry suit one.

At LAX Chris lost his boarding pass so we waited for him to get a new one. Next we hit the Duty Free store where Marijke was buying liquor her boss in McMurdo asked her to get. We were acosted by 'charity' organizations. I'm glad there's none of that in Denver, then we waited at the Security line to get in. Chris passed through, but we were told we needed new boarding passes. Argh! We looked at the line at the ticket counter and rolled our eyes knowing our plane was leaving soon. Hand it to a woman though, Marijke went around and spoke with an attendant. She waived at us to come over and we bypassed the example of old Communist Russia.

I can't say much for the flight though because I had a window seat, crammed next to people I didn't know. I remembered back to my flights to Japan, which were more comfortable. I think I got up only twice during the flight.