Boomerang

Our flight to the pole was scheduled to leave around noon today, so my plan was to get up around seven, get some breakfast and then take my time getting my stuff packed up. Well that all changed when just minutes after my alarm went off, I and all of my roommates were still in bed, the phone in our room rang, startling us all. One of the girls answered it, of course it was for me, I just had this feeling when it rang, the lady told me that there was a window in the weather that they were going to try for, so could I please be down at the cargo building in just under an hour?
There is nothing like a call like that to wake you up really quick. I shoved all my stuff in my bag, got dressed and headed up to cargo. There was quite the energy in the air, all of us who were flying today, 16 people, were very ready to be on our way. The forecast was looking really good and it sounded like we were going to be able to get at least the first plane in. They have another flight scheduled for tomorrow, the second DC3 or basler, but Tim, one of the guys that will be in charge of monitoring the weather down at pole, said that the forecast was not looking good for tomorrow and most likely that flight would not go until Monday. Oh well, at least we were going to be able to get one flight in. I know the winter-overs are ready for the freshies, fresh fruits, veggies and eggs, that we are bringing them.
Well that was the plan anyway. Everything looked really good, we took off without a hitch, everybody was doing good, all of us very careful to not drink many liquids before leaving because all the plane had for bathroom facilities was a bucket behind a curtain. Yeah, I definitely was not going to be making use of that. I could certainly hold it for four hours until we got there. The flight was great, lots of leg room no one was sitting next to me, and I was not on the side of the plane where the heaters were so my legs didn’t get fried off. The views were amazing, flying up and around the mountains, it was sooooo pretty. The windows frost up pretty quickly and one of the pilots asked us not to scrape them with anything so I was not able to utilize the card that I had brought along for that purpose. So instead I would melt the ice with my hand and wipe it away with my glove, not great, but better than not being able to see at all.
Well, we were about three hours into our four hour and fifteen minute flight when the guy who had been staying in the back of the plane with us, passing out our oxygen tube and whatnot, came up to the front and said, “Well guys, I have some bad news. It sounds like the visibility has gone down at the pole and unfortunately we are going to have to turn around.” Noooooooo, the only thing that could have been worse was if we had actually gotten to pole, circled it and then had to head back, which has happened before, quite a few times. So we turned around and headed back to MM. I was a long six hours just to wind up back where we started. Although we tried to cheer ourselves up by saying that many people paid thousands of dollars for the flight that we had not only gotten for free, but got paid for it as well.
We landed back at MM, these little planes with the skis on take forever to stop, it was really odd, we just kind of had to coast along, skiing on the sea ice, so to speak. After off loading, one of the guys in our group started telling us that they had another plane and that we might try again. We all told him to stop spreading rumors, both MM and pole have amazing rumor mills, we were most certainly not going to fly again today. There was a shuttle there waiting to pick us up, but when we asked our driver if she could just drop each of us off at our different dorms, she told us that we were not leaving yet. There was indeed another plane and crew and they were checking on the weather to see if they would be able to get us through if they sent us again. Noooooo, again! Come on! The flight was very nice the first time, and I’m more than willing to go again tomorrow, but I don’t think I could take two boomerangs in one days. That could equal up to fourteen hours of pointless flying, I just don’t think that would be fun. Thankfully, they decided fairly quickly that they were not going to send us again today. I’m so glad, that means I get the rest of the night to just chill and relax. We got back in at around four, and normally I would not get off work until seven so it’s like getting a couple hours off in addition to a nice plane ride. The only unfortunate thing about coming back is my bed got commandeered by the lady sleeping on the only top bunk in our room, I had the best one in the room too because I had been the first one to get there last week. Oh well, I had told her she could have my bed when I left and I had not been planning on coming back. Hopefully I will only be here one more night, although most likely we will be here over the weekend. That’s okay, I can just look forward to having my own room, which is nice and close to the bathroom building, when I get to pole. Whenever that may be….