01/29/08
I know I stopped a long time ago and I can assure you I never, ever thought that I would visit the South Pole but Alas I have.

The title of this e-mail just about sums up everyone on earth at some point. We have all sat there, wondering what in the hell we are doing, what we are going to do next, why we do what we do and what will come of us in the end. If you have never done this then you probably don't have pubic hair and should not be reading this in the first place, for all the others, denial ain't just a river in Egypt mate.

I mind myself asking these questions all to often and at this point find comfort in them. This is strange for most by I feel better when I don't have a plan then when I do. This trip I am on only adds to the fact that I am a nightmare and am ok with it.

No matter what happens, we will all see things in our lives that will never be forgotten or compared to. The South Pole is one of those places for me.

Up at 5AM, Dressed in 6 layers, Muffin, Coffee, Bag Drag (The Arctic's Flight check-in), Ivan the Terra Bus, Willie's Field, USAF LC-130, three hours of pickup truck flying and Bam, there you are in the middle of fucking no where. A thin aired, bright, windy, cold-as-shit no where. Walking off the plane you are stuck by the air's lack of replenishment and the cold's relentless beating on the human body and it's design. The Lungs we never made to take this shit but here I am only furthering my accelerated old-manning. Well worth it.

Looking around all you see if sky to horizon, nothing there, nothing to gauge, nothing at all. Right there in the middle of the Arctic there is a construction project going on Call the Amundsen-Scott base South Pole Base. This is one hell of an operation. Walking into the building through the same doors you find on any commercial grade food storage, you find an overly warm, well humanized, boys and girls club. People in Flip flops. Beer, Pool, Conference rooms, Labs, Greenhouses, Galleys you name it. If you didn't look outside you would think you were in a very modern European Art museum where the art is bad an the building design is worse. For the purpose, this building is built to a perfection. Every square inch is used, people are comfortable, life as usual, for them, not me.

The people here are much like the units I met at McMurdo, you know that Cali/Oreg/Monter's that are way to smart and way to strange for anywhere else on the earth. Throw in the mix Scientists that can hardly say hello, and a few social people that can make the whole place work. We were lucky enough to have been put in the care and protection of two of these people and they were great to us for our 9 hour stay.

Before even getting a tour of the place An-My are out on the observation deck scoping out the area, nevermind freezing our asses off. We walk out in full gear, Paul and Al (Said over-viewers) coming up the rear with nothing more then fleece shells and googles on, what is wrong with you people? Googles to protect their eyes, fuck the rest I guess. It is -37 out and you don't have a coat on, my mom would have been pissed at them had she been there.

The Pole sits at around 10,000 feet up, gets colder as the summer fades by about 2 degrees a day and will get down in the -100 without wind and less in the dead of the darkness they call wintering over. Pass, thank you for the tour, I will be leaving now.

They don't ride motorcycles here? What the hell am I doing here then?

Eat, Get Dizzy, Shoot, Get dizzy, Sit down, get Dizzy, Run around, Get really dizzy. I loved it. The first 10 minutes in the building where hard, going from a 3 hour flight in the back of a tin can to a place that has nothing in the air including O2, to then sitting in a building that is overly hot and smelling of humans and food can really make a man's stomach wrench and I was not above it what so ever.

Getting out and walking around was a complete joy, An-my will disagree. She had a little harder time with the env then I did, Youth I say. Out on the ice you see Piles of cardboard, Washing machines, Reffers, toilets, anything you see at a construction site, just in the middle of nowhere freezing whiteout sun, Dark for to long South Pole. Think of it as taking Home Depot, Sears, and Exxon, tossing them in a box and shipping it to a far off place, then piling it all out in the snow in organized rows with stock numbers and inventory lists. There you have it. A field of things in Brown Cardboard, littering the perfect white endless snowscape. Ok, I am done trying to explain this, see it yourself if you don't believe me. I hope you get frost bite. Kidding.

We shot most of the day. Froze for the rest of it.

Plane departs at 8:30PM from the pole headed back to Willie's field. We go for one more shot. We get the shot, it just so happens to be of a plane landing. This plane would also be the plane we are meant to be getting on. We rush packing the gear, requiring me to take off my gloves. I am stowing the lens we had just used, the lens that was in the weather for 20 minutes, the lens that gave me frost bite on one of my fingers with about 2 seconds of contact. You would not believe me when I tell you this but the sound of my skin freezing is what made me notice it was happening the first place.

Time for me to get the hell out of here! Thanks for having me, I am gone with much to remember you by. Shackleton, Scott, Amundsen, you are all brass balled, stubborn sons-o-bitches. I envy you in every way. I took a plane here and am complaining about it. I am a sissy.

Pickup truck with quad props for 3 hours, Optimus Prime Personnel mover for 30 minutes and like Dorothy with the red shoes, I am back in the safe confides of the slightly sane Town called McMurdo, 12:30 AM. A Long day.

I woke up wanting to go back (strange how that happens isn't it?). An-my will not hear it. I will keep you posted on who wins.

I am tired and my writing is worse then my norm and my captions are lacking but I hope you all like. I will try my best to get more creative in the coming days, these last few really took it out of us.

Wais Divid tomorrow if the weather will work with us. More to come. Take care and enjoy the warmth our oversized SUVs are furthering. //db

I ride bikes, Cars, All sorts of things, never thought or riding an LC-130, this fella gets to. Sits right there during takeofff. Classic.

This fella needed his sleep. He was going to the pole to Weld. I am told welding is in high demand out here. Want to freeze your ass off and make some coin? Get on it.

An-My really stoked for the take off. Remember this face? Not a happy Camper. Poor her.

A little later after some shuteye, this nice fella started making these little tiny boxes with a ruler and some pre-cut paper he had with him. Very strange but super innocent in some astounding way. I am guessing he does not like to fly and this is how he gets by. Ever seen a professional welders hands? Lets just say they were not designed to fold little tiny bits of paper. Give the eccentric fella some credit. I do.

Welcome to the fucking south pole! There used to be a McDonald's on the left there, just past the second snowball, a Sevy there in the right, a porn shop/happy ending joint way in back on the right, and a cop shop just in case you acted up. To bad we humans Nuked eachother and restarted the environment.

We were forced underground. Under snow really.

We have to get sanitized if we go outside for fear of the bug.

There are scary snow monsters that can smell you a mile away. They are Hungry, with huge teeth and red beady little eyes!

Every so often, we see funny Pink flying things. They are very strange and don't look like they were made for the cold.

This is how we talk to the aliens. They tell us things we never knew about our past.

Did I mention that how cold it is here on NeoFrost Earth? This was in my pocket. It was -37 without the wind and -60 with it. There is just no good reason for that shit.

Ok, I am done with my stupid post apocalyptic last man on earth, 12 monkeys jibberjabber. Welcome to Amundsen-Scott South Pole USAP/NSF Base. This is a brand new building that was just dedicated and is still not completely done. It is mostly made with Steel and Particle board, can you imagine that? The Ice here moves at 2CM a day across the continent so this building is built to take constant flux. Yikes!

I know when I was a kid and wanted to build a fort, Particle board is what we stole from the construction sites. Seems these boys have the same idea, this is a really big fort for a bunch of extremely educated nerds. God bless their big brains.

Construction Zone in the flipping freezing cold. No thanks.

The Actual South Pole.

The bullshit south pole. I hate windowdressing. My camera starting to freeze here so disregard the bad tune on the colors.

Yes I really did goto the south pole rocking my Blue Smurf Boots that you all told me you loved. Eat it.

Lets just say that An-My's camera, nor An-My liked the cold very much. They both started to move really slowly, failed in some cases and just plain old didn't work. I have video of her hardly able to walk, blackmail!

A polar FireTruck!

Paul on the Left, An-My in the middle and Al on the right. These two fellas showed us around and were very helpful. Their primary job on the site is to support the scientists. They themselves are Physicists. To much grey matter between the three off them to scare the shit out of me. Thank god I was on the other side of the camera, I would have felt like the dumb kid in the back of the class with the dunce-cap on. Come on, you know the kid I am talking about.

They grow things on the pole, no not those things you stupid stoners. Go back to your Hendrix headaches.

They do laundry there to. I would have hoped that people on the Pole didn't have to do such a silly thing. When you think of the South Pole, did you ever think they had to do laundry? Me neither. I know I am a freak but bare with me.

Yo son, that shit got jacked. I'm calling my cuz around the corner to see if we will sell me them Dubs. My shit be banging son!

You do bad, you goto the brink. Kidding.

She read.

She slept. She didn't like being at 10,000 Feet so much. Poor baby. Poor me, I had to carry her ass back to the building.

You all know this is bullshit. I can't read!

The back is never as nice as the front. I like the back more.



Boy I say Boy, I say don't Boy, I say boy be coping this shit boy, boy I say this is Copy Right of Dan Benson.