Look At Me Still Talking When There’s Science To Do

In Grand Rapids… thinking about Barrow (among other things)

Archive for airplanes

I’m making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS.

August 23, 2008 at 3:38 am · Filed under travel and tagged: , ,

I was already worried about smelling… unpleasant before I knew that I had another day to wear the same clothes I put on in Barrow. The same clothes I’ve been wearing (and washing!) for ten weeks. I normally don’t care about this, but in the close quarters of a 757, I had only the comfort of my fellow passengers in mind. So I bought a t-shirt at the airport gift shop. Now I’m a whole new Jenny.

My fellow passengers were slightly more removed from my company on today’s flights since I was upgraded. It was nice. The rest of first class was filled with your usual busy business folk and one older Yacht-Club-esque couple. They held hands when we hit turbulence in Minnesota. They were very serious until Mr. Yacht Club had a beer and Mrs. Yacht Club finally got up the courage to use the airplane toilet. These people, the Yacht Clubs and the Business Folk, all looked at me with surprise and mild dislike when I showed up in their little first class village. I was disheveled as all heck and dragging along a muddy backpack covered with Atqasuk travel tags.

Not that any of that is news. Airports and airplanes are all the same. Under construction, busy, and filled with stock characters. In Minneapolis I encountered the typical American family and almost vomited at them with their four blond children and four monogrammed LL Bean rolling backpacks. Whatever. They were cute. I guess. The one kid was a snot, though. He wouldn’t even eat his chicken strips! I’m pretty sure he took a picture of me with his dad’s camera phone. I WAS eating a Berry Tie-dye Fruit by the Foot at the time. Clearly superior to his chicken strips. If I’ve learned anything this summer, it’s that Berry Tie-Dye and Strawberry are the best Fruit by the Foot flavors. Avoid “Color by the Foot” if you can- I know the rainbow coloring is enticing, but trust me.

I did enjoy watching the people during my solo adventure. The other non-stock characters on the loooong flight from Anchorage to Minneapolis were an old Martin Crane type and a Very Important On-the-Phone-Every-Second-Until-They-Say-I-Can’t-Be Gentlemen. He was a little shady. I would cast Tom Cruise in this role for Jenny Rides an Airplane: The Movie. These two fellows had a very important business deal to conduct, but unless they were talking in code, it sounded like Tom Cruise Guy was trying to lure Martin Crane Fellow into a cabin. With fish. I think the deal was about fish.

I was fortunate to have a pleasant seat partner for the long flight. She was pleasant in that we did not exchange words throughout the entire journey. I think she was disappointed that I wasn’t a young handsome single doctor. Based on her choice of reading material, the careful and becoming travel outfit she’d planned, and her mousy demeanor, I invented a life for her that involved patient saving for long cross-country flights where she can meet eligible young men and fall in love over packs of roasted nuts. She’s careful to wear something that shows off her figure but not her skin, partially because she is ever-so modest, but also because she is petite and easily catches a chill on planes. She’s also careful to leave at home the romance novels and especially-oh, the horror, if a worldly man caught her reading something so old-fashioned- her well-loved Jane Austen books. Since she can’t quite bring herself to read Cosmo without blushing, she settles for People magazine. It conveys youth, a sense of fun, an interest in pop culture, and is less stuffy than Time or Newsweek, but is by no means provocative or embarrassing. Her lonely flights take her to Alaska at least once a month, since she is playing the numbers game and everyone knows that Alaska is a virtual treasure trove of MEN.

On the next plane I sat next to a nice older man in a pink polo shirt who ordered a screwdriver and loves West Michigan! He helped me get my bag from the overhead compartment when Cranky Flight Attendant stashed it far away.

At the end of the day I was in Grand Rapids with my parents and my sister. They were okay with seeing me, I think. They thought that my feet should smell better and that I should stop telling them to reduce their carbon footprint, but they can deal.

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Bad guy got run over by a caribou!

August 18, 2008 at 2:45 am · Filed under Research, atquasuk, travel and tagged: , , ,

Merely saying that Jeremy and I were in the field for more than 27 of the 42 hours between Friday at 6 and Sunday at noon does not quite capture the enormity of what Team Efficiency accomplished this weekend.  Add on travel time and prep time and one will quickly deduce that we didn’t really sleep more than five hours a night.

Exactly what we accomplished is as follows: wet site total season (marked individuals), dry site total season (marked individuals), wet site total season (largest reproductive), dry site total season (largest reproductive), leaf collection (three leaves times two species times twelve plots times two sites), other leaf collection (fifteen leaves times two species times six plots times two sites), specific leaf area index leaf collection (ten leaves for each species we study in Atqasuk), removal of soil probes, soil sampling for two different researchers, thaw depth on all 96 plots, OTC removal and disassembly, remarking the boardwalk, taking pictures of each plot, transplant growth measures, seed collection (one species from every plot), cleaning out and taking down the tent, staking and stringing the biomass plots, cleaning up the lab, packing away the equipment… oh yeah, and we started the marathon weekend with collecting phenology data, just like we always do.

I’ve spent nearly the whole ten weeks and never even explained that last bit! For each of the plots I have at the wet site (24 control and 24 with OTCs (open-topped chambers) I have a spreadsheet printed out with spaces to fill in the general status of the vegetation in the plot. As events happen in the plots I write down the date. We record information for each species both for the plot in general and also for three marked individuals of each species in the plots.  For example, I observed that in experimental plot eight, Eriophorum angustifolium individual four had green leaf on J169, inflorescence on J169, open flower on J170, withered flower on J175, seed set on J188, and seed dispersal on J201. I did not observe leaf senescence for this individual, though there were Eangs in the total plot that were in this state on J228. Making these kinds of observations is easier when you only saw the plots every ten days or so (like we did), but it is clearly more accurate to check more often (like Rob and Jean did).

While everybody and their brother was seeing polar bear after polar bear in Barrow this weekend, Jeremy and I had to be content with the company of the reincarnation of Rob’s ground squirrel and a few pesky caribou, one of which nearly ran us over and seriously interfered with the science*.  It was… charming?

We never would have succeeded in our race-against-time to hop a plane that didn’t know we were coming without the help of Wondrous Bob. Of course, without Wondrous Bob to add several things to our to-do list, we might also have been a bit less stressed.

It was a pleasant kind of stress, and we were pretty happy with ourselves and our accomplishments, like the hoity-toity researchers that we are. We were also happy that the airplane, which we made with twenty minutes to spare, did not reject us.

*Tripped on a string and broke a stick.

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I know all the games you play because I play them, too.

August 7, 2008 at 5:50 am · Filed under Barrow and tagged: , , ,

So…. we’re out of a truck again. UTEP was given specific directions to guard the keys to our truck with all their might while we were in Atqasuk this weekend. UTEP has ten people right now, after all, so we graciously suggested that they use it during our absence.

Then we get off the airplane. (This airplane wasn’t meant to get us back to Barrow. Our regularly scheduled airplane was weather delayed because of the treacherous rain and/or fog, but the charter plane full of Atqasuk-bound high school students was clearly immune to these dangers, and therefore able to traverse the skies with ease. It would have been empty on the way back to Barrow, so the pilot agreed to take us back. He ought to know us by sight, at least, if not by name, since he’s flown us at least a half a dozen times this summer, through rain and snow and dark of fog.)

Anyway we landed, it was really foggy, Jeremy was so scared, blah blah blah, and on our ride back to BASC we were informed that our beloved blue truck was donated to the truck pool, and of course we should feel free to sign it out whenever we please!

Guess how often the truck is actually available.

Since UTEP betrayed us, we now will have to smite them in some way, but we don’t know quite how. However, tonight at the beach Rob proved that he is a capable fire starter. Fire should work. Classic smiting tool.

The point of the fire was to watch the sunset, or rather the sun-ricochet, as it doesn’t stay put for long. We were invited by SDSU, but a Michigan/Minnesota Fire Team was assembled to orchestrate the actual burning of things. Tonight it turned out that the break in the clouds was at the wrong part of the horizon for sun watching. It was worth a shot, though, since this was the first day in a week that any kind of actual sky was visible. The fog is out in full force, but today it left us some fogbows for our nature-appreciating pleasure.

I really like fires, but this one was s’more free, since, reportedly, Hiroki already ate all the marshmallows in Barrow.

I really

really

really

like fires.

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Look! A corn puff!

June 27, 2008 at 3:49 am · Filed under Barrow, atquasuk, travel and tagged: , , ,

The internet wasn’t broken yesterday, but the wireless was, meaning that the only place we could get internet access was the hundred year old PC in Jeremy’s room.

It was Jeremy and Matt’s room yesterday, because six persons arrived to stay at the house. It’s not our house, it is a house that is rented in Atqasuk for the use of researchers. No one stayed with me, probably because I smell so bad.

So these loon people show up and I had to try to remember the names of Debbie, Ken, Matt, Sarah, Jeff, and Joel all at once. It didn’t help that I had been about five minutes away from a two hour nap and Jeremy was nowhere to be seen, since he’d gone fishing with some old turkey lunchmeat and an As Seen On TV! travel fishing pole.

Then the kids materialized and brought a puppy named Princess and stayed until midnight, lurking around the house with ladders since we wouldn’t let them inside. We have been pretty nice to them this week. They loved the popcorn and popsicles. Lest you think we are trying to fatten them up, we also offered them carrots and they accepted quite happily. They also kicked my butt at war (leaving me with only a king, an ace, a two and a six after one round), but were astoundingly less successful at Trivial Pursuit. I even tried to pick easy questions, but apparently they’ve never heard of Gordie Howe.

All I had time for on the internet was posting six sentences yesterday so I could post the link to the pictures. It was a tough fight. I will try to put up more pictures of more consequential things soon.

Today we got done in the field early and raced to the airport dirt-road landing strip with our bags to see if they would let us on a flight we didn’t have tickets for. They did so without question. No IDs, no bag searches, no metal detectors (ha), no credit card numbers, just a once-over and a “sure, hop on.” And me with my pocket knife and a full bottle of water in my carry-on!

We were not in a rush to get to Barrow, only in a rush to get out of Atqasuk, having been in the way of the loon people long enough. They were very nice but one of them was sick and they were preparing for two weeks of camping in the tundra and catching loons. This involved, for whatever reason, many many boxes of Jell-o.

Speaking of processed foods, it was appropriate that we were not in a rush to get to Barrow, since our flight to Barrow was by way of Wainwright. There we dropped off one passenger and two dozen boxes of beef jerky, otter pops and Wonder Bread (“2,000 Miles Fresher! Baked in Alaska!”). It appeared to be a normal coastal village, sort of an Atqasuk and Barrow hybrid.

We also were in a rush to get back and surprise Jean, and we were not disappointed by her excitement at our return (which was not supposed to be until tomorrow morning). We immediately went out to eat at Osaka with some other researchers and racked up a $361 bill for sushi and Japanese food for fourteen people. Dessert was on the house, since we sang happy birthday to a member of our party who had no real reason to commemorate his age. The dessert was a red-bean ice cream pop. This is exactly what it sounds like. It looked like a Fudgesicle with berries in it. It was sick. Jean loved it. What a day she had!

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It’s supposed to be at 8:15, so…. sometime between 9:00 and 10:30

June 20, 2008 at 1:54 am · Filed under Barrow, alaska, atquasuk, travel and tagged: , ,

I anticipate that Jeremy and I will be doing plenty of waiting for planes in the coming weeks. There are scheduled flights that do a Barrow-Atqasuk-Wainwright loop three times a day, but variables such as weather, indifference, and simply being an airline keep the flights from following a strict timetable. Fortunately, in Atqasuk, we can see the “airport” from the house as well as the welcoming committee driving out to meet the plane. The welcoming committee consists of a cop who is meant to monitor the traffic of alcohol and the local mail-and-everything-else-of-consequence guy; these two have some sort of mystical connection with the plane that allows them to be aware of its movements while the rest of the town is calling Barrow every five minutes to ask when the plane is going to arrive.

We had a pleasant flight this morning since once again the weather cleared up in both places. Last time we flew on the little single-propeller plane we were five of seven passengers and had only a single pilot to manage the twenty minute trip. Today we had co-pilots, though we were the only two passengers, and we had to climb through the co-pilot’s door because the rest of the cabin was filled up with our only other companion: an ATV.

I watched the plane’s shadow during the short and easy flight. At least, I assumed it was easy, since our pilots were playing Trivial Pursuit during the journey. Jeremy and I were not asked to join.

After spending years of my life firmly on the ground, I have suddenly experienced many airports, and all in the space of a week. Some, like those in Fairbanks and Grand Rapids, were under construction, while I barely got to see the airports in Minneapolis and Barrow, the former because we were running to catch the connecting flight on time, and the latter because it was jam-packed with those arriving, those departing, and the people who were merely expecting some sort of freight.

My favorite airport so far is definitely the other Barrow airport. The jam-packed one is the official Alaska Airlines terminal, while Frontier, who we use on the weekly flights to Atqasuk, occupies the old pre-metal detectors Alaska Airlines building. Other than the usual door into the building from the street, the only exit is the door with a piece of paper saying “Gate F7″ taped to it that leads out back to the runway.

I’m hoping that Gates A7 through E7, or Gates F1 through F6, or A1 through F6 or WHATEVER, are actually secret portals hidden around town that we have to discover in order to be worthy of the magical adventures they undoubtedly lead to.

Since we were gone a whole three nights (or two, in the case of my roommate), the hotel in Barrow found it necessary to move Jean and I unannounced from one room to another while we were away. Though the rooms are nearly identical, they had the decency to move us to a room with a nicer desk chair, and plumper pillows… not to mention that ROOM FOUR is right next door to the bathroom. I guess that’s worth having all my stuff schlepped down the hall without the benefit of first closing the zipper on my suitcase.

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Two beds cannot sustain one man.

June 14, 2008 at 3:46 am · Filed under alaska, travel and tagged: , ,

Thanks to everyone for the messages I’ve gotten already! We had a long day, and it was nice to be able to check my email and read comments. I was also glad to be able to see a few people at breakfast yesterday before we left, even if my parents and I were late (not my fault).

I wanted to write last night after our long day of flights, but all I managed was a couple phone calls. Turns out my cell phone still worked in Fairbanks, but there was no wireless internet in our hotel. After a fairly empty airport, slightly late flight out of Grand Rapids, and a healthy trot through the Minneapolis airport (just in time to discover that we were not going to miss the flight… this plane was delayed, too), we arrived in Fairbanks in time to watch the takeoff of our flight to Barrow as we stood in the back of the plane and waited for everybody to get off already!

Since we were late (not our fault), Northwest paid to put us up in Fairbanks for the night. They kind of overkilled it, too, as each of the five of us got our own room with two double beds….. and $20 in airport vouchers (which we easily blew at the gift shop this morning).

It turned out to be nice to see Fairbanks. My professor (Bob) estimates that we saw the whole thing- in less than three hours, counting dinner. Jeremy recommended that we all “get our fill of trees… and pavement” while we had the chance.The weather was great, so we walked (on the pavement) to the restaurant. Jean and I literally had to run to keep up with Bob as we were led past GOTTSCHALK, Lingerie: Linens and Lace, Curves for Women, the creepy Fairview Motel, the library, the Fairbanks Lutheran Church, (small purple house named) La Casa Sally, a new Marriott, and ten Alaskan-themed banks to Bid Daddy’s BBQ: The Northern Most Southern BBQ!

Our cab driver (his dashboard fully equipped with a Bible, a pair of binoculars, and pink garden gloves) had reccommended Big Daddy’s, so we decided… why not? It was decorated by a fan of Chicago sports teams, but beside the White Sox banner were the obligatory Paintings of Pigs Wearing Bibs.

The restaurant sported live music, and I was debating whether or not the old couple who quite cheerfully and shamelessly took over the dance floor were regulars or out-of-towners, until I noticed “the famous” Jimmy-John (Jimmy-James? Johnny-James?) (on the harmonica) give them a prolonged weird look. (Not the same as the Look Disease.) They were from south-eastern Arizona, it turned out, and they loved to dance!… regardless of tune or musical genre.

Our Fairbanks quarters were the Captain Bartlett Inn. It was cute in a log-cabiny-and-totem-poley sort of way, though I had a hard time believing that all the signs were carved from wood out of necessity, since the inn also had a working elevator and the same ugly hotel wallpaper and carpet as everywhere else.

This morning we were up at 4:30 to catch the next plane to Barrow, and here I am. Here Jean and I are sharing a room, and we are so plumb tuckered out that we don’t even care that we haven’t had a chance to track down aluminum foil to cover the window.

Breakfast at eight! Tomorrow we might even get to go grocery shopping.

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