Trip Books: Atom : An Odyssey from the Big Bang to Life on Earth … and beyond by Lawrence M. Krauss;
                     Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Friday, November 18
Harry Potter (and The Goblet of Fire) was a most entertaining movie. Well, that’s how my day started, and unfortunately it went down hill from there. Actually, it started at about 7:30 am Thursday. And, with having a 6:00 am flight on Friday morning and Harry Potter opening at midnight, I decided it was best to just pull an all-nighter. It was a great idea, at least in theory.

For starters, my plane to Anchorage didn’t leave until after 9 am, over three hours late. It was something about one of the computers not working. Since the plane had been on the ground all night, you would think they could have checked it sooner. I missed my connection to Nome. Next flight out … you ask? 5:40 p.m. Seven hours in the Anchorage airport. Luckily, I was able to nap a bit, read, and do a little work. Still, not the most exciting, productive, nor joyful day. I eventually got into Nome at about 8:30 pm, and Todd Hindman, the teacher at the Homer Science Academy, picked me up and took me to the Aurora Inn. So that’s my first day, let’s hope it gets better from here.

Todd Hindman (second from left in gray wool hat) and the installation crew at the Nome ALISON site.

Saturday, November 19
I started out the day with a morning, predawn walk (in the crisp Nome air) to Fat Freddies for breakfast. Having that wind sure makes a difference. I had the (Everything but the Kitchen) Sink omelet. Not too bad. Then Todd picked me up and we drove out to the school. It was a nice day, just above 0ºF (-17°C), and the wind had calmed down considerably. After I made sure the datalogger and thermistors made it through the trip in one piece, the fathers and sons arrived to help us install the site. We traveled over to the pond located on school property.

The ACSA Pond is L-shaped. This makes for a unique circumstance - one half of the line is sheltered from the wind while the second half is not. This also means, at least when we set up, there were still patches of windswept snow on one end while the other end was bare. The ice had some nice examples of thermal cracks (right).It took us about two hours to get the site in. It took us a little while longer than I had expected due to problems with the chain saw we used to cut the slits for the stakes (instead of an auger). While we waited for that to be taken care of, some of the boys went body sledding down the hill that makes up the shore of the pond. It’s steep with a thin snow cover, so I’m surprised there where not more bumps and bruises from the sledding. The ice was about ___ cm thick at the thermistor and ___ cm at the TWIT.

After the helpers departed, Todd drove me to the airport. Off to Wales … or so I thought. Nope. Flight cancelled due to high winds in Wales. Try again tomorrow. Marc's trip to Wales.