Yuri's Night and continuing work on my book

During a South Pole winter one has lots of time to think. My daughter Jocelyn and I are considering an around the world bicycling journey. We would like to fly from Florida next March to Lisbon, Portugal then bike through Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Japan, South America, Then west to east across Canada then drop down home to Florida on the east coast. This trip is very workable and would take over a year. Portugal to Shanghai, China is about 7,000 miles and about 7 months. 

Mikey the red-nosed Polie! One of the satellite tracking systems I work on failed and so I made two trips out to the radome (3/4 mile). Since it is dark now the walk is difficult in the cold and wind. It is easy to stumble and fall. The little red light just doesn't cut it. It is a harsh continent.

We just had a two day weekend so we opened up the South Pole Drive-in Theater.

Excellent video and sound system.

A nice big screen too. Fun times.

On April 12th we celebrated Yuri's Night.
Yuri's Night is an international celebration held on April 12 every year to commemorate space exploration milestones. The event is named for the first human to launch into space, Yuri Gagarin, who flew the Vostok 1 spaceship on April 12, 1961. In 2004, people celebrated Yuri's Night in
34 countries in over 75 individual events. The launch of STS-1, the first Space Shuttle mission, has also been honored, as it was launched 20 years to the day of Vostok 1 on April 12, 1981.

The goal of Yuri's Night is to increase public interest in space exploration and to inspire a new generation of explorers. Driven by space-inspired artistic expression and culminating in a worldwide network of annual celebrations and educational events, Yuri's Night creates a global community of young people committed to shaping the future of space exploration while developing responsible leaders and innovators with a global perspective. These global events are a showcase for elements of culture that embrace space including music, dance, fashion, and art.

Yuri's Night was created by Loretta Hidalgo, George T. Whitesides and Trish Garner. The first Yuri's Night was held on April 12, 2001, on the 40th anniversary of human spaceflight.[1] This global celebration was preceded by Cosmonautics Day (Russian: День Космонавтики), which was established in the Soviet Union in 1962.

The official poster of Yuri's night.

Yuri Gagarin.

My costume was a model of a GOES satellite. We track this satellite about 5 hours a day for internet and phone usage.

The first mate of the TV series space western Firefly.

During the last two Antarctic winters I have been writing a book about my daughter's and mine bicycle adventures. Part 1 is complete and part 2 is with the editor.

Without maps or pictures the manuscript comes to 189 pages. I hope to have it published and a copy on my desk when I redeploy.

A successful Antarctic season is when you redeploy with ten fingers and ten toes.

I came across this picture I took last season in McMurdo of fog coming off the ice shelf and splitting around Observation Hill. Interesting picture.