Do you really understand what it means...

Do you really understand what it means to see something so beautiful that it literally makes you speechless? I've been left speechless many times in the past, but I have always been able to regain composure and explain or describe the point I was trying to get across. The first day I stepped off the C-17 and looked around is the day I understood what this feeling is. I finally understood why some paint and why some risk their lives to record things that most will never have the chance to see in their lives. I try to explain this cold, dead, yet beautiful paradise to everyone back home, but can never do it justice. No matter what type of media you use to capture the beauty of this place, you will never be able to. Standing in town, you can stare into the distance as far as the eye can see. Standing just outside of town, in the right conditions, you can stare into the vast endlessness of ice and snow with absolutely no wind, no sound, no scent, see no one, see nothing but a pristine, untouched land, and feel like the world was created just for you. Look toward the Royal Society and the ice covered mountains reflect the awe-demanding emotions that I never knew people could comprehend.

Here are a few pictures; the rest is left up to your imaginations...

Where in the world is Joe? - ANTARCTICA!

Quick recap: On January 17, 2008, I left Florida in search of a dream. I didn't know that at the time, but this is what I have come to realize. As you can read, Eric took road trip with me here, there, and everywhere. I settled in Colorado Springs on January 23, traveled around a bit with my new great friend Mary O'Brien. I broke down in Montrose, Colorado on my way to the Telluride Bluegrass festival which I am now in debt to Cathleen for (thank you so much for giving a total stranger a ride and for letting a total stranger stay a week on your couch) and left on July 1st, 2007. When I left, I went to see Eric in DC for the 4th of July : ) ! , then, Uncle Ken and Richard in Deleware, where I had a GREAT time (thank you so much!) watchin LauraLee, George Clinton, and Carbon Leaf, chillin on the beach, and going out to dinner with ridiculously enormous peach margaritas and so on... I should have taken many more pictures! Lesson learned. After hob nobbin with the fun and restless, it was back to DC to pick up Danielle and Bronco to continue the road trip! We hit up the Lurray Caverns and did one boatload of driving. We saw the infamous turtle walking across the road and sasquach. Yes ladies and gentlemen, Danielle and I saw the real bigfoot in plain daylight. Unfortuantely, we didnt get a picture, but I can tell you where he lives and that he has quite the emotional attachment to the turtle that tried to cross the road. Now comes Pensacola! It took some getting used to, but we all adjusted to the new lifestyle quickly. The days were long and the nights were hot. Here is an example of the rough and tough days we were put through: wake up and eat a fantatstic breakfast. Take the waverunners out and test their limits; you know, like the top speed, G-meter, and initial take-off. After the brutality, it was getting down to business with sebastian setting crab traps. Taking the treacherous trip back to the dock took about twenty minutes of flat calm seas, occasionally running into the afternoon sprinkle. Then taking the boat out for some attempted wake boarding and tubing training and relaxing in the pool with a few drinks can really take a toll on the body so we had to relax by playing billards, watching two different games while waiting for a gormet meal created fresh by the hosts of our evenings. Whew! Life gets tough at times.

Now, back to Orlando for a few days and then back to Stuart to spend my remaining time before my deployment date to Antarctica with my family and friends (and my tiki hut - I miss you baby and will be home soon).

All the great times I have spent with my family and close friends and all the great new friends I have made over the last year really can't be described in this blog or my online photo albums. I wish I had more time to tell everyone about everything I have done in detail, but I am still not very good at organizing my time and squashing my procrastination habits.

So, on to what everyone wants to hear about - ANTARCTICA!!!!


So, where to begin? First of all, I am NOT in Alaska. That is at the top of the world. I am in ANTARCTICA. It is at the bottom of the world. This is where the South Pole is.

I have not been there yet, but am itching something bad to get there. They have a right of passage at the South Pole called the 300 club. In the winter, it gets down to and below
-100 degrees Fahrenheit. They also have a sauna that can reach 200 degrees Fahrenheit. The only clothing you are allowed to wear is a pair of boots and a scarf on your neck and you’re off! Run naked from the sauna out to the pole (yes, there is a pole in the ground) run around it, and run back to the sauna before you get frostbite in places you REALLY don’t want it and hope you don’t get hypothermia in the process. The answer is yes. I would do it in a heartbeat.

Joe, if you are on Antarctica and not at the South pole, where are you? Well, that is a good question. Antarctica is not owned by any one nation and has been dedicated to scientific research by the entire world. 45 nations have a stake in the ice down here and work together for the most part. I am stationed at McMurdo Station, Antarctica.


Joe, why are you there? Aside from my personal adventurous endeavors, I am here to assist the scientists. I have a position of a Dining Attendant. Yeah, yeah. Big deal. It’s not glamorous. I am way over qualified to do the job I do, but so are all the people I work with. Every day, I sit down to a meal with engineers, archeologists, financiers, and people from every walk of life I never knew existed and they are all working next to me serving food and making sure all the happy people here, stay fat and happy. People will do anything to get down here for the experience and no matter what job they get, be it janitor, dish washer, helicopter pilot, or scientist, they are happy and 100% glad they did it. I for one, wouldn’t take back my decision for anything. There are thirty thousand or so applicants or so every year and I am one of the lucky ones.

Finally Going to Colorado!

After the great times we had at the Cadillac Ranch and the Palo Duro Canyons, it was finally time to head out of Texas. So we started driving...and driving...and driving. I had my newly acquired nose bleed issue and had to lay low in the passenger seat so Eric had to do most of the driving that day.

Now entering Colorado! We finally made it! I think it was somewhere around 8...maybe. This was my first experience with driving in the snow. At first I wasn't sure how to handle it so I decided to turn on the windshield wipers and quickly realized that it was doing squat because the windshield wasn't wet. (What else would a Floridian do?) By this time we were getting hungry and needed a break from the road. We stopped at Walmart in Denver to get some long johns, an ice scraper, and some windshield washer fluid that wouldn't freeze when it hit the windshield; got a good hearty, calorie filled meal from wendy's and then the destination was Glenwood Springs for some rest. The hotel was so nice, but we didn't really care at the moment. All we cared about was getting in, taking a shower and hitting the pillow.

The next morning was cold, but it was beautiful! The snow is spectacular, especially in the mountains. This is the first time I have seen the snow in the day light since a little boy and the first time I can remember it.

Then it was off to the slopes for my first snowboard / ski trip! Let me just say ouch. Lessons were $135.00. That was a bit more than I was willing to pay. Like $135.00 more. Eric could give me lessons in skiing, but I wanted to go for the snow board. After being denied availability to ski on the kiddie hill for practice, I decided to teach myself on the mountain - bad idea. It started off like this: I fell getting off the lift. I fell the first time I tried to stand on the snow board. (every sentence here on out starts with an understood "I fell when I...") So, I didn't snowboard down the mountain, I tumbled. However, there was a good hundred yards or so that I was up and going. The rate of gravity is 32 feet per second per second. I learned physics all over again - the hands on way. I was probably going about 30 mph when I realized that I don't know how to stop, or slow down for that matter. So what did I do? I fell. (yes, there is another understood "I fell when I..." on the previous sentence too). I figured a controlled fall would be less damaging than an unexpected fall. I would imagine if you were watching me do this, it would probably look a lot like a circular saw trying to cut the mountain in half. I boarded head over heels the rest of the way down directly into the rental shop and exchanged my board for a pair of skis. Then it was on!

This is me skiing like an Egyptian down the hill.

This is me showing Eric how to ski.

I flew past Eric like he was standing still!...

Oh wait, he was standing still...

...This is Eric coming to my rescue.

It was GREAT skiing for the first time. I finally started to get the hang of it after Eric's expert (sometimes a little parenting) guidence.

Note the snow on my head. That is not from the sky. It hit the ground before I moved it around the mountian. It is kind of like pollination, right?

Ok. I have beaten myself up enough! I was done and on top of the world. No broken bones. No fractured skulls and no concussions. I went to the truck to put on some dry clothes, but first I had to dig it out...

After about 45 minutes of Eric and I dodging each other, we were back on the road. The drive through the mountains is absolutely breath taking...

We drove what should have been 2.5 hours back to Denver. It took us much longer than that. The snow was falling, the 18 wheelers had to put chains on their tires, and we could barely see the dividing lines for the lanes if at all. It was definately a good learning experience for me. On the way bakc to Denver, we saw the coldest temperature I have ever seen. The thermometer in my truck read 0 degrees.

We stopped off a mile down the road from the hotel to have something to eat at what looked like an old warehouse turned italian restaurant. This is some of the best italian food I have ever had. The place cost $4.3 million to build and could seat 500 people. There were about oh, 6 people when we were there. Our waiter said that on a busy night there is over an hours wait! The place was amazing. The walls and the ceiling were all hand painted and there was a big stage in the center of the back wall. From any seat in the building, you had a clear view of the stage. There are italian bands that play on the busy nights. When Eric and I were there, they had a recorded concert of Andrea Bocelli playing on an enormous projection screen. I just wish I could remember the name of the place.

After that, it was back to the hotel to sleep, get up in the morning, and drop Eric off at the airport for his ride home.

Um, so what now? Reality set in and I was clueless. There I was in the airport without Eric, without anyone I knew and without a place to live. I figured that the first thing to do was find a place to get some work done and determine the next step. I went to the Denver Library. Wow! Nice library. I spent an hour there writing a post to this blog and that was about all I got done. Oh yeah, I also checked my email. I left the library and putz around the town for a while. Nice place. For those of you who haven't been there, it is a smaller metropolitan area with anything you could want. I figured I could find a place there and settle in for a while, but it was a little too fast paced for me. I thought about various places in Colorado to move to and honed in on Colorado Springs. Boulder is too much of a college town (which I would get into too much trouble). I figured that the larger ski resort towns like Vail and Aspen are too expensive to live in and Colorado Springs was a central location. Some good friends had spent some time out here and had a lot of great advice. Thank you Barbees!!!! They even recommended the place I am living in right now.

When you walk out my front door, you are starring Pike's Peak right in the face! It is the picture I have at the top of my blog. So far most of the people are very nice and very helpful. This state is an outdoorsman's kind of place. Great mountain bike trails, rock climbing, hiking, etc... I haven't found anywhere for base jumping yet, but am eagerly looking. The days here are beautiful! Most of the time there is a bright blue sky with inviting mountainous scenery. From my place, you can get to just about anything you want to do [except the beach :( ] within 15 minutes. There is Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak, The Cave of the Winds, Seven Falls, a zoo, and even a place to look out at the lights of the city at night. It takes about an hour and a half to get to a decent place for sking. Coming from the flat lands of Florida, this is a nice treat. I will post pictures of most of this soon, but like I have said before, you really need to be here to grasp how amazing it is.

Still in Texas

As I have said before, Texas is huge! The next morning, we woke up in our refridgerator, went out to start the truck so it could heat up, packed, brushed our teeth, and headed out. The first stop on the agenda was a gas station (nothing new there). Then it was on to Cadillac Ranch!

If you are not familiar with Cadillac Ranch, there is a pasture just off Route 66 in Amarillo with ten Cadillacs burried half way in the ground. I've seen it in movies and pictures since I was a kid and always wanted to see it in person. By this time it was somewhere around 30 degrees outside and the wind chill had to be somewhere around zero. Well, that is the speculation of a Floridian. Due to the life threatening temperatures, we were not able to stay for very long, but we did have time to make our presence known. We found a few cans of spray paint on the ground and went to town.

Then, it was back to the truck to thaw out like the south Floridians that we are.

ps (Thank you Danielle for all the tour books! That is the reason we found these places!)

After visiting the Ranch, we headed to the Palo Duro Canyon - the second largest canyon in the US. I have never seen anything that comes close to this place. I have seen it in movies and in pictures, but you really can't grasp the beauty and vastness of the canyons unless you see them in person. Palo Duro's claim to fame is a spire in the middle of the park called Lighthouse Spire. It was an awesome, interesting, educational 3 mile hike to the famous attraction. I think I got us lost twice along the way before Eric wised up and stopped listening to me saying, "hey! check this out over here!"

This picture was taken when we could first see the spire. As soon as we saw it Eric and I imediately got excited thinking about the adventure in front of us. If you look in the middle of the pic, really closely, you can see our destination.

So, after we ran here, walked there and Eric got pelted by a few rocks, we made to the Lighthouse!

If this thing was still under water, it would certainly be a lobster hotel - kind of like Hotel California - they check in and don't check out. ; )

There was definately a sense of satisfaction upon arrival. We chilled for a few minutes and enjoyed the scenery.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Here are a few that come to mind: astounding, breathtaking, astonishing, overwhelming, inspiring, wondrous, peaceful, extrodinary, majestic, blah, blah, blah, etc...

Off to a Rough Start

...After our free breakfast at Sonic, it was off to Amarillo. It was a long day of driving. Our only goal was to get to The Big Texan before it close at 10:30. No problem. We had plenty of time. Hours later, the radio finally decided to flicker on and off, which is better than not turning on at all from the electrical problems we were having. Hurrayyy!

or maybe not...

A few hour of driving and the truck began to shudder when accelerating. We blew it off as long as possible and then the engine light came on. We pulled over and tried to figure it out. It turns out that Ford has to hook it up to their computers to figure out what the code means. What happened to the days of reading the codes yourself? So, we busted out my brand new, handy, dandy gps navigation unit (by far the best investment of my trip). We found a ford dealership 20 miles away and headed in its direction. They diagnosed the problem and came back with a $270.00 repair estimate. yeah right! Eric and I went to the auto parts store, spent $50 and 15 minutes and we were back on the road.

I learned two things in Texas: Texas is HUGE! and ALWAYS drive at least 5 miles under the speed limit. We got pulled over going 66 mph in a 65!

It was a long day of driving, but we finally made it to the Big Texan about a quarter to 10. It was well worth the drive! I was floored. I ordered a 16 oz. steak, rare and guess what I got... an

actual 16 oz. (not fat) rare steak. i have NEVER gotten a steak cooked the way actually wanted it (in a restaurant). It was definately one of the best steaks i have ever had.

After the long day on the road, mentally draining issues with the truck, and now a full gut, we made our way to the KOA campground to our little log cabin for the night. It really was a very nice place. There was set of bunkbeds and another queen sized bed. I use this term somewhat loosely. The beds were merely an elevated foam matress covered in plastic. No sheets. No pillows. There was a nice, big window air conditioning unit which would have been nice except that it was 20 somethin degrees outside. There was small space heater, but I think our body heat did more than the heater. Fortunately, I had a number of sheets and sleeping bags in the car.

I can't be sure, but I think there may been a bear that was sleeping just outside the cabin...

And that's all she wrote...

Let the Games Begin!!

Hey Everyone,

So, I have finally started my blog. Since I left Stuart on January 17th, the I've started to grab a whole new perspective on this country. The day before I left on my trip, I got sick as a dog which was not the best way to start off my trip. Greatfully, one of my very best friends made the trip with me and drove the first day. If not, we may not have made it. Eric, you made the trip one to remember! - Thanks man.

We left early on Thursday, hit up McDonlads, and hit the road. I went to sleep and missed pretty much the entire drive through Florida. Oh well.

Filling up in Tally


There is still a LOT of hurricane damage in New Orleans. However, Bourbon Street is goin strong. We went to a number of different places. One of the best was Patty O's with the dualing pianos. We chilled for a while, listening to some good tunes and downing some Hurricanes. The other place that took the cake was The Acme Oyster House. Hands down the best oysters I have ever had! The hotel was awesome. The Prince Conti Hotel. Large paintings, carved marble fireplaces, and antique looking furniture decorated the hotel giving a prestigous feel about the place.

From there, it was on to Port Arthur, Texas to see Cory. He treated us to an excellent dinner at Chedders and then it was gettin down on the town.

Cory took us to Starbar in Beaumount. This was my kind of place. It was a pool hall, bar, and club rolled into one. Thanks for the great night Cory!

The next morning proved to be a little bit of a challenge. First, my car decided not to start. Then, it decided to start itself. Then it started and didn't realize it and tried to start again and again and again. We had to jump it twice and finally got on the road strait to Walmart to pick up a portable jump starter which I have luckily not had to use as of yet. After that fiasco, we were pretty hungry and decided to stop at Sonic for some grub. That was fun. From all the electrical problems we had that morning, when we pulled up to sonic, I couldn't put the truck in park or it would try to start itself again. Fun, fun, fun! Oh well. We had to sit there in drive because it ran just fine when it was in gear. - Go figure - electrical problems! 5 miutes goes bye. Then 10. Then 15. I say to Eric, "What in the world is taking so long?" 2 minutes later, the girl comes out with the food and says that she is sorry for the wait and that the breakfast is free. Who has ever gotten free food at a fast food place for having to wait? I gave her the money as a tip and seemed to make her day. That was just the beginning of a very long day.

More to come later.

Take Care,

Joey