9 June 2014 Canadian Adventures

Journal

Grillin' and Chillin'

Today started as any normal day would with me waking up at 4am and boarding a military bus. The bus picked up the researchers that would be flying with the National Guard and transported us to the base to fly out. There were 11 of us total. After waiting in the flight terminal we flew out to head to Greenland!

Clocks at military base showing the different times

The C130 I will be flying in — The C130 that I will be flying in to take me to Greenland

For those familiar with planes we flew in a c130 and it looked exactly how you would picture a military plane looking. I thought it was actually pretty comfortable (I was told it was because it was not crowded). There were these nets you leaned back on and they felt like hammocks.

Inside the C130 — The inside of the C130 was filled with pallets, including pallets of water because the water if Greenland is not safe at the moment

This is what broke on the C130. It looks important

This is where the story gets interesting... After a little over 3 hours we had to stop in Goose Bay, Canada to refuel. We got off the plane and went into a waiting room. All seemed well...

The waiting room at the Goose Bay, Canada airport

There were some magazines that seemed very out of place since we were not in NY and most of the cliental were males that did not seem to follow the current high fashion trends.

Out of place fashion magazines in the waiting room in Goose Bay, Canada

After refueling and eating ice cream we re-loaded back onto the plane. Except, the plane never left. One of the propellers decided to stop working and after trying to fix the plane for awhile we all got off the plane to wait...and wait...

Getting back onto the C130 after refueling

The military attempting to fix the wing on the C130

Picture of what we needed for the broken plane — While we were in the waiting room in Goose Bay, Canada waiting for the plane to be fixed we found this picture in the fashon magazine. We thought we needed to show this to the military to show them what they needed

By this point the coffee machine had become my best friend

The coffee machine at the waiting room in Goose Bay, Canada

Finally the wing commander returned and told us we were stuck in Goose Bay, Canada for the night. Hopefully we would get a ride to Greenland tomorrow.
We were taken to check into military barracks to spend the night. After checking in we were told our building was across from the blue building. What they did not tell us is that every building was blue.

Off to find out barracks at the military base in Goose Bay, Canada. The directions we were given was "turn left, right, right." We did not find the barracks based on these directions

We were told our barracks "are across from the blue building." What they didn't say is that every building on the base was blue

Finally we arrived at out barracks and found very nice rooms.

We found our barracks we would be staying in

We were even able to get some pollination work done while waiting for a taxi to go to dinner.

In front of the barracks doing some on the spot pollnation work

Already the day had gotten pretty strange and it was about to get more so... For dinner the group decided to go to Trappers.

Trapper's restaurant that we ate at in Goose Bay, Canada

The gang at Trappers — The gang (Emily, Christine, Ruth, and Becca) at Trappers

Upon ordering steak we were told we had to cook our own food. We all laughed, but no the waitress was being serious. So we all got our raw meat, grilled the steak, and had a fantastic dinner.

Holding up my raw meat I am about to cook at Trappers

Everyone's meat on the grill at Trappers

Even though today was filled with firsts and a lot of unknowns I have to say it was worth it and sometimes the unexpected leads to the best adventures.

Details

Author

Emily Dodson

Date

9 June 2014

Location

Goose Bay, Canada

Expedition

Climate Change and Pollinators in the Arctic

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