3 down, 2 to go

I’m in the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport now, relaxing before my longest flight yet—one that will take me through the night, over the equator, and into a new day, landing sometime after 7:00 a.m. in Santiago, Chile, where I will rendezvous with expedition leader J. Judson Wynne and the rest of the team in the airport. From there, we will fly on together to Rapa Nui, landing at the mile-long U.S. built airstrip at Mataveri, in the shadow of the Rano Raraku volcanic crater and the ceremonial village of Orongo on the western corner of the island.

When I got here, I blew $30.00 on an IPod cable. I mentioned in my last post that I had forgotten to bring mine. I noticed when I was trying to download the photo of the birthday cake that my daughter Tyra baked me back in April for my 46th. It was supposed to be my desktop background, but somehow it wasn’t showing up. I will include it here. The pictures on the cake are beetles, which I have been collecting since last year for an entomologist/caver in Ohio.

Almost time to board for Santiago. All these travel posts probably aren’t very exciting, but it is a good way to occupy my mind and not brood so much on missing my family. Stay tuned for the good stuff.

STILL TO COME: Giant statues! Extinct Volcanoes! Ancient Ruins! Obsidian Spearpoints! Polynesian Culture! And of course…Caves of Mystery!