Goodnight and Good Luck

Friday, January 9, 2009

Location: Greenland

Temperature: -25 degrees (-45 windchill)

We left the hotel at 5:45 am to take our bags to the airport, went to catch a quick breakfast, then got a police escort back to the airport.

The plane took off around 7:30 am. Almost exactly 24 hours later, I got back home to Nashville. The trip back consisted of three countries, six states and 5,000 miles. The whole thing was an indescribable adventure. I remember thinking on the plane, as I saw the sun for the first time in two weeks, that it seemed like a long, vivid dream.

Airport Control Tower Karoke

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Location: Greenland

Temperature: -20 degrees (-40 windchill)

Last full day. We gathered together and got to go into the airport control tower. Awesome.

Later we went back to the TOW Club where they had a little presentation. The base commander, Col. Peppard, thanked us for coming and gave us Thule coins.

We spent the rest of the night singing karoke at the club before going back to the hotel to try to get some rest before our 5 am wake up call the next day so we could make our plane.

Jeremy sings Snow Patrol, I believe.

Daughtry sings Daughtry!

And, in one of the most moving experiences of the night, Jerry and Anderson sang Whitney Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You."

As far as I've been able to tell, my karoke experiences have went without photo documentation, which is probably for the best.

Thank you Greenland

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Location: Greenland

Temperature: -20 degrees (-40 windchill)

Visited the Thule Heritage Hall and saw a lot of old equipment and pictures from the 60 years the base has been around.

Sunnier times.

After the museum and a trip to the Danish post office to get our passports stamped, we gathered at the TOW Club for our last show. It was a bittersweet occasion.

Darryn doing his thing.

Adam doing his thing.

Sweet moves.

The audience got onstage to help us sing "Purple Rain," the last song of the trip.

Friends.

Stuck on a mountain at the North Pole

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Location: Greenland

Temperature: -20 (-40 degree windchill)

Susan Powell had been helping us out through our stay at Thule, and today she was leading us on an expedition to see an abandoned Inuit village about 20 minutes off base. As we were leaving I saw a twilight over the mountain. It was as light as I ever saw it in Greenland.

The band piled into two Tahoes and followed Susan up the side of a mountain. At the top, we had an almost 180 degree of the frozen bay with icebergs and the mountains on either side. It was just light enough to see with the twilight and a bright moon. Not light enough for pictures, unfortunately. We then pulled up to the abandoned village.

We decided to drive down another road deeper into the village. The Tahoe had other plans as it sank into the snow. In the Tahoe shortly after getting stuck:

This is what we were trying to make it through.

This is the snow plow coming to save us.

And...the truck that towed us out.

It was a crazy situation, but ended up being fairly peaceful just sitting for a couple hours on the side of mountain with that view in Greenland.

Even after all the madness of the day, we still brought the rock.

Me doing my best Johnny Cash.

Anderson doing his best Tom Petty.

And Brion doing his best Prince.

Chaos

Monday, January 5, 2009

Location: Greenland

Temperature: -15 degrees

After a night of little sleep (apparently the weird magnetic field at the top of the world can screw with sleeping patterns as much as it does compasses) we were off to tour the base's weather station and missile defense facility.

Here we are under a 50 foot satellite that tells the Weather Channel what the weather is going to be like.

This is what the outside of the satellite looked like, but my breath got in the way of the picture.

Security's incredible tight around here, so not many pictures. It was awesome to see, though. We even got to go inside the radar that watches to make sure nobody's shooting anything at anybody else.

When we got back, we headed over to our new friend Morgan's dorm where she had made us all dinner. She cuts hair on the base and is from Knoxville and made us a full on Southern meal with fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy and corn. She even had sweet tea, which was great for me as I'd been going through withdrawals. 

Anderson provided the dinner's entertainment with an ad-libbed rendition of "Everybody Hurts." I think some Hootie may have been involved at some point, too.

After dinner, there was a special appearance by Captain Kaos. A very enigmatic character, this is the only photo documentation we have of him.

Perhaps the onlookers expressions say the most about the Kaos sighting.

Morgan (on the right).

Or Jeremy.

Chaos, indeed.

We're going bowling, don't lose her in Solon

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Location: Greenland

Temperature: -10 degrees

Another off day, we decided to take a trip to the eight-lane bowling alley at Thule. 

Dig my awesome parka and the even more awesome reflectors so you don't get run over when you walk around in the dark.

D'ya dig my friends? D'ya dig my shoes?

Manager/part-time Babysitter Todd watching over Anderson and Adam

Gotta need to blow it out on a Saturday night

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Location: Greenland

Temperature: -5 degrees

Saturday pretty much consisted of watching the Marky Mark movie channel until it was time for the show. Then, more rocking.

The stage can't always contain us?

And the audience can't always contain themselves during power ballads.

Wasn't our fault

Friday, January 2, 2009

Location: Greenland

Temperature: 25 degrees

Our second show started at 10 pm, so I took it easy for most of the day, eating quality food at affordable prices in the chow hall...

...and going to the BX to pick up water because it's extremely dry in Greenland. Very easy to get dehydrated. 

We took the stage at 10 pm for our second show.

Me rocking my epic beard.

Behind the scenes with one of the Bandana's patriotic bandanas, brought specially for the trip.

I heard they were even singing "Purple Rain" with us in the bathrooms during this show. 

All I'll say about the rest of the night was that it wasn't our fault. But it did cause the OCB to be officially put into place. 

So this is the new year

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Location: Greenland

Temperature: 30 degrees

We had Thursday off, and most of the base was taking it easy. I got up in time to watch my Bulldogs beat Michigan State in the Capital One Bowl. Luckily they get ESPN in Greenland. 

Without much going on that day, here are some pictures of where we were:

Outside of the hotel. The entire base was pretty much covered in the yellow glow of street lamps all the time.

The other dorms around us, as they're called.

Inside: 

The rooms. No flat screen, unfortunately.

Community bathroom! Like freshman year in Creswell all over again. But much cleaner.

One of the Mercedes taxies that took us around the base.

We finished the night sitting around playing acoustic guitar. We found out one of the airmen, Banks, played tenor sax. He brought it over for an awesome impromptu jam session. We got it together to have him play on our version of "Last Dance with Mary Jane" the next night at the TOW Club. Unfortunately, I forgot to make pictures of either of these events.