Late last night Crew 64 arrived: an Australian, two Americans, a Canadian, a Jamaican, and a Norwegian (all a good bit older than my crew). I felt uncontrollably defensive. After seeing only the same five people all day, every day, for two weeks, having anyone else there felt very wrong. The fact that they would be taking our hab from us didn’t help matters, either.
This morning we awoke before dawn to the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey, just like we did on our first morning. The next three hours were spent frantically training Crew 64 on all the operations of the hab before taking the crew changeover photo out front. We packed up and headed out for Salt Lake City (though not after saying goodbye to The Don). Not long after we left the desert, we hit a serious snowstorm in the mountains.
I am skipping the part where I said goodbye to my crew.
My flight is early tomorrow morning. I’m at my hotel in Salt Lake, and looking forward to a hot shower (which I expect will equate to more water than I’ve used, total, in the last two weeks).
This has been the best two weeks I can remember.
Travel is a strange feeling. This time yesterday I was watching the last episode of Firefly with my crew. Tomorrow I’ll be with my family, and about 36 hours from now I’ll be back at school in Chapel Hill.
Thanks to all of you for sharing this experience with me.
To my crew: You are what made these two weeks so incredible. In case bawling my eyes out three times today wasn’t enough of a clue, I’ll miss you all like crazy. See you again soon, and always remember what she said…
Goodbye, Mars. I’ll be back.
I’ll give my cousin a heads up to look for you, haha!