Traveling

Just FYI, I don’t plan on having any updates until the end of the month due to traveling.

FLY HIGH, JAYHAWKS!

And GO CHIEFS!

ROCK CHALK!

It’s Monday morning, January 20, 2025, and the clock is steadily working its way toward 8AM Central time.

Our nephew is housesitting and helping Anna’s mama Lala until we return in 10 days.

As I write this Anna & I are checked out and sitting in the lobby of the Arakur Ushuaia Resort & Spa awaiting the 11 AM local time hotel shuttle to downtown Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. From there in a few hours we will board the Albatros Expenditions ship OCEAN VICTORY for a voyage across the Drake Passage and back as we sojourn for a few days Way Down Under on Antarctica, the 7th Continent. (Makes all 7 for me, and we are planning for Africa in the not-*too*-distant future so Anna can complete her “Set foot on all 7 Continents” bucket list item.)

This is the last day we will enjoy reliable (if any) WiFi and/or cellular service until we return to port in Ushuaia. Our estimated return here is the evening of January 28. We are scheduled to begin our air journey back to the USA the next morning, and should be back in Lawrence the afternoon of January 30, if (as Grandma D used to say) “the good Lord’s willin’ and the crick don’t rise!”

Missed the win over K State.
(The prices one pays for sojourning!)

We know you all will keep rooting hard for our young men and women while we are in absentia.

We’ll be back with you soon!

KEEP GOING, JAYHAWKS!

FLY HIGH!

ROCK CHALK!

Thanks all for the good wishes! I'm sure it had a MAJOR impact on our travels as all connections went smoothly, the Drake Passage was kind to us, the weather was kind to us (allowing great views of the terrain and the wildlife of the South Shetland islands and the Antarctic Peninsula), neither of us fell and Anna's two meniscus tears did not significantly bother her during our trip. She did limit herself to just one actual landing, at Neko Harbor on the AP so she could say she has stood on the 7th Continent (see more below), but she did do Zodiac boat cruises when they were scheduled so she could view the inlets and bays and icebergs and wildlife much closer than from the ship itself.

Apparently a LOT of our tour group were really interested in actually setting foot on the continent itself, not just on the bordering islands. According to the expedition team leader (mentioned in one of the evening "Recap & Tomorrow" briefings) a *lot* of people were asking the expedition crew which stops would actually be *on* the continent, as they intended to be sure to make those. We ended up with two such stops, when often the itinerary is limited to one due to weather or seas conditions.

The Drake Passage between the southern end of South America and the Antarctic Peninsula took us roughly 2.5 days each way. The expedition team described Drake conditions as follows:

Drake Lake - waves under 10 feet (~3 meters) high
Drake Shake - waves between 10 to 30 feet (~10 meters) high
Drake Break - waves greater than 30 feet

Rounding up the transit total to just under 6 days, we had Drake Lake conditions for all but the last 1.5 days of our total transit time, when we had 15-20 feet waves. Ride, 'em, sailors!

From Google's AI Overview:
Waves in the Drake Passage can reach heights of up to 40 feet (12 meters) due to the strong currents and winds in the area, making it notorious for its rough seas; however, average wave heights during a crossing are typically between 10 and 14 feet, with extreme conditions potentially producing much larger swells.
Key points about Drake Passage waves:
High potential for large waves: The Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which flows through the Drake Passage, can generate very high waves due to its lack of land barriers to impede its movement.
Variable conditions: While some crossings may experience relatively calm seas, others can encounter extremely rough conditions with large swells.
Average wave height: Most crossings see waves ranging between 10 and 14 feet high.
Extreme wave heights: In severe weather, waves can reach up to 40 feet (12 meters).

The first evening out of port the expedition team told us about these potential conditions, noting that on their most recent expedition they experienced Drake Break conditions, with dining ware actually flying around - and some breaking - in the galley and quite a few folks becoming ill despite their seasickness medications. From day to day the expedition crew kept emphasizing that we were lucky, and they hoped our luck - and theirs - on this trip would continue!

LKF - just missed on your hopes. AND I have to admit I'd rather the miss be on KU winning all 4 games than on the Chiefs making the Super Bowl! (The NFL Network replayed the AFC title game in the wee hours of this morning, but we haven't had a chance to watch the recording yet. Looking forward to it!). Let me know next time you'll be in town and we can try to get together at Free State Brewery or Johnny's or whatever, maybe get hoshi and Wheatstate Gal and DocHawk in on it as well!

USAF J - Truly fortuitous timing! Where in Africa? We are considering safari in Tanzania and/or Kenya, or visiting South Africa and the wine country, or maybe fudging *just* a little by taking a Mediterranean cruise that stops in Tunisia or Algeria. Anything that allows Anna to get that 7th check mark notched! I got my Africa ticket punched when our family was with my career USAF dad at Wheelus AFB (now Tripoli, Libya's Mitiga International Airport.) from 1963-64.

Back in 2020 we were in Australia just as the Big 12 tournament *almost* started. We knew about the timing conflict when we booked the trip, but we had wanted to go to Australia and New Zealand forever and had missed out on our earlier opportunities when we were still working, so we bit the bullet. Ah, what could have been with that squad! As it was, we were one of, if not the last, tour groups to visit Australia and NZ before the COVID-19 quarantines were enacted there. Our guide and honorary Jayhawk Hayley told us upon our arrival that her company (Odyssey) had cancelled all their other bookings around the world, we were their last tour that year.

Oh, BTW -- as with your wife, Antarctica was not on Anna's bucket list.
She says did it for me, and she had a great time despite her knee and the last 1.5 days of the Drake Passage.
Also BTW, Anna says she only did it for me, but there have been times in our past when "doing it for me" was not enough of a reason for her to say "Yes". I therefore infer that the idea did intrigue her at least enough for her to agree to it.

USAF Jayhawk wrote:

HawkErrant wrote: USAF J - Truly fortuitous timing! Where in Africa? We are considering safari in Tanzania and/or Kenya, or visiting South Africa and the wine country, or maybe fudging *just* a little by taking a Mediterranean cruise that stops in Tunisia or Algeria. Anything that allows Anna to get that 7th check mark notched! I got my Africa ticket punched when our family was with my career USAF dad at Wheelus AFB (now Tripoli, Libya's Mitiga International Airport.) from 1963-64.

We're taking a Kansas Alumni trip (formerly known as the "Flying Jayhawks") to Tanzania that's 11 days in country. It's targeted at the Great Migration and almost every day is a game drive.

Excellent! We'll definitely consider the next recurrence of that for our Africa sojourn! Thank you!

Much of our traveling (AUS/NZ 2020, Peru-Ecuador-Panama-Honduras-Belize-Cancun-Miami cruise 2022, "Great Trains & Grand Canyons" trip to Sedona Arizona and the Grand Canyon in 2023 and Antarctica 2025) has been through KU Alumni Travel (still called Flying Jayhawks Travel, by the way) and we have enjoyed each of those journeys, perhaps Australia-New Zealand the most. It was our first Flying Jayhawks trip, small group - 16 of us, all KU or KU related in some way - and our great Odysseys Unlimited tour director, Kiwi born duel citizen Aussie and anointed by our group as an honorary Jayhawk Hayley Anderson, who we still keep in touch with 5 years later via Facebook (one of the few good things about Facebook these days), all occurring at the beginning of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, made it a truly once in a lifetime experience for us.

Thanks again!

Rock Chalk!