Winterover.com

Reunion Success!

The 10th anniversary reunion for the crew members of the winterover season 1993-1994 South Pole Station took place August 21-22 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Some of us were a little late getting in to town, with flight delays, cancellations, and just about everything under the sun. I had offered to taxi other attendees to/from the airport and hotel, but because of the delays, ended up battling it out with the car rental agencies instead!

So we finally arrived to the hotel around 7:00 pm and head straight to the check-in counter. We are graciously greeted by none other than Joe (aka Spanger), who had been waiting patiently for us...in the hotel's bar! I'm sure if we'd been any later, he'd have been out cold! It was a lot of fun seeing him again! Other than the little Cruella DeVil touch, short cut and no beard, he hadn't changed at all! We offloaded our stuff to our rooms, and went up to Janet's penthouse suite (just kidding!) where we did some catching up and enjoyed the view of the city. We were joined by Jim (aka Thumper) shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, there were some last minute cancellations (John Kovak and Don Neff), and a couple of people that we weren't sure about and never showed up. We even tried to call John Briggs (still not sure if that was a correct phone number!) and left a message, since he resided just outside of Albuquerque, but we never did get a reply.

Bright and early the next morning, everyone met in Janet's room (that is after Kerry and Joe happily found a nearby Starbucks!). What a gracious hostess, she had prepared a huge variety of breakfast munchies for everyone! Hien arrived as well. He and his family had driven from southern California to attend. We hung out for a bit, doing a lot of catching up and talking about our time on the ice, as well as subsequent seasons. We looked at photos that people brought with them to share. The gang then headed to a little mexican restaurant down the street for a real southwestern breakfast, woot! The rest of the morning was spent running around town or hanging out at the hotel. We agreed to meet for lunch at another mexican restaurant in the middle of Old Town, after some sight seeing and shop hopping. When lunch-time rolled around, we were at the restaurant where Hien's family joined us, followed by Doctor Bob! More greetings and catching up, lots to talk about, and good times to laugh about. After a yummy lunch, we walked it off through Old Town, then made our way back to Janet's room at the hotel.

There, we looked at more photos and some of Kerry's Antarctic collectibles. Joe had brought something that he wanted us to see, a DVD! So we all got comfortable and watched his presentation. It was a short film that he and his cousin helped to produce. It had been submitted to various film festivals across the nation. The film is called Wishtaker and has some familiar faces in it, even a semi-cameo from Joe! They have a website for the film, which can be found HERE. He also had a video of a local crash derby that he and some friends entered. They had an old beater car that they fixed up just for the derby. Of course, our very own Joe was the driver for his team. It was so funny seeing the events unfold, and cheering him on! In the end, his team won the derby! yay! They actually won a bunch of money and a trophy for it! Good going Joe!

We enjoyed the hotel's swimming pool, and lounged around there for a while. Thankfully the weather gods were good to us, giving us gorgeous days filled with sunshine, and spectacular evening lightning shows over the Sandia Mountains to the east. Saturday evening we met for dinner in a very nice Old Town restaurant. A good time was had by all...although I think the excitement got to Hien's little girl. :o( We toasted to the opportunity for us to get together after all these years, and to the possibility of another gathering in the future. Hoping the others that couldn't make it, will be able to make it to our next reunion. Sunday was spent seeing off some of the folks at the airport after a nice buffet lunch at...you guessed it, another mexican restaurant! :o) After the Sunday farewells and departures, the remaining group headed out to Petroglyph National Monument on the western edge of the city. It was near closing time for the visitor center, so we hiked the trail for a short while. The natural beauty of the area is one of the best I've seen in the desert southwest. That evening Thumper, Dr. Bob, Janet and I went to a little bar and sucked up some margaritas. The following day, Janet and I visited the Rio Grande Nature Center before I had to catch my flight out. We all agreed that we really didn't change much since the ice, in physical appearances or in personalities. It was almost like everyone took a "short" break and met up again. I'd like to thank Janet, our fearless leader and wonderful hostess, for doing so much in bringing this reunion together. Without her tremendous help, it just wouldn't have happened.

I'm looking forward to the next time we can meet, when everyone else is able to make it. We are still looking for the whereabouts of a few of our crewmates. So if you happen to find them or come across any information, I will leave the Check-in page for you to complete and submit. Also, I've updated the Gallery page with some photos taken during the reunion. I didn't take nearly as many photos as I would have liked to, but these make for a nice sampling. If any of you, that were at the reunion, have any photos you'd like me to add to the gallery, please send them to me via email.

This page last updated: January 11, 2005