CHAPTER TWO
The Voyage:

Day 11: Virginia Here We Come

We needed to be out of camp by nine so when we awoke we packed our bags, hit the showers and headed to the chow hall. After breakfast we met up with Maeve and presented her another book written by Sam Cook. She was very grateful and promised to keep in touch. She was assigned to work in the trading post this day and would have Tuesday off. Wednesday she would be assigned another crew and again start all over again. As for us we were to be picked up by the outfitter at nine so we walked to the main entrance by the Northern Tier sign. We posed as a group, both Bravo and Charlie crews, for a picture just before the vans arrived.

On our way back into town we had to make a stop at US Customs and declare anything we brought back across the boarder. This was a short visit seeing that he had nothing to declare. Our plane was scheduled to depart Ely at 3:25PM and it was now 10:30AM. The vans dropped us off in the heart of Ely allowing us time to shop while they watched over our gear. We split up into several groups and hit the town. In Ely are many outfitters, restraints, gift shops and a couple museums and galleries. At lunch I had a hot roast beef sandwich and large Chocolate Malt. I purchased a couple tee shirts and a book about the pictograms on the rocks. We all met up at 1:45PM when the vans took us to the airport.

We unloaded our gear and checked in at the front ticket counter. Our luggage cleared through security and we made it onto our plane for an on time departure. The SAAB went from Ely to Hibbing, took a short layover, then off to Minneapolis. There we had an hour where we got a quick bite to eat and then loaded the Boeing 757 that would take us to BWI. Once in the air Travis realized that he had left his CD’s on the SAAB aircraft that took us from Ely to Minneapolis. In Baltimore he went to the customer service in hopes that they would eventually find the CD’s and send them home.

Most of the crew were picked up by the Purcellville Community Center bus. Steve’s wife picked up Travis, Joey Z, Steve, Tyler and me. We took the most direct route home to Northern Virginia where my wife welcomed me at 12:30AM. It was good to be home.