Destination Antarctica: Ohioans Make Temporary Home In Antarctica

The latest C-17 military plan arrives with more than 50 anxious passengers ready to hop off into the white wilderness. 

"It feels a bit surreal like it's not really happening you know," said Columbus, Ohio, native Megan Alexander.

This is Megan Alexander's first trip to the ice. She's joining more than one thousand people at the U.S. Antarctic Program's McMurdo Station.

"It's like a little town.  Everyone wants to help you out, everyone giving you directions, telling you where you're at, it's a nice little community," she said.

Nestled in the hills and set beside the frozen Ross Sea, Alexander lives in college style dorms housed in drab, brown buildings.

"It's communal living, I'm in a dorm with four other girls," she explained.

She is a government contractor who makes sure all projects, big or small, run on time.

"We do all the scheduling for the projects that run the support," Alexander added.

She eats with everyone else in the galley where four meals are served each day. 

All waste from the kitchen and from the rest of the station must be sorted for ship removal or reused. Nothing can stay behind, reported ONN's Harrison Hove.

This is one of the greenest communities in the world and for some a surreal experience.

"Me personally, I'm never going to get to go to another planet.  You know, this is as close to another planet as you're ever going to get," added McMurdo Station IT Manager and Antioch College graduate Karen Joyce.

Whether Megan's working, taking a leisurely hike, or enjoying one of McMurdo's three bars she knows she is lucky. "You can't come to Antarctica and not think of it as an adventure," she said.

Watch the entire Destination Antarctica special Thursday February 21 at 8:30 p.m. on ONN-TV.