Turn and Burn

On Tuesday I got assigned to one of the longest single runs in the division. I was assigned to the Park Connection run, which is a service to Denali. I left Anchorage with passengers in the morning, stopped in Talkeetna, and then ran up to Denali. After about an hour to kill in Denali, I returned to Anchorage, again, with a stop in Anchorage. It was over 500 miles and 15 hours, in one day, doing one run. Among drivers, it is known as the Denali turn and burn. Staying awake the whole time is the challenge! It was a fun ride though. It was a very long day.

On Wednesday we had the Carnival Spirit in town again. That was a pretty good day actually. I had my assignment changed part of the way through the day, do the Portage Glacier Tour, which I love doing. It was great, and I had a lot of fun. That was a nice change in plans, because I had only been assigned to airport shuttles during that time.

Thursday and Friday were both days off, because I ran out of hours I could legally work on Wednesday. On Thursday I still had only a few hours, and on Friday I gained more hours. Today I was back to work. The Sapphire Princess was in Whittier, and I went there early this morning. They put me on the dock again, which is cool for being that close to the ship, but I would still rather be put in front of the terminal instead. I actually had a good, though a little bit crazy run back to Anchorage. As far as the airport, everything went well. Once at the airport, things got interesting. Several passengers had no idea where they were going, but we got them to the right place. A few had to go to the other end of the terminal, to claim their luggage, so I drove them down there. When I got there, about a dozen people approached my coach and asked if I was the shuttle to downtown. One of them told me that their driver had hit a sign, and told them to catch a different coach. I took them, and then I looked back to see the other driver, to see who it was. It was a girl who has already had three other incidents, so I'm not sure that she will last much longer.

This afternoon, I picked people up at the airport, and drove them to the ship. Again, it was a good trip. That one went a little more as planned, and I had a great time on that. I had a good group, and I think we all had fun. A couple of girls, who looked like they were about 19, asked where I was from as they got off at the end. They suggested that I move to California, because they liked my tour. I'm not sure how that relates to my tour, but I think I know what they were getting at. I laughed, after they were gone. From there, I deadheaded back to Anchorage, and took the coach back to the yard.