Carnival Week

Last Monday, the Island Princess was in Whittier again. As usual, I made a few trips there. My last trip was in the afternoon, and I was asked to stick around to bring home railroad employees. I had a few hours to kill there. I spent some of it in the terminal, but when I eventually got bored there, the train was just pulling in with its 900 passengers. I went out to the platform, across the street to watch the train pull in. Once the crowds started coming I decided to go somewhere else. So I got in my coach and drove over to the railroad yard, where I had to pick up the employees.

Once I got to the yard, I still had some down time. It took a bit of time, as you can imagine, to completely unload 900 people and get them to the ship. Once the train was clear of passengers, they pulled up into the yard. I took a couple pictures as the train approached, and the engineer leaned way out of the window and waved and gave me a thumbs up. The employees still had to clean up and put things away on board, so even though the train was there, I had a bit more time. I left the coach open, and walked the length of the train, towards the head end. The engineer had the cab window open, so I talked to him for a minute. He invited me up into the cab to take a look around.

When I got up there, I also met the Fireman, who was a woman, and the Conductor. They were getting ready to uncouple the locomotive, and run it around the train. They were going to couple it on the back and run the cars, empty, back to Anchorage. The Conductor and Fireman both left the cab to go set the brakes and uncouple the locomotive. I got up to leave and told the engineer I'd let them get back to work, and he told me there was no reason I couldn't ride with them. Well, he didn't need to ask me twice! None of the employees had gotten off yet, so I took the Fireman's seat, and sat down to enjoy the ride! We uncoupled, and ran forward to the far east end of the railroad yard. Then, we switched tracks, and ran back to the west end of the yard, almost back into the station. We changed tracks, and headed forward, to couple to the rear end of the train. By the time we pulled up to the rear end of the train, all the employees were off the train and on my coach. I figured if I had to wait that long for them, they could wait a few minutes for me while I rode around on the locomotive! Once we came to a stop, I thanked the engineer, and climbed off the locomotive and got on the coach. No one on the coach said anything about me being on the locomotive. Actually no one said anything at all about the delay, so I didn't either! The ride back to Anchorage was uneventful.

On Wednesday the Carnival Spirit was in Whittier. I had a busy day. I made three trips to Whittier, which is more than usual. In all those trips, I only had about five white people on the coach! That was interesting, and a lot of fun. I found that black people are very generous with tips! I made over a hundred dollars in tips that day! It was a long, but a fun day. When I went home, I had been at work for just under 19 hours. Needless to say, I was quite exhausted! It had been a good day though.

On Thursday I had a shorter day, though still a busy one. The Pacific Princess was in Seward, but that was not a big deal, because it was just a port of call. No one was getting off to go anywhere. They all stayed in Seward. I had some local assignments in Anchorage. Friday was another pretty short day, but it was a good thing, because I only had a few hours available.

The Sapphire Princess was in Whittier on Saturday, and I made two trips there. In four trips through the tunnel, I waited for five trains. That tunnel was really working against me at the end of the day. I was supposed to pick up railroad employees in Portage, but I had some time to kill in Whittier. I went with Shannon, who was picking up the rail employees in Whittier. I saw the engineer who had let me ride with him again, on the same train. Later, I got in line for the 7:00pm tunnel opening, so I'd be in Portage on time. That tunnel opening was delayed because of a train, and then it went on as usual. Well, just before I was supposed to enter the tunnel, it was closed, and the next tunnel time was posted for 8:00pm. I was stuck in Whittier with only a few hours left to legally drive. If for some reason I could not go through the 8:00pm tunnel opening, I would not make it back to Anchorage without running out of hours. Before the 8:00pm tunnel opening, I had to wait for two more trains, but I did make it through. Since I had been delayed an hour, all the rail employees were waiting for me when I arrived in Portage. There were only a few of them. They all boarded and we got underway. One of them had brought me dinner from the Dining Car, and at the end, when I dropped them off at the yard in Anchorage, one of them gave me a tip! That was not expected. It was nice though. When I got off work, I only had 15 minutes still available to drive!

Sunday, despite only having about 10 hours to work, I was still scheduled. I was scheduled for about 18 hours of work though. My evening assignments all got dropped because they were after my expiration time. I was assigned to be the Alaska Railroad's motor coach connection from Portage to Anchorage. I have done that before, it is a pretty easy run, and there is a bit of down time in Portage. Since we had the m/s Veendam in Seward, the Cruise Trains were also running. I passed one on the way to Portage, and I knew it would be coming through while I was there. I heard it, and stepped out in the rain to take a couple pictures as it came by. As I was out there, and thrain rushed by, the engineer leaned out the window and waved. It was the same engineer that had let me ride around Whittier with him. I think he may have recognized me, that being the third time I saw him that week. The train from Grandview, which I was meeting in Portage, was running late. That set me back on my schedule, which was bad, because I was almost out of hours. I started driving towards Anchorage, but I was forced to pull over at the weigh station by Potter Marsh, because I was out of hours. I had hit the 80 hours per week limit, and I could no longer drive a commercial vehicle under any circumstances. Dispatch knew this was going to happen, and they were already on the way to meet me. I explained what was going on to my passengers. One lady about fell over when she heard I had worked 80 hours in that week! Jason, from dispatch came in a van, and basically we switched vehicles. I could drive the van still. By the time I left for home at the end of the day, I had logger 80.5 hours of work for the week!

Yesterday was a short day, at only 10 hours. And today I am off, probably because I do not have a very many hours available. Having today will help to get me more hours for the rest of the week. This is my second day off this month!