We arrived at the lodge in the middle of the afternoon on Monday. I dropped everyone off at the lodge, and then went and parked the coach. I brought my stuff up to the driver rooms. I had my own room, so I left my stuff there, and then went with Ben, the other driver on the same run, and we washed our coaches. It took a couple of hours to do that, but we got it done well before dinner still. Again, dinner was free in the employee dining room. We could eat in the restaurant too for a good discount, but we decided to go for the free food. The Kenai lodge has good food for the employees. After dinner, I went to a sled dog demonstration. One of the dogs there had raced as the lead dog in four Iditarods. That is a lot of runing. Each race is 1,050 miles, and this dog completed all of them. She had also raced in several other big races. There were several dogs there, and three puppies as well. The puppies were eight weeks old, and they had a lot of energy! Actually all the dogs had a lot of energy, but the puppies were the noisiest about it. It was actually a very interesting demonstration. I liked it a lot.
On Tuesday I had the day off at the Kenai Princess Lodge. That was great. I got to clock in for four hours to clean my coach, even though I had done it the afternoon before. I also got the $18 just for being away from Anchorage. I decided to go on a tour on Tuesday afternoon. It was a 12 mile rafting trip on the Kenai River. This was not white water rafting or anything, just a gentle float trip really. It was quite interesting though. It took about two hours. We saw a lot of Bald Eagles as we floated. We also saw a Brown Bear catch a fish, which was about the coolest thing in the world. I had always wanted to see that. There was no way to get a picture though, it happens so quickly. The bear just grabbed the fish right out of the water, and walked off into the woods with it. We also saw the combat fishing on the Russian River. The joke here in Alaska is that no one has trouble catching fish. There are so many fish that you don't need to fight for them. You just need to fight for space in the river to be able to put your line in the water. We saw some of that in the Russian River, where it met the Kenai River. It was very crowded. People here call that combat fishing.
On Wednesday I got up and got my coach over to the luggage loading area. Ben and I loaded all the checked luggage for our passengers under our coaches. We went around and picked up everyone at the lobby area of the lodge. We were both heading to the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge. We had the same passengers again, which was nice. They had seen us around the lodge, and so it felt like I was getting to know some of them. We stopped for a brief photo stop on the Seward Highway on the way to Anchorage. In Anchorage, I dropped everyone off at the Captain Cook Hotel for a couple hours to give them the time to get some lunch. Two people left me there. That was as far as their trip went, but everyone else was back on board two hours later.
During lunch, I went to get a bite to eat, and then just staged with the coach on railroad hill. While I was staging there, Sarah texted me to ask if I was back in town. She knew I would be gone for a few days. I told her I was, but just for lunch. She asked if I was home, so I explained I was staging downtown. She asked what my coach number was, so I told her I was in #197. I knew when she asked for the coach number that she would probably visit in the next couple minutes. Sure enough, she and Crystal came along and visited for a little while. Sarah is a girl who works as a Guest Service Host on ship days, at the Hospitality Center, and Crystal is a girl who works in Property Claims, who I really only know because she has been around a few times when I have hung out with Sarah. They're fun to hang around.
After a couple hours and some food, it was time to get underway again. I told Sarah and Crystal that they ought to visit me at McKinley Lodge. Sarah said they would think about it and text me. There was a short discussion about what we would do there, since the mountain would not be out to look at, and she decided we ought to use the hot tub. I told them I did not have a swim suit here, but we could probably think of something. They left the coach at that point and I went back around to the Captain Cook Hotel to pick my guests up again. They were all happy to be back and underway again. We headed right up to the lodge, which is about 15 miles north of Trapper Creek. It was a good trip. I explained to everyone as we were arriving at the lodge that I would be leaving them there. They would get a new driver up to Denali, because I would head back to Anchorage the next day. A lot of them told me I should call my dispatcher and keep driving them. It was good to hear that. They wanted me to keep going with them. As they got off, they tipped really well. I have never had such a big pile of tens and twenties! Those people paid my rent for the month of August and then some! I dropped their checked luggage off to be delivered to their rooms, and then parked the coach. When I parked, I had a message from Sarah. She and Crystal had decided to come visit, and by then were on their way. Apparently Crystal knew how to get there.
I got my coach put away and got my room key. While I was walking around to take care of all that, I got a call from Sarah. She didn't sound so happy, and she was asking for directions. I guess they had gotten to the Talkeetna road junction, and Crystal did not remember if the lodge was in Talkeetna or father up the Parks Highway. We always say it is in Talkeetna, but it is actually about 45 minutes from there, further north on the Parks Highway. So I gave Sarah directions to get there. It made me laugh. I think she was a little frustrated with Crystal's driving. After that I got my stuff put in my room. I was the only one in there, even though there were three beds. I met up with Rachel there, who was also at the lodge overnight, and we went to eat in the Employee Dining Room. The food there is not that great. It is not good at all, but it fills you up, kind of. I didn't like it, but it was free. While I was eating, I got another call from Sarah. They were there. I asked where at the lodge, and they had no idea, so I was a little confused, and asked if they were really there. It was funny. We had a weird conversation about that, but then they came to the employee dining room while I finished my meal.
After dinner, the big question was what to do. Well first thing, we went to my room. They had a car, and I didn't want to walk all the way back up that hill. I already had twice that night! When I was in the car, Sarah handed me a bag and explained that she had bought me a swim suit, so I could go hot tubbing too. I guess Crystal thought that was a bit awkward, but it really didn't bother me, and it certainly didn't bother Sarah! We decided to go in the hot tub for a litte while and then figure out what was next after that. We all changed, and then walked down there. We ended up sitting in the hot tub for about three hours! When we got out all hiked back to employee housing to change. The original plan was that Sarah and Crystal would just use the two empty beds in my room, and leave really early in the morning, since Sarah had to work in the morning. The decided it would probably easier to just stay up and drive home late, rather than get up early to go back to Anchorage. So they left just before midnight, for the 150 mile drive back to town. They made it back.
Yesterday, Thursday, I came back to Anchorage. I had a 2:00pm departure from the lodge, heading to the Captain Cook Hotel. That went fine. After that I had a few hours to kill downtown, and then evening rail. It was probably the least exciting day this week, but it was still good.
A few other notable things happened this week. I drove my 5,000th passenger, and I drove my 12,000th mile in a motorcoach. So basically I have driven the same as about halfway around the world in a motorcoach!
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