Road Trip?

On Saturday, Tim and I took a different kind of road trip. We both have our commercial drivers licenses now, and Holland America wants us to get more practice time on the coaches, so they told us to take one out on a little trip, for about five hours. It was great fun! We took one of the Explorer models, which were brand new last year I believe. They are very nice. They are bigger than the regular "ghetto" motor coaches, but they hold fewer people because of the enormous amount of legroom at every seat. We drove one of those, #1803, the whale bus, first over to Karen's house. There we picked up her piano, because it would not fit in Rachelle's car, and we also picked her up. We just ran her up to the Marriott Center, where she had to work. She got chauffeured in a 45 foot limo basically. It was fun. After we left the Marriott Center, we drove up Provo Canyon to Heber, and then on to Park City. There was not a lot to see in Park City, but we switched drivers there, and we fixed the mirror. It seemed that the arm had come loose, and so the whole thing would slowly wobble away from the side of the bus, making the mirrors completely useless on the right side. That is bad in a bus!

In Park City, we changed drivers, and I drove from there to Morgan. Tim passed out for the hour. Canyons are kind of interesting in coaches, because even though the posted truck speed may be 55 mph, it is a lot more comfortable to take the turns at 45mph. So the canyons are a bit slow. The bus is capable of taking turns faster, but passengers get angry if the ride is too rough, so we practice doing everything as smooth as humanly possible.

Morgan is a fairly small town. They are proud to not have any traffic lights. Needless to say, a vehicle as big as a motor coach was a little unusual in that town. Well we drove across town, and over to the Brooks's place. I came in from the other side, so I did not recognize the house, and we drove all the way to the end of the street and had to turn the bus around. Luckily we found an intersection we could use. We drove back, and the kids were out in the driveway, but I don't think they recognized us. We turned around again, and parked the bus in front of their house, and then got out. The kids wanted to see inside, so we let them come aboard. Sister Brooks came with them, and they all looked at everything inside the bus. The examined everything, including the bathroom and the arm and foot rests, the reclining seats, and even the controls at the driver's seat. They all got a chance to blow the horn, and let all the neighbors know that there was a bus out front, for those who had not already seen us drive by. After their tour of the coach, we shut it down, and went inside. A few minutes later, Chet came home, and he also wanted to see the coach, so we opened it back up. This time, the kids were the tour guides for Chet! They showed him everything they had discovered on their previous look inside. Then the question that I had almost been waiting for came. I was expecting one of the boys to ask, but it was actually Chet who said, "Is it possible for us to go for a ride?" Tim and I decided that a short trip around the block would be okay, and we fired the bus back up and took them on a short trip. Tim drove, and I answered questions. Once around the block, we parked the bus in front of the house again, and shut it back down. We went back inside to visit a bit.

Inside we sat down and ate a little dinner, and talked with the kids. They thought it was great that there was a bus at their house. They couldn't stop talking abou it! As we ate, some of the neighbors, especially their kids, started to wander over to the house to see what was going on with the bus. We slowly had a lot of people asking us questions. That was the most popular house in town that afternoon! When we finished eating, once again, the question was asked, "can we go for a ride?" We decided to do one more trip around the block, and all the kids seemed to follow us to the bus. We fired it back up and got everyone on board. Once everyone was seated, we got underway, and took the same short trip around the block as we had previously done. The kids thought it was great again. It was a lot of fun. When we got back to the house, we stayed around for a few more minutes, but it came time to head out. From there, we drove back to Provo. Time drove us to West Jordan, where I took over for the remainder of the trip to Provo. It was an enjoyable Saturday afternoon. We will be doing another trip next weekend, but I think we are going to go to Manti this time.

Driving a Bus to Maine

This has been a good week overall. It has not been too unusual. Actually, that is not entirely true. Last week, I cannot remember which day, we got to use a golf cart at work. I of course asked if I could drive. Renea initially said that only the people who borrowed it could drive, but I reminded her of my ninja driving skills, and she changed her mind. I drove it several times. It was fun, but after a bus, it was not that satisfying. And the brakes sucked. They are just really weak. We used the gold cart to move bed linens around, in preparation for the conferences and EFY groups to use the buildings over the summer. Basically we have been doing everything necessary to prepare Heritage Halls for all the summer activities.

Yesterday at work, we decided to go a little bigger. We somehow acquired a small truck, with an actual engine. Once again, I asked if I could drive, and got denied until I brough up my ninja skills. Again, that was a little less than satisfying, but it was a step up from a golf cart! We were moving pillows to the buildings yesterday. Each building needed between 60 and 75 pillows, so there was a lot to move! I stayed a little late to finish up with that, and as a result, I completely forgot to buy milk on the way home. I had to forgo breakfast this morning. Tomorrow will be the same, because I forgot to buy milk again.

Last night, I called up Ashley to see if I could stop by to return her socks, which I had borrowed when we went to the mock trial last week. I finally washed them on Saturday. I suppose I could have returned them to her earlier, but Tuesday is the only day that I do not normally just run into her, so I figured I would wait, and use that as a bit of an excuse to see her. I suppose I could just visit without an excuse, but maybe that is a more recent developement, I'm not really sure. At any rate, I left my apartment to catch the 8:13pm bus. I wated at the bus stop for a few minutes, and then out of boredom, began looking at the posted schedule, and noticed that there was no bus at 8:13pm. This is odd, because they run every half hour before that and every half hour after that, but for some reason, at 8:13pm, there just randomly is no bus. I have no idea why this is! Rather than stand there for another half hour, I decided to just walk, even though it is over a mile.

I got to Ashley's place a little later than I had told her because I had not anticipated walking, and gave her the socks. I had also brought her a loaf of bread and some maple syrup and a piece of cake. She had been sick all day I learned, and so she advised that I stay for only a short time. She did not want me getting sick, but I ended up staying for a couple of hours again. We talked for a bit, and then she drove me home, just like last time. Tomorrow we are going to the baseball game tomorrow, and on Saturday, I am going to change her oil and a wiper for her, and show her how to do it. She wants to learn. I saw an opportunity. She also wants me to show her how to drive a bus, but I will have to see about that. I need to ask my trainer about that.

Also on Tuesday, in the morning, I finally went to the DMV, and got my Commercial Drivers' License. I had the test on Saturday, and passed, and I just needed to pick up the license. I have that now, and I can drive all by myself in a large vehicle!

Recently, I came up with a fun little scheme for next Christmas. First of all, a little background on this. The Utah Transit Authority has recently bought a number of new transit buses, which they are using to replace the older buses that run many of the local routes around here. They are quite nice, though they look like they belong on rails. Before my mission, I vo0lunteered at the Seashore Trolley Museum, which is basically a transit museum. They collect primarily rail equipment, but they have a growing collection of buses and other equipment as well. I am working with UTA now to try to have them donate one of the old buses, which will probably be junked anyways, to the museum. The catch is that the bus will need to travel from here to Kennebunkport, Maine. My plan, if we can get the bus, is to drive it, with Tim, from here to the museum, in Maine, at Christmas. We would take three days, and drive it to our house, in New Hampshire, where it would spend the night in our yard, and then the next morning, we would take it to Maine. I think while we are at the museum, I'll show Tim how to run some of the trolleys there. Since there are 45 seats on the thing, we are going to leave it open for anyone who wants to come with us. Ashley has already said she wants in on this, and I know a few people who might come just to say they rode a transit bus across the country! I told Ashley at the very least, I could let her drive that bus at the museum, if this all works out. I am still trying to figure out a few things. We would probably burn between 800 and 850 gallons of fuel on the trip, and I could not pay for that out of pocket, even splitting it with everyone who comes. I would ask the museum to raise the fuel money. Also, the logistice of registration and insurance need to be worked out. Ideally, we would have UTA keep the registration and insurace on the bus until it got to the museum, but I am not sure how that will work out. We may have to have the museum cover us. At the very least, I would just register the bus in my name in some state where I have an address, and then drive it, but I cannot afford bus insurance! There are still things to work out, but I think this could be a fun trip! We'll see what happens!

Is It "Parking" if the Car Doesn't Actually Have a Park Gear?

This week has been a good one. On Monday, I went to court. This was the first courtroom I had been in since the U.S. Supreme Court when I was about seven. I do not remember much about the Supreme Court either, because it was nothing significant to me at the time. Try explaining the Supreme Court to a seven year old! Going to court on Monday was a rather unexpected turn of events. I was at lunch with Karen, and Ashley came along and ate with us. As I was about to leave for work, she was on the phone. She turned to me and simply asked if I wanted to be a witness. I said yes, without having any idea of what I would even be witnessing! I couldn't imagine what it was. I thought it might be a wedding or something. When she got off the phone with her brother, she explained to me that I would be a witness in a court room, later that evening. I needed a shirt and tie, because I would be leaving with her and her brother to go to Salt Lake, right after work. I gave her my key, and assured her that none of my roommates would be home in the middle of the afternoon. She said she would go pick up some clothes for me to wear there.

At 4:30pm, I got off work, and jumped in the car with Ashley and her brother, Johnny, and we drove to the U.S. District Courthouse, in Salt Lake City. I had never been in there. It is a beautiful Greek revival building. When we got there, I got my clothes from Ashley. She told me a funny story about picking them up. Apparently I had been wrong about my roommates. Ashley said that she had gone into my apartment, and went back to my room. As she did so, she noticed one of my roommates asleep still, at 3:30pm! I guess she was a little startled, so she went in my room, closed the door, and then got my clothes. One of them started laughing uncontrollably though, so she decided it was time to leave, with what she had. She took off, and the sleeping roommate was then sitting up in bed. When I asked him about this later, he said he had no idea anyone had stopped by! I also learned then that one of my other roommates had been home, with his door closed, and he was the one who was laughing uncontrollably. It turned out that Ashley was only not able to grab socks, so she brought a pair of hers for me.

The court was interesting. As I mentioned, I was a witness. The case was a robbery and murder case, and I was a witness for the defense. Basically, the defendant had been accused of planning out a convenience store robbery. A buddy of his had actually carried it out, and the store owner, while trying to protect himself and the store from the burglar, had accidentally shot his wife. In most states, the criminal can be charged with that death, even though he was not the one who actually killed the person. I was testifying that the defendant was not the kind of person who would plan such a crime, and that he was an honest family man. Even though this was a mock trial, it was rather intense to be up there, at the bench, with people questioning me. It was a lot of fun though. I really enjoyed it. It was a final exam for Johnny. The defense ended up winning the case, although that was not required for a passing grade in the class. After the trial was over, we came back to Provo, and they dropped me off at my house. I made sure to grab everything out of the car, but I still felt like I was forgetting something.

On Tuesday morning, I figured out that I had been forgetting something. Ashley still had my apartment key. I guess I did not care too much about that, because she is a good friend that I trust, but I did think it would be a little inconvenient, especially for her, to call her up every time I got locked out, and have her come let me in! After classes and work that day, which were all pretty normal, I went over to her house just to pick up the key. I ended up being there for over an hour, just sort of hanging out with everyone. I was going to walk home, because the buses had stopped running for the night (don't get me started on that!), but she offered to drive me, assuring me that it would only take five minutes, instead of half an hour. It ended up taking an hour. Well, driving me to my apartment complex only took a couple of minutes, but then we sort of stayed in the car and talked for a while. I'm not sure why, but she is someone I find easy to trust, so I was sort of talking about a few things I was trying to figure out. I was going to go to bed at 11:00 that night, because I was tired and needed to go to bed early, but that did not exactly happen. I have mentioned this to a few people, and most of them have said something like, "Oh, you guys were 'parking'!" Well, my argument is that we couldn't have been "parking" because she drives a standard transmission, so there is no park gear, and we weren't in a parking space! We really were only talking!

Wednesday was April Fools' Day. I did not actually do anything to anyone this year, and no one really did anything to me. It was a rather dull April Fools' Day actually. Daniel got me, kind of, by telling me he had kissed a girl that he is really interested in. I wanted to believe him, but one little part of me didn't, so I was rather surprised. Later he told me it was an April Fools' joke. Then I was not surprised. I thought it sounded like a bit much, but I was excited for him.

Thursday and Friday weren't too exciting. I went to school and work, as usual. On Friday I also had to work at a volleyball game, against UC Irvine. I was taking tickets, so I am not really sure how that turned out. I know we beat them Thursday night, but I have no idea what happened on Friday.

This morning, I had my CDL test. It started out really bad. It was one of those mornings when everything that could go wrong, went wrong! My coach was not there. Someone had taken #324, which is the one I usually drive, and the one I wanted to do the test in. Well, I found another one, which looked like a good one to take. It was very similar to the one I usually use. I began the pretrip inspection, and got about halfway through, when I noticed a shattered window. Obviously we could not take that bus. I went to the next one, and started to inspect that one. Well, that one had no inspection reports, which you need to have, filled out, in order to drive. I looked all over the coach and in the other coaches for some reports, but could not find any extras anywhere. Basically, even though the coach was in good shape, I could not drive it at all, because it had no inspection report. There was one other coach that could be driven for the testing, so I went to that one, and begun the inspection. It had all the necessary paperwork, and the windows were all intact. As I went back to look at the engine, I found that it was fairly steadily leaking coolant. That one definately was not an option. There were no more options! I was very frustrated by this point. At that point, the examiner got back with the student ahead of me. He asked me to get one of the coaches going so it would be warm for us to test in, and I explained that we could not use any of them. We ended up using the one that the student ahead of me used. The test went well. I did not notice one sign, and it started out a little rough, probably because I was still annoyed at the other three coaches. It went well though, and I passed all three parts. We were tested first on driving on the streets, and then on the skills course. I had to demonstrate that I could back up straight, offset backwards, and back around a corner. Those went fine. At the very end he had me do the right side inspection, the engine inspection, and the interior inspection. That also went fine. I passed everything, which was great.