Accidents

This has been a good week. I have worked a lot, but my hours have, for the most part, been good ones, and I have had enjoyable shifts. Really there is not a lot out of the ordinary to report on, at least no that has directly involved me.

On Friday, the m/s Ryndam was in Seward again. I had stayed overnight there on Thursday, so I brought people back to Anchorage in the morning. In the afternoon, I went back to Seward, and then returned to Anchorage again. When I got to Girdwood, my Low Fuel light came on. That was the first time I had seen that light. Now, in a typical car, I knew I could make it back to Anchorage and refill. With a coach, I had no idea how long I had left to drive before I would be dead. I knew the D model coaches, which I was driving, typically get about 600 miles to the tank of fuel, so I quickly started thinking about all the places I had driven the coach since it was last fueled. I concluded that at that point, 40 miles from Anchorage, I had driven around 550 miles on that tank, and someone else had put about a dozen miles on that tank before me. I thought about fueling in Girdwood, which would have meant buying diesel out of pocket and hoping to get reimbursed. I decided to bypass the Tesoro station in Girdwood. There was one more fuel station about ten miles away, in Indian. I figured I would stop there and put ten gallons in if the coach struggled at all. The coach did fine, and I bypassed that stop too. At that point, I grabbed the wheel a little tighter and thought to myself, "I hope you can make it 856, its nearly 30 more miles!" She made it back to the yard, and I let her idle for a minute to help cool the turbo off before shutting down. The next day, Saturday, I was assigned to the same coach, and I checked the fuel log. They had pumped 150.3 gallons into the tank, meaning I had less than six gallons left when I had parked on Friday! That was close. I would have had a dry tank if I had gone another 30 miles!

I later learned that just moments after I passed Turnagain Pass on that last trip back from Seward, there was a major crash. There was a head on collision which was fatal for an 11 year old passenger in one vehicle. Several of our coaches were stuck for several hours on the wrong side of that crash. Since it was fatal, cleanup took a long time, because of the investigations that were conducted by the state. The cause was determined to be a bad attempt at passing someone.

Today I did airport shuttles, but I learned of another accident on the Seward Highway. I heard of it at about 7:00pm, from a driver who was caught on the wrong side of it. This one was near Girdwood, and was another head on collision, caused by alcohol. When I first heard of it, the drivers stuck in traffic had already been waiting a couple hours. When I got off work, at nearly 10:00pm, nobody had moved yet. It was another fatal crash, for at least two people, which means another investigation. The Seward Highway is one of the most dangerous highways in the world. I have driven that road hell over a hundred times, and never had any incident, although there have been one or two close calls. Nearly all the other drivers have driven it as often as I have, and yet none of our vehicles have been involved in any accidents on that road this season, which is nothing short of a miracle. As a fleet, we have logged hundreds of thousands of miles on that road in the past three months, with no incidents. That's more than lucky.

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!

Two Weeks of Silence

Sorry about that by the way. Things sort of got going around here. Well, that is nothing new I guess, I just lost track of time.

This weekend was a little interesting. On Thursday, I was sent to Seward, to overnight there and then head back into Anchorage with a load of people from the m/s Ryndam. That worked out quite well. When I got back into town, they asked me if I would mind going back to Seward for the night. I had no problems with that, as long as I could wash my coach first. I had to do it myself, since it was the middle of the day and the wash crews only work nights, but I took care of it. It takes a while when you have to do it alone! My coach had become quite disgusting from some road construction on the way back from Seward, and I wanted it cleaner. After I finished giving it a bath, I went to the airport and picked up a group, and headed back to Seward. They boarded the m/s Ryndam. I stayed overnight again, and on Saturday morning, I drove right to Whittier, where I picked up a group heading to Anchorage. Once back in town, I had driven over 600 miles with that coach. They have enough fuel for about 600 miles, so I needed fuel. My plan was to stop by the shop, get fuel, and then head back out to Seward, the way I had been scheduled. When I got back there they told me to change coaches. So I got a different one, and headed back to Seward, for another night. On Sunday morning, I got up and did the Seward shuttle all day long. After a long day of driving in circles, I headed back to Anchorage, for a night back in my own bed! That was a nice change!

On Monday, the Island Princess was in Whittier. Much to my surprise, I did not work until the afternoon. I headed to Whittier with a group of people who had just flown in, and dropped them off at the ship. They were not a very responsive group, so I was not sure if they actually were interested in my tour at all. We made a picture stop at Portage Lake, and then we went through the tunnel. As we exited the tunnel several minutes later, one guy, close to the back of the coach, shouted out, "Hey James, do you accept tips?" Jackpot! Whenever someone else mentions tips, it gets everyone thinking about it, and then they generally tip better!

After I unloaded everyone I moved the coach out of the way. I had several hours to kill in Whittier because I had to bring train employees back to Anchorage. Rather than sit in the coach, I went in the terminal to see if there was anything to do or someone to talk to. As I was milling around in there the supervisor came out and told me that she had met one of my guests. Apparently this guest absolutely loved the tour and the transfer to the ship and wanted to make sure someone in charge knew that I had done a great job. That was nice to hear. I guess I had a great group, even if they were a little unresponsive.

The Strangest Trip to Whittier

On Wednesday, the Carnival Spirit was in Whittier again. I went into work at 5:30am. When I arrived at work, I found a nice, large brownie in my box. Merry had come in at 4:00am, to head to Whittier, and had left that for me. I was so excited for that. Normally everyone at the shop at 5:30am looks like they just got out of bed, and they don't look very approachable. I felt a little funny, because I had been so excited for that brownie, and walked around the shop with a big goofy smile after that. I'm sure several people thought the smile was strange at that early hour! Once I had inspected my coach, I headed out to Whittier. I ate the brownie while I waited for the tunnel into Whittier to open. I made the comment to another driver who was also waiting that I had found a brownie in my box, and I guess for the rest of the day, Merry had nearly all the drivers asking her where the brownies were! Word gets around in a hurry!

In Whittier, I picked up a group that was headed to the airport, and we drove back to Anchorage. The trip back was a pretty typical ride along Turnagain Arm, and into town. I dropped people off at the airport. There, they needed someone to take people downtown to the Egan Center. Since I already had a few people going there, I volunteered to do that. I picked up a small crowd there and made the trip downtown. I then called dispatch, and they told me I would be doing a trip from the airport back to the ship, a few hours later.

I left the airport at my scheduled time, and headed down to Whittier. I left the airport with enough time to make the tunnel, but not with any time to spare. Things started out pretty normal. I had a good group of passengers, who were engaged in my narration, and had plenty of questions. As we headed down the Seward Highway, things began to get interesting. Only a few miles out of Anchorage, a pickup truck was off the road, against a cliff face, and appeared to have rolled several times before it got to that cliff. That caused a minor delay, as everyone slowed down to look at the damage and drive around the police cars out there. Once we passed the scene of that wreck, traffic picked up speed again, and we were on our way. That was the first accident I had seen on that road, despite it being one of the country's more dangerous ones. Things were going great again as we got farther from that accident. We got past Indian and Gordwood, and then traffic began to slow down again. As we came around a curve, we found a motorhome on it side on the left side of the road. Only one lane was open though there, so traffic came to a crawl. It took a few minutes to get through there, but things went well again as we got underway. There were a lot of emergency vehicles on the scene of that wreck. By this point, I was looking at my watch, and figured we would still make the 2:30pm tunnel opening, but just before it closed for the hour. That was no problem, as long as we made it!

When we got to the tunnel , we had made up a little time, so it was just a couple minutes after the tunnel had opened. I pulled up to the toll booth and handed the attendant my prepaid tunnel card, as usual. That was when things got interesting again. It would not scan. That morning, it had worked fine, but this time, it had no more trips left on it. I checked the reciept from my earlier trip, and it said I still had three more trips. We could not get it to work at all. I radioed to the coach behind me, and asked if he could run his tunnel card up, and I would go through on that. He cam up with his, but he had the same problem. That was strange. There was one other coach behind him, but that driver did not answer the radio when I called to them a few times, so we were not able to use that card. This all took quite a bit of time, and a bit of a line began to form behind us, because anything bigger than a car without a trailer is supposed to use the lane we were in. Another lady came out from the main office building there to see what was going on. She asked if I had received my new tunnel card. I told her I had no idea what she was talking about, and explained that the one I had was working just fine that morning! She said that all the coaches were supposed to have new cards. Well, mine had the same card it always had. She ran back to the office and got a card, and scanned that to pay my way through the tunnel. Luckily I did not have to pass the hat to go through! It was really frustrating.

We went through the tunnel without any further delay, and made it into Whittier. As we were driving from the tunnel to the ship, which is maybe a mile, there were three guys standing on a large rock next to the road. They had their backs to us and were looking out at Passage Canal. I thought they were going to go swimming. As we drove by, they mooned the coach! That really got everyone on board laughing! I made a joke about how they just got to see the Alaska wildlife, and then we arrived at the terminal in Whittier, where everyone got off.

When I arrived at the terminal, everything went just as it normally does, and everyone made it to the ship. I was informed that a vehicle which had been behind me in the tunnel had broken down, in the tunnel. That effectively closed it temporarily. I was supposed to head back to Anchorage through the 3:00pm tunnel. I got there at 3:15pm, and it still had not opened, because they were trying to get the stalled vehicle out. It finally opened a half hour late, at 3:30pm. Somehow, I got stuck behind a motorhome whose top speed in the tunnel was 15mph. I timed the trip through, and with that motorhome moving as slow as it was, it took 17 minutes to get through the tunnel. Normally it is six or seven minutes. After that long, you are pretty sick of the tunnel, and I was happy when that guy pulled over at the end, because I didn't want to go that slow the whole way back! The rest of the return trip was uneventful. The two wrecked vehicles were still there, but the emergency workers were gone, and the vehicles just needed to be towed. I did a few airport shuttles when I got back into town, and that was it for me. It was about a 13 hour day.

Yesterday I did a morning rail transfer from the Hilton, at the top of the hill, to the train station, at the bottom of the hill. That was fun actually. We had to wait a while, so I entertained the passengers and did very well on tips for a rail transfer! There was one kid, who was probably five or six, who was hilarious. He loved attention, and he loved joking around. His commentary was so funny. He wanted me to sing to everyone, so I offered him the microphone. He changed his mind about singing then. It was awesome. After a short breakfast break, I did the morning Portage tour. We first went on the M/V Ptarmigan for the Portage Glacier Lake Cruise. That was very nice. The sun was out and it was very warm, and the glacier calved spectacularly for us. I had seven passengers on that trip, and I got talking to them on the cruise. We had a lot of fun together. Two of them were flight attendants. One of the flight attendants had flown her daughter up here for the day so she could do this tour. I couldn't believe it. If I had just a day in Alaska, I think I would feel quite overwhelmed! There is so much to see and do here that many people say two weeks is too short! And she was here for a day!

When we left the lake cruise, we went to the Visitors' Center and the day lodge for lunch. I had a voucher for everyone on the trip to get into the Visitors' Center, which was really nice. Then we had lunch, which was also good, and several passengers bought fudge. That fudge is so good! After a little over an hour there, we went over to the Alyeska resort. As usual, I parked the coach, and took the tram up myself. Rather than just look at the view, I decided to hike around a bit. That was a lot of fun, but I am definately not used to high altitude anymore. At 2,700 feet above sea level, I was dying. I felt like there is no air up there! This is sad, because I lived for three years at 4,500 feet! It was still a lot of fun to hike around up there though. From the resort, we headed back into town, and dropped everyone off at their hotels again. It was a fun day.

I was then asked, spur of the moment, to do a few airport shuttles, since the coach on that assgnment was running over 40 minutes behind schedule. The shuttles run every hour. I ran one out to the airport, which was enough to get the hotel to airport shuttle back on track. At the airport, they asked me to run one to the hotels. After that, I returned to the yard, and put the coach away for the night. I got a "Star of the Moment" award for being willing to help out with that.

June Statistics

For anyone who is interested, these are the statistics of my driving for the month of June. This is only the driving I did for Holland America | Princess-Alaska.

Miles Driven: 3,994

Passengers Carried: 2,156

Hours Driving: 143.75

Hours Worked: 249

Average Speed: 27.78 mph

Percentage Driving: 57.7%

Average Hours/Day: 9.22 Days Worked: 27

Incidents/Accidents: 0

Destinations included Whittier, Seward, Denali, Talkeetna, and many local Anchorage locations.