Third of July Celebration

What a night! After finishing work yesterday, our boss invited the company and all the shore ex folk, vendors, and a lot of Skagway to his house for a party and float building. We had some great food, saw a lot of drivers for the first time for a while, and started decorating our "float". The float consists of a 15 passenger van dragging a trailer with streamers and flags all over it. We also decorated one of the newer busses. Unfortunately, it started to rain last night, so hopefully those nice red streamers won't bleed all over the bus and leave some nice racing stripes.

After the party, a few of us ran back home for some warmer clothes, then drove down town to the Skagway street dance. We were there for the last hour of it. It was good to see a lot of people, especially since they're in costumes when I run into them usually.

It was a good bit of dancing and friends, and we topped it off with fireworks. We headed over to the ore dock and sat and watched the fireworks from one of the dock boat bumpers. Not a bad firework show!

All in all, a fantastic day. I think since the drivers that are here now are pretty much here for the rest of the summer, we're getting better at communicating and doing what we do(move people, and talk a little). The party, dance and fireworks made me feel like our company was family. There are a lot of quality people up here that are incredible to hang out with. I'm having a really good time.

Today is the parade, slow bike race, and egg toss. We're hoping to set a world record for the egg toss. I think we only need 250 participants or something like that. Everyone is excited about it, so it should go well!

Suspension Bridges, Rivers, and Housing

Wow! I can't believe I've been here for two and a half weeks already. It's been great so far. A lot of driving, a lot of hours, but for some reason, the mentality of coming up here to work and relax has made working so many hours not so bad. I think I came prepared to work up to 80/week, so working only 70 feels like a vacation! I even had a day or two off this week.

Yesterday I gave my first tour to the "Yukon Suspension Bridge". It was a little tough, because I had never been up to the bridge before. I'm glad I found it. Interestingly, this "Yukon" bridge isn't in the Yukon at all. I guess "British Columbia Suspension Bridge" doesn't have the same ring to it.

Anyway, the bridge was constructed in 2005. It's a pretty cool structure and visitor center they've built. The whole thing, though, is a great example of building a tourist attraction out of thin air. Of course, there is beautiful scenery, a river(tutshi) that carried gold rushers to Lake Tutshi so they could continue on to Dawson city (where one could supposedly scoop up gold and return home without breaking a sweat!), and an empty spot on the highway.


The bridge is fairly close to the famed "Log Cabin", which is the end point for the Chilkoot trail that Zach, some friends and I hope to hike sometime this month. Should be good. Tomorrow is a "transfer" day for me. All that means is that if the schedule stays the same, I won't be making any trips up the pass, or into the Yukon. Every once in a while these days are nice. Especially nice is that there is a lot of time where we need to stay with the bus places, and therefore stay on the clock. Actually, by a lot of time, I mean I probably spend more time staging places than I do actually driving. I've gotten a lot of good reading done, including knocking out one of the internship books, and being halfway done with the second. Woo hoo!

Included in this post are some pictures of my housing. In the shop house there are about 12 of us( I think?). We share a big area and kitchen. The other picture is the shop, and the mountains in the background that I wake up to everyday. Two and a half weeks in, I still consider myself lucky to be here!

Tours, Bears, and Lakes

What a life! I can't even begin to describe how awesome the last few days have been. The best part about this job so far is that the time seems to be flying by because I'm having such a good time, and doing things that I can't believe I'm getting paid for. In the last few days, especially today, I've gotten paid to ride on tours, ride on the most scenic railway in the world, ride four wheelers in desert sand dunes, drive a freeking bus, hang out, read books, and watch shows about the gold rush.

Oh, that list above? Yeah. All those things were activities that I was paid for, and I paid nothing to do. Aweeesome.

In the pictures are the beautiful emerald lake, a lake that has very light blue water, turned that color from calcium deposits. It was an amazing lake, just pass Carcross, YT. Another picture has a bear that was on the side of the road today hanging out.

The last picture is a few other drivers and me during our four wheeling adventure in the world's smallest desert. Lots of places let other companies guides and employees onto their attractions for free. After a great free lunch with the other drivers at Caribou Crossing, we jumped out for this great free adventure in the small dunes. What a life!

I gave my first two long tours. One was a summit tour that included a trip to Liarsville for their show and gold panning, then a trip up and back down the pass.

I also got to be trained on a different type of bus. The old GMC Jimmy busses are a little more old school. They have no power steering, have a huge bench seat in the back, and look more or less like a space ship. Craazy. They're pretty fun to drive. I can't complain. To turn them on, they have a dial that looks like a washing machine control knob. To put the bus into reverse, neutral, or forward, there is a small switch that looks a lot like a lightswitch.

Tours!

Wow! The last two days I've been able to go on other people's tours up the pass and into the Yukon. Both drivers were fantastic, and I couldn't have had better people to ride with. Even better, both tours provided awesome barbeque lunches. I've heard though that I'll even get tired of the awesome food after eating it for 30 days straight. Oh well!

Both days have left me done early, so I've gotten a chance to slow down a bit and explore Skagway. On the first day, a few of us rode our bikes out to a point on the edge of Skagway with an awesome view of the ship that was in town, as well as the Lynn Canal. We layed on a few rocks and read books, enjoyed the view, and tried to stay warm in the wind.

I'm terrified of giving tours, but less so than I was when I first got here. I'm feeling better about it the more and more I learn about this place. Now that I have a better understanding of where I am, I'm understanding more about what has happened here, and how to weave it all together into a coherent, entertaining, educational, and timeworthy story.

Today is my first day off, and it feels really weird to sit around and not do anything. My activies for the day have only really included laundry, a ride to the grocery store, and watching movies with people when they come back from doing their transfers. What a life! Probably back to work tomorrow, and my life will look like the picture below again:





Oh well, can't complain!

Finally Set up!

Well, I'm here! Finally, I'm set up in beautiful skagway, AK, home to tales of gold rush adventure and ruin. Amy and I flew into Juneau on a regular sized plane, but then jumped in a small Wings of Alaska plane that held about 10 people. It was a fantastic experience. To get into Skagway, the pilot has to fly up the canyon a bit, then make a super sharp 180 to get back to the run way. Craaazy.

The flight was beautiful. Even coming into Juneau, the little that I was able to see from my window got me excited and made me think that maybe Alaska is all that the movies make it out to be. I was greeted in Juneau with small planes, woods, a small airport, and a feeling that we were somehow surviving the wild. In reality, I would imagine we weren't as isolated as I felt (although, Juneau has no roads leading out of it!).

When we got into Skagway, my feeling of isolation increased a little, as we realized that we weren't able to get our stuff off the barge(that we had sent from seattle two friday's prior) until "later". Not only that, but when a manager picked us up at the airport, he informed us that we'd be driving in about a half hour. Craaaazy! We did it, and did well. The next day, I had my first passengers.

I've got my uniform and all that. It's quite nice looking actually. A nice shell, fleece, and shirts. I don't mind wearing it. It isn't quite a Fred Meyer brown polo, but it'll do.

On Wednesday afternoon, the barge called to let me know that our stuff had come in off the barge. It took a while because the produce that comes in takes top priority in getting off the boat and to the store. I can live with that. I then realized that although our stuff at the barge was ready, it was also down on the docks, about two miles from our house. With a car, it would be no problem to make a trip or two. On foot, it would be a killer trek of one heavy box at a time. With 20 or so boxes, it could make for a pretty nasty 40 hour walk. Luckily, a good friend had borrowed someone's truck and was able to pick all the stuff up and bring it to his house, which is probably only .25-.5 miles from our house. Our solution to getting the stuff to our house was to empty our backpacks at home, and ride our bikes (which we have now, thank goodness!) back and forth until we got it all. We did a few trips of that, then a friend was able to borrow the truck again.

I was originally really excited to live at the Shop house, where all the busses are kept, because having my bus 100 yards away from me at all times makes for a nice early morning commute. The last four days though, my plans have been foiled, as I've continuously been dispatched to busses in the "in-town" lot, about 1.25 miles away. Now that I've got my bike though, its not too bad, and actually a pretty good way to wake up in the morning, as long as I don't swerve into the road and get hit by a different bus. Craaazy!

In AK!

Wow! I'm here. This is a beautiful place. There are mountains all around, and very nice people. Unfortunately, the internet is slow here. I'll see later how long it will take me to upload pictures!

Graduated

As weird as it is, I'm now graduated. It's over. Soon a degree will land in my hands, my book will be published, and I'll school work free. From now on, books will be better to read. At least until my next educational step. Woo hoo.

Graduation parties today, and more packing. Goodness... there is always more packing to do!

Next post will come from AK, assuming all flights happen like they're supposed to on Monday, but we know how my luck is with getting between places!