Earth, Wind, Air and Fire

Mountain that looks like a man lying down. His forehead is at the right. I looked at it every day last summer and never noticed it until it was pointed out to me this year.

...Just wanted to get the Fire part out of the way before starting the blog. There are several different housing locations for employees who don't choose to find their own place to live. One of them is MP2 (aka Mile Post 2 or the Shop House) which is next to the garage and the property where the coaches are parked. If you live there, you can pretty much roll out of bed and be at work. Here at the Westmark, we're about 1-3/4 miles from MP2 and the Westmark is NOT conducive to having a campfire. MP2 is a good place to have a campfire and one is built every few nights.

One night it seemed like a good idea to not sit in my room, watch TV, be a Facebook ho, play solitaire on the computer, read or write a blog. Having the pickup up here is a bonus because even if I wanted to walk out to MP2, it's pretty clear that late at night when I'm tired, I wouldn't want to walk back to my room. Thus, "fire." It's a bunch of folks sitting around with the usual chatter and this night, some hula hooping. It's how we roll. (All this being said, this whole talk about fire sounds totally out of the blue and irrelevant. However, the video I was uploading to show some hula hooping by a campfire wouldn't load. So there was A context. And that's how Alaskan internet rolls. Stinkily. I was e-mailed an 8:36 video that took 35 minutes to buffer.)

Mike left mid-day Saturday for Dawson, Whitehorse, back to Dawson and back home this coming Thursday night....or something like that. As always, I miss him when he's not here. But if he hadn't chosen to drive highway, we might not have returned to Skagway. He always likes new things and that's new enough.

At least, he hasn't had the misfortune one of our co-workers had on his first highway tour. First off, a rock hit and destroyed a windshield. When you're on highway, you are really far away from our mechanics. Secondly, he had just pointed out a black bear sow and her two cubs to his passengers when one cub decided that suicide by motor coach wheel was a good idea. Thirdly, he had a tour director with him who has a reputation of being one of the more difficult tour directors to work with. (The name will not be divulged, but Nathan would guess it immediately.) And thus it was for our driver guide friend on his first highway tour. It can only get better from there and we certainly hope it does.

So far, the scheduling has been that when Mike has been home from highway, I've been working. And I'm just completing two stunningly beautiful days off and he has been on the road. It is sadly my habit to just stay by myself if I don't get explicit invitations to join people. That's not one of the traits I'm proud of. It's just a pattern I've noticed. Happily the invitations to get out have been fast and furious the last couple of days. Like "Wind" the time off has flown by! Ok...so that may be a lame lead-in to the wind, but aside from the meaning of Skagway being "home of the north wind," it's the best I could do.

It was a very busy work week this past week. There are two days of the season when a corporation books a huge number of cabins on a ship and books a specific tour for all of the people traveling with this group. They are all scheduled to go to Liarsville for a salmon bake. On those two days, they feed 250 people an HOUR!!!!! It is a never ending line for the grilled salmon and crowd control is imperative. The people in this grouop were everywhere taking pictures of the littlest things: the buffet line, their food plates, the salmon being put on the grill, the salmon cooking, the men doing the grilling, the driver-guide who assists by putting sauce on the salmon once it's on the plate (me), a picture of themselves with any of the above people, etc., etc., etc. My tour at the time was enjoying the show and gold panning before being squeezed into the rolling tide of salmon eaters. Despite all the busy-ness of the day, it was my best day in tips. (Tips being those things we don't solicit, but are oh-so-grateful when they come our way.)

I also had my first tour up to the Yukon. Those are the more coveted tours in that they are more time with your guests...pretty much a 6-8 hour day. Thus, hopefully more tips. I paralleled with Teri and Brian. Brian has been with the company for a gazillion years and is one of my favorite resource people, not to mention my occasional beer buddy. So my first Yukon tour went pretty well. It was a sunny, but hazy day. The views were visible, if not stark against an azure sky. AND there were THREE bear sitings: 2 black bears and a grizzly. My narrative lasted most of the tour up and included gold rush history, geology, animals, life in Alaska today, how I came to be working in Alaska. In other words, the usual stuff...only expanded to fill the time. And we were able to make 6 picture stops. The tips? Fair at best. Then I dropped them off at the train station in Fraser and they got the scenic train ride back to town. When I dropped them off, I picked up a group who had come up on the train. It is considered just a transfer. But, they had no other tours scheduled, so I gave them a couple of picture stops and some narration. I got almost as much in tips from this group than the group I'd spent most of the day with. It is another example of never being able to tell.

I was also scheduled on wash crew ("water") twice this past week. Being scheduled on that means you have tours or transfers in the morning, get your coach washed and clean the interior. Around 3 p.m. you go help out in washing coach exteriors for the rest of the day. You do get to go in jeans or shorts and a t-shirt and not your uniform. Speaking of cleaning coaches, it is something that is done EVERY day. I would rather clean 22 exteriors than one interior. It's just such sweaty work! I had already been taking a t-shirt to change into before cleaning. Finally on Saturday, I wore a t-shirt beneath my uniform shirt in an attempt to make the uniform shirt last for more than one day! I used to go three days last year on one shirt....show you how little activity I had while working last year!

Uh-oh! It just occurred to me that the three-bear day was NOT the day of my Yukon tour. It was when I drove up to the Suspension Bridge the previous day (Thursday). This is an example of a major obstacle in my tours. The days and tours run together. There are many times on a tour that I cannot remember if I told THESE people something or did I tell this information yesterday or the day before. Yeesh. That's a tip killer right there.

Again it occurs to me that last year I so underappreciated how tiring being a driver guide can be. You're "on" with the people, concentrating on driving, managing logistics, timing and people management. I am nothing but a limp noodle at the end of the day. I was so happy to have Sunday and Monday off this weekend. Saturday night I had dinner with a young friend with a broken heart. She will heal, but it will take time and it was hard to see her hurting. I'm glad we could spend that time together. She went on to hang out with a bunch of young people which I think is essential to her getting back to enjoying her summer. It's always hard when what we expected turns out to be so far off from what is presented.

Brenda, Stanley and Teri in front of Captain William Moore's original cabin.
Moore was the founder of Skagway.

Sunday was the 25th anniversary of Brenda's 34th birthday and we ended up celebrating just about all day. A bunch of us went to Glacial Smoothies and had breakfast sandwiches, veggie quiche and/or scones. It had started off as a cloudy day, but the clouds burned off and it became one of the most spectacular days we've had up here. Then I introduced Brenda, Teri and Stanley to geocaching. They really seemed to enjoy it. But I have noticed that so far, none of them have asked for instructions to the website to log their finds. Introduced them to the hobby, but maybe didn't convert them. Still, it was fun. We found three caches that I'd found last year...both in town and on our drive out to Dyea.

Stanley, Teri and Brenda: newbie geocachers!?!?

Pilings from the 1898 pier built during the gold rush near the ghost town of Dyea.

On the drive we had two animal sitings. The first was a sea otter. Photo attempts resulted in that "see the dark spot in the water...that's a sea otter" quality of photo. We had gotten out of the car and did our best with various cameras to little avail. So, it was best we just enjoyed watching it. On we drove and came upon a stunning bald eagle in a tree and a nearby buddy of his. Just gorgeous!

A bald eagle on Memorial Day weekend.

We drove on to the Slide Cemetery where the victims of the April 3, 1898 avalanche are now buried. Hemlock and spruce grow in the moist soil. The smells of the woods and nearby tidal flats are such a marriage of the "earth" and the sea. Those primal scents make you feel at home wherever in the world you find yourself. But then we found a depression near a grave and became a little...ok...very irreverent:

Stanley is such a good sport. She'd already had one huge spider crawl on her. I didn't have the heart to point out the nearby webs in her pseudo-grave.

We drove to the footbridge where Mike and I had had our close encounters of the bear kind last summer. No salmon running yet. No bears. But it sure looked like there was gold in the creek! Glistening on the bottom were all sorts of shiny dots. Fool's gold if ever I've seen it! Brenda waded in the very cold creek just to check it out. After that we drove out onto the tidal flats as far as it felt safe to do so...out to the pilings.

Brenda and Jazz

Upon our arrival back to the Westmark, Jazz had made good on her promise and had made not one, but surprised Brenda with TWO birthday cakes. She said she didn't know which one she would like, so she'd made one that she liked and one she thought everyone would like. As far as I can see they were both winners. There was no cake left by morning! If I'm spelling Jazz's name wrong, I do apologize!

A late night watching some t.v. and reading and then I slept in until 7:30 a.m. That IS sleeping in when you're getting up at 4:45 or 5:30 a.m. every day! Brenda stopped in for a cup of coffee that evolved into one of those conversations where you really get to know another person on a deeper level.

Two hours later...the fire alarm in the Westmark went off. It did that quite a bit last year and was never anything. Ditto for today. It was just the right signal to get us going on one of those things we'd told ourselves individually that we would do more of this summer: hike. The short story is that we hiked up to Lower Dewey and back. The long story....did you really think you'd get off with the short story? Really?

Brenda has asthma. I'm still recovering both from breaking my ankle which is not 100% back to strength and flexibility and also beginning to deal with the fear of having done so. Steps that I used to take without much thought have become challenges. Oh so cautious. But we did it, chatted along the way, enjoyed the lovely day, chatted with people who passed us by. At one point we were at an overlook and a man we know came by and we chatted with him. He went on up and met up with others and hiked a different trail. We went to the lake and back down and were at the very same spot when he and the others we work with hiked back down. He said, "You didn't get very far!" We were falling all over ourselves to convince him that we had, indeed, hiked up to the lake! Laughter all around!

Brenda and I went our separate ways when we came back. She went in search of gold. Well, hopefully, maybe gold. She had toured a group out to the dredge last week and helped her guests pan for gold. One couple found a total of $28 worth and were effusive to her in their thanks and enjoyment of her tour. They came up to her with the little film canister that the dredge attraction uses for people to put their panned gold in and said they wanted to give it to her as a token of their appreciation. She shook it and joked that it sounded like rocks. The man made her promise not to open it until she got home at the end of the day. They shook her hand, but did not tip her when leaving her coach for the last time of the day. Later at the Westmark, she partially poured out the contents....and she had been right. Only rocks. So the story has been passed on that this was a truly mean-spirited act on the part of this couple. But today she told me that she never poured ALL of the rocks out. I told her that, in fact, he may have added pebbles to his poke of gold and had given it to her to pan for her own treasure. Now she cannot find the film canister. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! It then becomes an ethical question on whether he was mean-spirited, joking or truly creative in his giving. Personally, I like the idea that she cannot find it. It allows us to think well of him instead of negatively.

We are enjoying our CSA boxes of vegetables from Jewell Gardens. I'm eating more salads and the fresh herbs are delightful. And then there is the ever present rhubarb. Because of the Kuroshio Current out of Japan (similar to the Gulf Stream on the east coast of the U.S.), Skagway's climate is milder than the interior. The long growing days of the summer, the warmth provided by the current and soil containing glacial silt combine to create an environment suitable for a gardener's paradise. Most fruits don't do all that well here because of some cool temps at night. However, rhubarb thrives. It was grown in truck farms here prior to WWII. With the influx of men and material stationed in Skagway to become part of the building of the Al-Can highway, many of the farms were broken up. Rhubarb was transplanted all over town to preserve it. So, we will get rhubarb a lot this summer. A lot. I don't really like rhubarb. The first week I made rhubarb-apple crisp. This week we combined our rhubarb and Brenda is making rhubarb crisp. Rhubarb is like cranberry. Any fruit that requires that much sugar to make it palatable might not be such an enjoyable fruit at all.

I spoke with Mike tonight. He is in Dawson City with a day off. The driver housing in Whitehorse and Dawson City barely qualify even as substandard. No room darkening curtains, showers that are iffy, no delivery on promised internet. Rooms sleep two to three people to a room. And he has been there alone until after he'd eaten dinner and then saw a few drivers he knew who had arrived this afternoon. I am hoping things improve for him and that he can enjoy the downtime out of town that is part of being a highway driver. As long as he is touring people, he's happy. It's just the nights that are unappealing.

Mike informed me that a few people are sick with Norwalk virus on the highway trips. We had already read on dispatch for tomorrow that this was something we were to be hyper-cautious about. Norwalk virus is a nasty gastrointestinal virus that has you expelling in both an upward and downward fashion. It is said that you will have no doubt that you have it when you get it and that you will never forget it. I never want it. So we will all be wiping our coaches with Virox and taking extra Extra EXTRA precautions. I will not have any highway arrivals on my coach tomorrow. For that I'm grateful. I will be doing a tour called a TBD: train-bus-dredge. This means a ride on the White Pass & Yukon Route railroad; ride on a coach down the South Klondike Hwy. and an hour and a half at a gold dredge exhibit (to look at a real dredge) and panning for gold. Short day. I am not complaining. Wednesday will be the second of those very busy corporate group days. I ought to be sleeping and storing up sleep for Wednesday!!!!!

Training and First Tours

It had been my goal to wait to blog until the evening after my first tour(s). So much for that goal since my first tour was May 13. Before my first tour, there was so much going on in training: reviews of things we'd learned during training in Phoenix, some valuable new information and ride-along trips with experienced drivers...I didn't go into those details. There isn't much to say about the training meetings. They are training meetings and most have sat through enough of those in our lifetimes.

The ride-alongs we took were very valuable. I'd been on Mike's tours several times last year. It was informative to hear how other drivers toured their passengers. What interested them? What jokes did they tell? Did they mention the similarly-dressed people (us rookies) in the back of the coach to their passengers? (Only one did....and he said we were all new drivers awaiting our psych evaluations. We thought that was pretty funny!) How did they present gold rush information? How did they talk of animals or the geology...IF they talked of those things? And finally, we all wondered about what would we say when we did our first tours?

We rookies knew that we had to go home and STUDY! I had the advantage of knowing some things about the gold rush, Skagway, flora and fauna. Just not nearly enough. So we all said...every day...that we would study every night. And then ever evening would find us hanging out with other people instead. Or it would be a good idea to have movie night for a few people in our room.

Brandon uploaded 117 movies to an external hard drive for us before we left Arizona. YAY!!!! Plus, we are guaranteed mail by continuing to use Netflix. One night we hosted "The King's Speech" and another night "Ghostbusters." Sorry to say, I am still not convinced that it is the funniest of movies.

There have been a company pizza party, a company bbq with softball game, trivia night at the Red Onion (more on that later), ranger talks at the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park Visitor Center (ain't that a mouthful!) and impromptu gatherings and shared meals. We are seldom lacking in companionship. Our niece, Taylor is positively thriving on all the activity!

Strutting my tongue-twisting stuff at the Red Onion.

Now...the Red Onion. Trivia night is always fun. People come out for it and form impromptu teams from 2-???? people. I don't even know how many people we had on our team, all folks from the company. Our team's name was The Short Bus. We lagged behind forever until we had a multiple guess question on how various famous people have died by choosing what would have saved them. ie., Marie Curie might have been saved if she'd had a lead apron. We aced the dead people! Mid-game, all trivia questions were halted for a Mexican Hat Dance-off challenge for the prize of a pitcher of beer. (It was Cinco de Mayo.) Tom's bravura performance won us the pitcher! At the end of round one, our team made it to the tie-breaker. This year, instead of all tie-breakers ending in a dance-off, they use a spinner to choose what the challenge would be. I volunteered to do the tie-breaker and gave the spinner a flick. This night's tie-breaker challenge was to repeat a tongue twister 5 times with flair and speed. Winner would be determined by the amount of applause. Yeesh! We each picked blindly from a handful of cards. Happily, I got "Toy Boat" and proceeded, with mic in hand, to gavotte about the bar with various intonations and pitches of "toy boat." My opponent, sadly for his team, got: "The sixth shiek's sixth sheep's sick." That's even difficult to type! The Short Bus now has a certificate for a free pizza and pitcher of beer! Wooohoooo!!!!

Mike was out of town from May 9-14. He and the other highway drivers who would be taking guests on multi-day trips into the Yukon interior were on a familiarization trip. He says he has a whole lot of studying to do before he gives his first solo trip. These driver/guides are also more responsible for maintenance of their coaches since they are hundreds of miles from a mechanic. The coaches they drive also have some different transmission systems and other technical "upgrades." He had a great time and is looking forward to being out on the road. I, of course, missed him. Happily, there is another couple around our age. The husband will be a highway driver and the wife is a local driver. We can be road widows together!Nanny and kid at Caribou Crossing.

Elyse Bracken, me and Seth Bracken at snowy Caribou Crossing

Holding a three-week-old sled dog puppy at Caribou Crossing

Here in Skagway, we'd "enjoyed" many days of clouds, rain and snow from before we arrived in town right through May 12. During that time we rookies trained and did ride-alongs. We visited each vendor and found out where to park and what the timing logistics were for each location. We learned who gave out free lunch and who wouldn't give an appetizer to a driver/guide even if they were throwing away the food after the guests were served. What I soon realized, more than ever before, was just how hard driver/guides worked. There's the driving to attend to, crowd management, tour narrative, and timing logistics. Some day I would like a day where I always remember to turn off my fast idle before driving, only keep hazard lights on when they're supposed to be on, always remember to count heads after picture stops, and always remember to tell them about the coach bathroom. I wanted more work than I had in sales and service last year. And I've gotten it. Again, be very, very careful what you ask for in life!

The Disney Wonder caused a lot of stir in town and onboard ship when it made its very first Alaskan port ever as well as our first ship of the season. Everything went very smoothly and our comments back from the ship were quite favorable. The first few ship days were very light and that is where we rookies did our ride-along trips.

Finally on Friday the 13th, many of us rookies gave our first tours. I thought I wouldn't sleep the night before, but amazingly sleep came easily. It wouldn't be the same story a few nights hence (when I had nightmares about dropping my guests off at the wrong place). My first tour was off the Carnival Spirit and I toured them around the city, up to the overlook above Skagway, to the sculpture garden and museum and then to the Days of '98 Show, a musical revue with history about Soapy Smith...the gangster who ran the town during 1897-1898.

G-gauge model train at Jewell Gardens

My afternoon group was a small group off the Disney Wonder and we went to Jewell Gardens....a beautiful garden (mostly not yet as beautiful because it's too early in the spring). After touring the garden with Aaron, guests were served wine and appetizers and watched Kerry and Neil give an amazing glassblowing demonstration. I had not seen this demo before, so it was an excellent diversion to watch with my guests. I enjoyed my glass of water immensely, too!

It was my first day and I was tired. One veteran driver, Brian, offered to go get a bite to eat with me and four of us ended at the Skagway Fishing Company where I spent more money than I'd intended on beer and fish & chips. Yummy stuff, though and good times. We finished dinner just as we noticed the Disney Wonder pulling out. We drove over to the dock to watch its departure in enough time to hear it give the 3 toots of the big foghorn that signal a port departure. It was followed by the first line of "When You Wish Upon a Star." Great fun!

Next day (Saturday), I gave a city tour to the Gold Dredge. Tuesday was my biggest and longest day: 13-1/2 hours. Many of the tours have a bus trip up the South Klondike Hwy to Fraser, BC where the guests take the White Pass & Yukon Route railroad back down to Skagway (or vice versa). Tuesday, I had two tours where the people rode on the coach up to the Yukon Suspension Bridge AND rode the coach back down. That is one long day of lots of being-with-people-time.

The first tour on Tuesday was off the Sea Princess and they started with breakfast at the Red Onion saloon and brothel: 12 happy people ready to party from the start. We then went up to the Yukon Suspension Bridge in BC. This is a small attraction with lifesize photographic displays from the gold rush. It's easy and fun to put yourself in the picture with miners and mounties. I told my people to take some goofy pictures. Their families at home will enjoy a different kind of photo from the 5,752 pictures of Alaskan scenery that they will show on their return. The Suspension Bridge attraction also includes a relief map of the area and a metal suspension bridge over the Tutshi (pronounced TOO-shy) river gorge. It's informational, a good place to stretch your legs, have a snack/buy gifts and get some photographs. Then we toured back down the highway to Skagway.

After dropping these 12 off, I picked up a group from the Holland America Zuiderdam: 36 of the quietest people on the planet. It was my first opportunity to ask if there were any questions, be met with dead silence and use Mike's line: "No questions? My children don't think I know anything either." They tittered a little bit. Their tour ended with a delicious salmon bake at Liarsville: an attraction that can include a recreated 1898 camp, hokey (but enjoyable) show and gold panning. Depending on which tour they buy is what one gets at Liarsville. There was no show or gold panning for this tour, but the guests enjoyed a walk around the camp and the salmon bake. The Liarsville staff are a great bunch to work with! Actually, most of the vendors have friendly and helpful staffs.

On tips and tours. Tips are always appreciated and are absolutely against company policy to solicit. In fact, it is an offense that can get you fired. However, we may accept them. I've heard other drivers state that you can never tell. Already, I've learned that you can never tell. A group may love you verbally, remember your name, shake your hand, take your photo and return to their ship leaving you with no tips. Another group may dilly dally at photo stops, look bored and then hand you more money than expected. You may think your tour narrative stumbling, disconnected and dull and make good money. You may give the tour of your life and it just doesn't sell. You may get a coach full of people from another country's whose culture doesn't tip at all and still find yourself with green in your pocket. You just can never tell.

And then there are the questions. As yet, I have not gotten a stupid question. Stupid questions from the past include: Do they take American money in Skagway? What time do they turn on the Northern Lights? How often do the rangers go up and rebuild the glaciers? At what age does a deer become a moose? And my favorite...one that I've actually heard just after they've walked off their ship: What elevation are we at?

However, every day I seem to get a new question that I don't know the answer to. While integrity and truth-telling are intensely ingrained in my character, there have already been times I've lied. It is said that the favorite words in any guide's narrative are "about," "around," and "close to." You can be honest when using those words. You don't have to say July 17, 1897. You can simply say mid-July or even the summer of 1897. Here are a few questions (and answers) I've been asked:

How often do the winds get to 75 mph in the winter?
My answer: I don't know.
The right answer: There were 45 days this winter where the wind was 60 mph or more in Skagway.

How many gold mines were in the Yukon?
My answer: A lot.
The right answer: That number fluctuated as claims were staked, sold, divided, surveyed, broken up and resold.

How many people does a quonset hut sleep?
My answer: It depended on the size of the quonset hut.
Follow-up question: How many people did THAT quonset hut sleep?
My answer: 16 (having no clue)
The right answer: It depends on the size of the quonset hut. That one slept 8-12.

So far, no one has asked me the names, ages or breeds of the three dogs at Liarsville. But I am ready for them.

For those of you who don't know, I "enjoyed" a sports injury this past November of breaking my ankle while hiking. It entailed a fire department rescue off of one of the mountains around Phoenix (happily not by helicopter) and surgery in which I now incorporate a plate and ten screws in my anatomy. The internet states that emergency rooms are now seeing this particular type of injury more often due to our "increasingly active older population." Unnecessary verbiage, in my opinion. Also, my ankle is slated to continue to be painful and become swollen up to a year after the injury. Joy. It wasn't fun in dry Arizona. It's less fun in wet Skagway. I'm doing a lot more walking now that I'm here, so hopefully it will strengthen as the summer unfolds.

Mike and I took a walk down by the Skagway river on a stunningly beautiful Sunday, turning north after the footbridge on the end of town...just to see what is there. Had we turned left down to Yakatania Point, we would have seen whales in the harbor. Damn! Next time. We had a few beautiful days of sunshine and it was great to take advantage of it.

Last year, you may remember that I joined the other kids in jumping off the 30-40 ft. (truly unknown height) high rock into Lower Dewey Lake. It was a 79 degree sunny day and the water was cold and refreshing. I was SHOCKED to learn that several of the young people hiked up to Lower Dewey after work the other day. And jumped in the water. That water has just lost its ice in the last couple of weeks. And you thought I was nuts.

It has been great greeting people trickling in from the lower 48 that I worked with last year. The new bunch of people seem like great fun. I had wondered if I would lose my awe and wonder at being in Alaska because it's my second year. I've noticed two things. One, I am taking less photographs. Two, every couple of days I look around and say with awe and wonder: "I'm in Alaska!"

The More Things Change, the More They Remain the Same

Never had time to access the computer during the trip up. So there's some already-old news to recount. The nights before leaving were filled with family and friend good-byes. They all will be very much missed. Dan, a trainee from Tucson, stayed the night at our house to be part of the crew riding up on the coach. We said good-bye to Lauren in the morning. After exploring all options, it ended up that Dan and Taylor would ride the coach and I would convoy with the pick-up. Since I enjoy driving, that was fine with me...plus I wanted to get a couple of geocaches on the way to Las Vegas.

No, we did not go to Las Vegas simply because we are inveterate gamblers! Railroad Pass is right on the line between Boulder City, NV and Henderson, NV. It was there that we picked up Todd and Rhonda, also trainees. We all had lunch there along with Todd's friend, Linda and our friends, Al and Lou. The destination that evening was not far away: Mesquite, NV...simply because the rooms are inexpensive. Rhonda was nice enough to accompany me the rest of the afternoon....and patient with a couple of very unsuccessful attempts at geocaching using only my phone. Blyecch! Give me my GPSr with downloaded caches!!!!!

We stayed at the Virgin River Casino. For the duration of the trip to Seattle, we shared a room with Taylor and the other three shared a second room. Virgin River Casino turned out to be loads of fun....I bet $40 at the craps table and turned it into $82. Then I turned that $82 into $350(!!!!!) at the blackjack table. All this with Todd grabbing his head and saying, "GET OUT NOW!!!" I am happy to have ignored him. When everyone was ready for dinner, it was on me. Only sorry we couldn't find Dan and Rhonda so they could benefit from my good luck.

I drove the pickup the next morning and Rhonda again was kind enough to accompany me as we headed up through Utah.We made good time and had lunch at a Cracker Barrel north of Salt Lake City. We ended up the night at a Best Western in Jerome, ID. What a nice place! Each guest gets a free beer; gas fireplace in the lobby, very friendly staff and a full breakfast bar. Pizza Hut delivered and we partied in the lobby until late...about 8 p.m. Yeah, what partiers.

We woke up to COLD and RAIN and headed out. No more shorts for awhile! This time, Dan drove the pickup with Rhonda accompanying him as we headed up through COLD and WINDY Idaho and Washington. It stayed extraordinarily windy throughout the day. A lot of talk about how far we would drive that day. With some switching of passengers in Union Gap, WA and taking a wrong turn or two while finding a bathroom break...we ended up in Tukwila, WA...just south of Seattle at a Days Inn. I've stayed in better places, but it was ok. Dan graced us each with a piece of the jewelry that he makes. What a fantastic memento!

We said good-bye to Todd, Ronda and Dan and wished them safe journey and lots of fun as they work in Juneau. It's only 45 minutes away by air...but over $200 for the round trip flight. Still, Jo Wulffenstein from last year is down there and that now makes 4 people I could stay with. That works for me. It is bittersweet to say good-bye to now only them, but to the others in our training class in Phoenix. Yes, Chippy, that means you, too! Haha! We bonded well and it just always seemed odd that we weren't all ending up in the same town. But Chippy, Dom and Mary are in or will be in Fairbanks. A whole bunch are in Juneau and a few in Anchorage and Ketchikan. We will miss them and hope to hear bunches about their adventures in their own locations.

We didn't say good-bye to Taylor because it was her first opportunity to sleep in. So we eased out of the Tukwila hotel room and dropped the coach off in Seattle at the Gray Line bus yard where we met up with Will and Keegan. Finally, we were alone in our own little pick-up and headed out.

We had a bit of discussion on whether we should try to contact anyone, but most everyone we would be able to see we would be seeing in a few short days/weeks. Still, I felt guilty when we spent a good hour at the Horseshoe Cafe in Bellingham for lunch. Bellingham is another training site for HAP drivers and we know a good number of folks who live in the area. However, we wanted to put a lot of miles in that day.

Last year crossing the border we had our vehicle complete searched, had to pull out our pockets and lift up our pants legs. So, I was fully prepared for another thorough inspection. Yay! Only 25 minutes crossing into Canada and we were off...no personal or vehicle search! We made it to Quesnel, British Columbia where we stayed at Billy Barker's casino...where we did NOT make any money. But the room was quaint and quiet and worked perfectly for us. The next day was a huge mileage day as we made it up the Cassiar Highway to Dease Lake to a too-high-priced motel room (usual rate for the area, however) and amazing food at Mama Z's. Highly recommend this place and she's opening another one in Dawson City, YT soon. The Cassiar Hwy. is known for its amazing scenery. However, this year we were treated to rain, snow and low clouds. No scenery for us.

"That being stated," (the quotes are a private joke...apologies) the animal sitings were so much better this year. The whole province was lousy with caribou. We saw a grizzly, a black bear, 3 moose, several ptarmigans, a coyote and a snowshoe hare. It really made up for the lack of mountain scenery. We won't discuss the price of petrol. It hurts.

Monday morning our excitement was rising as we crossed back and forth between the Yukon Territory and British Columbia on the Alaska Highway and the South Klondike Highway. Mike narrated the South Klondike Highway to me, noting places to park, where to have tourists take photos, etc. And we got closer and closer to Skagway. We arrived about 3 p.m. on Monday afternoon. LET THE HUGS BEGIN!

So much fun re-uning (is that a word?) with everyone...some in new positions from what they worked last year. And a whole lot of greeting new people. As the title says, though....the more things change, the more they remain the same. Our room is the same and after unpacking, it looks almost identical to last year. The main differences being that we brought up the flat screen t.v. and we left our Yukon map at home, so we don't have that on the wall. Other than that, here we are. Same room. Same view (beautiful mountain view). But not only are we in the same room, so far all of those returning to the Westmark are in their same rooms, too! There are more married couples this year than last year. Teri and Steve; Elise and Seth, soon Chris and Bri...and that doesn't count those couples where only one person works for HAP. And it doesn't include the dating/living together couples. And it doesn't include the splitting-up couples and the new couples.

So there is drama. As ever. Despite requests to do so, I will not have a public, tabloid, tell-all of the gossip, dirt, accidents and sensational news belonging to the people I work with. Really. I won't. Promise?

Driving down the highway, Chris Whetton was doing dual driving with Taylor and we were all furiously waving...not realizing it was Taylor. Daisy was at the Westmark and she offered to make us hot dogs for lunch. She was a most welcome goddess! I cannot continue to mention everyone who greeted us so very warmly. I'll forget someone and feel awful. Dinner that night was at the Red Onion with Taylor. It's been cold and rainy and/or damp and windy. It's been Skagway.

And then we went right to work the next morning. Experienced drivers drove with new drivers, switching off, showing where to park. I got to experience driving the hill...without a Jake brake (an engine retarder that slows the vehicle down in addition to downshifting). And I got to experience dual driving as quadruple driving because there were THREE experienced drivers with me. How lucky can a girl get? Carolyn or Jeanette asked if I was going to practice my spiel and I said I didn't have a spiel. But then they told me it was a good time to practice. Then everyone later who saw me driving was asking me why I was on the coach microphone like I was giving a tour!!!!

I did well. Very few mistakes. I asked Tony what I could improve and he told me to RELAX. I am, in a phrase, a hot mess. Typical me, I want to be competent and knowledgeable on day one and am stressed that I won't be competent and knowledgeable even by week one....how about month one? I am stressed. I am worried. Knowing I'm the creator of my own angst isn't helping. After the busy day, dinner at the BrewCo seemed expedient. It cannot continue that we eat out every night (I cooked for night 3...all is good).

There is also worry over other things....primarily the health of our parents. Anyone who wants to be a god or goddess can help out by keeping in touch with them if you know them. My mom has fallen and has two cracked ribs and a cracked coccyx. She has a bunch of tests coming up and I'm not there to be with her for those appointments and make sure she has a ride. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you, Bridget, for all your help! Right now, the rest of the parents are status quo with no new problems or issues. Thank goodness!

So far it looks like Taylor is fitting right in here in Skagway and that makes us both so happy. Mike is everywhere at once, it seems. He checked for the coach we used in Phoenix for training to see if it has arrived with more of our stuff on it....won't be in for another week. I took care of cooking, laundry, bill paying, etc. on my half day off yesterday and half day off today. He, Taylor, Manz, Will and Jess hiked up to Lower Dewey lake. Great pics that I saw on the camera, but they haven't yet made it onto the computer. So photos to come. Promise.

There seems to be so much more to say. As if you haven't read for a long enough time! I need to get out of this room and walk off some of the angst. 3 hour operations meeting this afternoon followed by a company pizza party at the Red Onion. And tomorrow....our first ship. And it's a biggie. It's not just a big ship, it's this ship's first Alaskan port which makes it Skagway's first time to impress Disney. A lot of Disney and HAP brass in town for tomorrow.

The Disney Wonder is arriving tomorrow. Allison, who is a station master for the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad, posted a video of the Wonder passing under the Golden Gate bridge and tooting its horn. Its horn plays the first line of "When You Wish Upon A Star." All experienced drivers will be doing the tours tomorrow with us rookies riding along to listen and garner information on how to be great tour guides. That's a good thing. I don't need to be on the hot seat just yet.

So much is the same. So much is changed. I will relax. I can handle change with grace and aplomb.